Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be  We were designed to flourish in connectedness.  Connectedness brings gifts.  Who are the life-giving people around us?  Who are the ones who notice us? Who know what we love and fear? Who do little things with great love?  Mother Teresa used to say, do…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book The Me I Want To Me. As the body is nourished by food so our souls are nourished by others. More than we realize, we are shaped by people and they bring us much encouragement.  What distinguishes happy people from others less happy is the presence of rich, deep, joy-producing,…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be There is a unique way in which we experience the presence of the Lord when we are alone.  God wants to give us a sanctuary , a place where we can be ourselves before Him.  Abraham Kuyper wrote about the similarity between the structure…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be “The one pair of eyes into which you can never gaze is your own.”  There are parts of ourselves we will never see without a mirror or outside help.  In one sense we know ourselves better than anyone in the world as we have…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be Sin is a word not often thought about seriously in our day. But sin is a deadly force to us because it takes us out of the flow of the Spirit.  Sin keeps us from becoming the person God wants us to become. All…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be Temptation is painful because when we give it to it, it hurts from the inside. Temptation tries to get our appetites and will to override our deepest values. Temptation promises us freedom, but it makes us a slave. There is always a hook. “Real…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be Richard Forster says, “Countless people…have such a stained-glass image of prayer that they fail to recognize what they are experiencing as prayer and so condemn themselves for not praying.”  Our state of our prayer life is not determined by how long we pray or…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book The Me I Want to Be We are always in the hand of our Father. Jesus knew that no earthly situation has the power to put you outside God’s care.   The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The Spirit is a non-anxious presence! God does not want…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be If we want our minds to be full of life, we will have to pay attention to what it is focused on.  What feeds our mind so we can flourish?  One of the greatest gifts is His word!  Not that we read it to…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The ME I Want to Be We can’t stop thinking wrong thoughts by trying harder to not think them but we can “Set our mind”.   We can choose what we pay attention to. At any moment we can turn our thoughts in one direction or another. It is similar to…