Mark Batterson's Blog, page 19

Contending Season

Psalm 35:1:

Contend, Lord, with those who contend with me;
    fight against those who fight against me.

When you get a diagnosis that is difficult to digest or a dream turns into a nightmare or your marriage is tearing apart at the seams, you have choices to make. You can stand down, or you can stand on the promises of God. You can give up by giving in to guilt or fear or anger, or you can contend by praying as though it depends completely on God and working as if it depends completely on...

Kingdom Calculus

“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:39

On November 12, 1859, a French acrobat named Jules Léotard performed the very first flying trapeze act at the Cirque Napoléon in Paris. As a teen, Jules tied ventilator cords over his father’s pool, where he practiced his midair maneuvers. His new art form wowed circus audiences, in part because it was done with no safety net. His close-fitting outfit caught their attention too! Jules...

A Pierced Ear

A Pierced Ear

“Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Six times in the Gospels and eight times in the book of Revelation, Jesus repeats these six words. It’s the simplest of statements, but the implications are exponential. The exhortation is urgent, and I believe your destiny depends on it.

When Jesus declared, “Whoever has ears, let them hear,” the Jewish ear would have heard hints of Psalm 40:6: “My ears you have opened.” The Hebrew word for “opened” is archaeological, meaning “to excavate” or...

The Gift of Pain

To call pain a gift seems like an oxymoron, I know. But without pain, we would repeatedly reinjure ourselves in the same ways. Without pain we would simply maintain the status quo. Without pain we would ignore problems that can kill us.

In fact, pain saved my life on July 23, 2000. I woke up that Sunday morning with intense pain in my abdomen, but I ignored it. I tried to preach a sermon that Sunday, but it became the only sermon I didn’t finish. Five minutes into it I was doubled over in...

The Way of the Wilderness

The post The Way of the Wilderness appeared first on Mark Batterson.

Once a Whisper

For the past two decades, I’ve had the joy and privilege of pastoring National Community Church in Washington, DC, and I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else doing anything else with anyone else. I’m living the dream, but that dream was once a whisper.

The genesis of the dream goes all the way back to a cow pasture in Alexandria, Minnesota, where I heard the still small voice of God. I had just finished my freshman year at the University of Chicago. Law school was Plan A, but that was before I...

Divergent Thinking

In the early years of the Head Start program, a study was conducted involving sixteen hundred children who were tested in a wide variety of categories, including divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is the ability to correctly answer a question that doesn’t require creativity, just analytical intelligence. Divergent thinking is a very different animal. It’s the ability to generate creative ideas by exploring possible solutions.

When asked to come up with as many uses for a paper clip as...

For David’s Sake

1 John 5:14 – “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

Versions of this three-word phrase—“For David’s sake”—pop up in multiple places in the Old Testament. It’s a testament to God’s faithfulness even when we’re faithless.

In 853 BC, a king named Jehoram assumed the throne. He was the fifth king of the southern kingdom, and he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoram actually killed his brothers to secure the...

Closer Than Close

Genesis 1:1-2 – “In the beginningGodcreated the heavens and the earth.The earth wasformless and void, anddarkness was over thesurface of the deep, andthe Spirit of Godwasmoving over thesurface of the waters.”

Long before the Holy Spirit filled or stirred or gifted or convicted or sealed or revealed or reminded, we find Him hovering over the surface of thedeep. And He is still hovering over our lives the way He hovered over creation.

He still speaks light into darkness.

He still brings order...

Dark Night

2 Corinthians 12:9 – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Mother Teresa devoted her life to loving the sick, the poor, and the dying in the slums of Calcutta, India. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003 she was beatified by the Catholic Church. With those kind of accolades, it’s easy to think of her as existing in a...