40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

by Alicia Britt Chole

The one who suffered a miscarriage may need to give herself permission to m...

to put everything away. The entrepreneur may need unhurried days (instead of one angry hour) to reminisce as he packs up an office after an unsuccessful business venture. Take the time. Prepare t...

The disciples did not isolate themselves after Jesus’ burial, but intentionally maintained their relationships. We, too, must resist isolation and enjoy good talks and take long walks with trusted friends.

Most of us will not see the resurrection of our dreams within three days. In fact, some of our dreams are sown for future generations to reap.

Even then, obedience is never a waste; it is an investment in a future we cannot see.

When we dream with God, our dreams—even in...

lost: they are planted. God never forgets the “kernel of wheat [that] falls to the grou...

What grows from that painful planting is God’s business. But sowing in faith is ours and, like the early disciples, our f...

Have you buried any dreams lately?

What is your default when spiritually disappointed?

For the health of our souls, we must resist checking out when it looks like God just died. He is still present and we must work to remain present too.

still. Instead of drowning yourself with pity, address God directly and honestly about your ache. Instead of numbing yourself with entertainment, let the pain be a reminder that you still need time to heal. Today, embrace the discomfort of disappointment as a noble step in your spiritual formation.

We quote Easter’s promise, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet we still permit shame to haunt our past.

Jesus did not merely dust me off and iron out a few of the more stubborn wrinkles in my life: He saved me because I was in desperate need of saving. I am alive only because He lives.

Perhaps seven years after Jesus mercifully disrupted my atheistic existence, an old friend leaned in and whispered, “Okay, but we hung out together. I remember the things you said and did.” I leaned in as well and in something close to a joyous shout repli...

Is shame standing watch over any dead things in your life? Jesus died to forgive you—follow His e...

So rest, weary soldier. Jesus’ empty tomb means that shame has no ground on which to stand.

“The soul must learn to love God just for Himself in such a manner that He, and not the need to be loved, is the center of all things.”

Lent is a concentrated opportunity to consciously and corporately fellowship with Christ in His suffering.

ascension.4 Jesus was not hiding, but His disciples struggled to identify Him. A few recognized Him by His words,5 many by His wounds,6 two by the breaking of bread (Luke 24:30–31), and a small boatful by the smell of fish.7 We, too, struggle to recognize Jesus graveside, on long roads, behind locked doors, when hungry, and in empty seas. And so He appears, in His Word, in our pain, in communion, and through provision.

How must Jesus feel when His disciples recognize Him? When the fog of fear lifts and we behold His power? When the smog of self thins enough for us to realize that all He does, He does for love?

“Decrease is only holy when its destination is love.” Jesus’...

you? Were there any areas in which a discrepancy was revealed between God’s thoughts toward you and the thoughts you have toward yourself?

In what ways has the journey enriched your portrait of God?