Empathy is Oxygen for Your Soul
Without a friend who feels our hurt, stress, and longings with us our souls shrivel up and die. Giving and receiving empathy are key to life in Christ.
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A Simple Prayer to Increase Your Energy
It’s only 12 words, but it’s a powerful prayer. It can activate your emotional intelligence so you’re more loving and more effective in your work. The first century followers of Jesus prayed these words everyday in connection with Jesus’ model prayer and the results were amazing. I want to show you a simple yet life…
The Emotionally Smart Leader
Sadly, we’ve all seen Christian leaders fail because they lacked emotional wholeness. Our godly intentions can be overrun by our personal shortcomings. Angry reactions, lustful impulses, conflict avoidance, emotional distance, prideful self-reliance, power plays, or the inability to work well with other people sabotage godly purposes and lead to failure. Usually when leaders fail or…
The Blessing of Emotions
Emotions get a bad rap in many circles today. They’re vulnerable and get broken. They’re messy and don’t look right. We prefer thinking, analysis, and three steps to a better life. “Believe and do what’s right,” is the typical message for how to grow spiritually. “Emotions are the caboose. They can’t be trusted.” Yes, some…
3 Steps to Calm Emotions in Trauma
Waves of trauma have battered us in recent weeks. Just as we stand back up we get knocked down again. Without help your soul could drown. Covid-19, quarantine, divisive politics, racist killings, a white policeman murdering African American George Floyd, violent riots. There are so many emotions we might have. Shock. Outrage. Chaos. Fear. Guilt…
How to Feel Your Emotions with Jesus
To become like Jesus we need to befriend his emotions. It’s important to appreciate that Jesus is a feeler who experiences and expresses deep and vivid emotions about many things in life. Jesus is a feeler? You may disagree with us. Most Christian leaders today seem to. Early in my life and ministry, I discounted…
4 Steps that Helped My Depression
Years ago I battled depression. This was more than discouraged feelings—it was a dark depression that hung on me for many weeks. The worst time was early in college. I was a Pre-Med major and realized I hated biology and chemistry. My studies bored me and put me to sleep. I really knew I was…
5 Steps to Reopen Church
“Pastoring these days feels like throwing with my left hand,” a pastor told me. “I’m a righty. I know how to do church in person, but I’ve had to do it online.” Another pastor chimed in, “After eight weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, deciding when to reopen church is an even bigger challenge.” All the…
Dallas Willard on the Power of Prayer
“I’m too tired to read my Bible and pray,” a pastor shared with me, “but I need the Spirit’s anointing to preach this weekend.” In the eight weeks since the Covid-19 virus closed churches around the world, he’s had just three days off. He’s been overworking to lead his church into new media ministries and…
Tips from Dallas Willard’s Personal Devotions
Remembering Dallas Willard: September 4, 1935, to May 8, 2013 I heard Dallas Willard speak on prayer and spiritual disciplines many times. One time was in 2011 at my friend Bobby Schuller’s church and Bobby asked him, “What are your daily prayer rhythms? What do you do on normal days?” Many people in church that…