Mark Batterson's Blog, page 11

The Best is Yet to Come: Reverse the River

Extended Warranty

“All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” –Deuteronomy 28:2 Just as the blessings of God come with a condition, they also carry a warranty. In contractual law, a warranty protects us against a manufacturer’s defect or seller’s default. Those warranties come in…

The Best is Yet to Come: From Languishing to Flourishing

The Best is Yet to Come: Follow the Ark

Prisoners of Hope

“Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.” –Zechariah 9:12 The concept of the double blessing has been used and abused by name-it-and-claim-it preachers for longer than I’ve been alive. I understand the dangers of misinterpretation and misapplication as it relates to God’s promises, but…

Disciple: Commissioned

Power of the Tongue

“Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word skillfully spoken.” –Proverbs 25:11 When I was in seminary, I spoke to a gathering of men at a drug-rehabilitation program. I met a man who had made some mistakes that contributed to his addictions. He had gotten out from under the umbrella of…

Choose Your Battles Wisely

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” -Ephesians 6:10 My wife and I used to have a little saying taped to our bathroom mirror: “Choose your battles wisely.” There are some battles you need to bow out of. They aren’t worth your time or energy. Then there are battles you cannot…

Bottled Tears

One of the most beautiful and powerful images in Scripture is found in Psalm 56:8. It’s a precious promise that begs to be circled: “You have collected all my tears in your bottle.” There are many different kinds of tears. There are the tears shed by the mother of a little boy in the ICU…

Visualization

“Show me your vision, and I’ll show you your future.” I was twenty-one when I heard those words, and I’ll never forget them. But it’s not just the words that impacted me; it’s the fact that they were spoken by the pastor of one of the largest churches in the world. His words carried extra…