SUMMER 2026

Have you ever tried so hard to become more spiritual or fruitful that the striving itself left you exhausted? I think we’ve all been there a time or two. By God’s grace, we don’t stay there. 

Sometimes we approach the Christian life as though holiness is a collection of virtues we must chase down and somehow convince to remain with us. Trying harder to be patient, kind, or fearless. Making sure it seems as though we are becoming spiritual! 

How do we genuinely bear these fruits without falling into Pharisaism? Well, discipline certainly has its place. St. Paul even told Timothy to “train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). But there is a kind of transformation that can’t be manufactured through sheer willpower. And it grows through abiding. 

Jesus didn’t say, “Strain until you manufacture fruit.” He said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4)

The deeper the soul becomes rooted and grounded in the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:17–19), the more the life of Christ begins to rise naturally within it! 

Patience becomes more than a duty, humility more than an appearance, and kindness more than good behavior. Obedience becomes less like the labor of a terrified servant and more like the joyful response of someone who knows they are beloved.  

The freedom of the beloved is not to do whatever we want. It isn’t freedom from trials, discipline, repentance, or the Cross. It’s freedom from the fear that we must earn our place in God’s heart.

St. Paul writes that we have not received “the spirit of bondage again to fear,” but the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15) How amazing is that? 

It is freedom from constructing an identity through achievement, recognition, or religious performance. It is the freedom of becoming hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3) and allowing His Spirit to form in us what striving alone never could.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22–23)

Notice that Scripture calls these things fruit. Fruit is not taped onto a branch from the outside. No! It grows from the life flowing within it.

St. Augustine once wrote,

“Begin to love; you shall be perfected. Have you begun to love? God has begun to dwell in you: love Him that has begun to dwell in you, that by more perfect indwelling He may make you perfect.”

Glorious! God’s love does not remove the need for discipleship and spiritual formation, but His indwelling presence actually becomes the source of those things for us! We still surrender. We still practice obedience. We still deny ourselves and follow Christ. But increasingly, patience, kindness, humility, and love become more than burdensome duties we struggle to perform….  and become natural expressions of the life of Christ taking shape within us.

Sometimes this kind of freedom may appear dangerous to people who understand holiness primarily as external control. Grace can be mistaken for carelessness, and intimacy with God can be mistaken for a lack of seriousness. But genuine freedom does not make us less like Christ. It makes His life more deeply… our own.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.” (1 John 4:18)

There comes a point when the virtues are no longer merely commandments standing outside of us. They begin to emerge as fruit from within us. And it’s important to know that it’s not automatic. But out of continued surrender, love begins to accomplish what fear and performance never could.

Revival burns most steadily here! Not solely in emotional intensity, but in the quiet confidence of a soul anchored in grace. 

A soul that no longer asks,

“Have I done enough to be loved?”

But instead lives from the assurance,

“I am loved; therefore, I am free to become like Him.”

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

Take a few moments today and ask the Holy Spirit:

“Lord, where am I still trying to perform what You desire to produce through communion?” Then rest for a moment in the love of Christ, and invite His life to become visible in yours.

PS:
Freedom is not the absence of spiritual growth, discipleship, or deep soul formation. It is what happens when that growth begins to flow from love instead of fear.

Have you ever noticed that the things that we hold onto tightly many times end up holding us? 

I knew from the day I met Christ in 2001 that He didn’t want to take good things away from me - but I certainly wanted Him to take away anything that would pull me other directions. In fact, I begged Him to! And He did.

While working in multiple nations as a missionary for years, I didn’t even desire to have a house or anything beyond a suitcase. (I still feel like that sometimes!) I wanted to be completely focused on the call, and not be tempted to be distracted by possessions and earthly things. Note: This was just my journey. 

Scripture never teaches that possessions are evil. Friendships aren’t evil. A home isn’t evil. Having nice things isn’t evil. Even dreams and ambitions, as we reflected on yesterday, can be beautiful gifts from God.

The question isn’t so much about what we possess…. but what possesses US.

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Notice He doesn’t just warn us about money or things, He warns us about our hearts. The things we cling to most tightly have a strange way of beginning to cling to us. It can be wealth, reputation, comfort. Maybe our need to be right. Sometimes it’s even the ministry God Himself entrusted to us. 

I’ll never forget hearing this in my spirit: 

“If He asked you to lay it down…. could you?”

In my studies over the last few years, I’ve found something that saints throughout the centuries have written about often that I hadn’t really heard much about: 

Detachment. 

At first, that word sounded cold to me… almost like they were teaching not to love anything at all, ever. But they actually meant something entirely different. They weren’t teaching us to love less, but to cling to less. To receive every good gift with gratitude… and to hold it with open hands. Because the more tightly we grasp something, the more likely it is to begin grasping us.

I lived for a long time in good faith believing that real freedom was “owning less.” But in reality, it looks more like letting nothing own your heart… except Christ.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

Take a few moments today and ask the Holy Spirit:

“Lord, is there anything I’m holding so tightly that it now has a hold on me?” Then simply open your hands before Him. You may discover that the safest place for every gift is not in a clenched fist… but in open hands.

PS:
When we can freely surrender everything we will finally discover that Christ is enough!

The greatest battle of the Christian life, I’ve learned over the last 25 years, isn’t first between you and the world around you. That’s real, but there’s something that comes before that. It’s the quiet battle that takes place inside your own heart. 

Many of the early believers understood pride to be the very dominion of darkness, the soil in which so many other sins take root. The Kingdom of God, by contrast, is the life of Christ: humility, self-giving love, trust, and joyful surrender to the Father.

That means the battle isn’t simply avoiding bad behavior. The gospel is not just some behavioral management. The battle is about deciding, moment by moment, which kingdom will shape the way we think, love, and live.

One kingdom whispers,
“Protect yourself. Exalt yourself. Win. Make them suffer. Be right.”

The other whispers,
“Trust Me. Serve. Forgive. Decrease so I can increase.”

I heard this quote from St. Macarius (one of my favorites) a few years back, and it stuck with me:

“The heart is but a small vessel, yet there are dragons and there are lions… But there too is God, the angels, life and the Kingdom… All things are there.”

I don’t read that as a picture of a hopeless heart. I read it as a picture of the human heart as the place where Christ is at work. The Holy Spirit truly dwells within us, yet He patiently teaches us to surrender every corner of our lives to His reign. Every act of humility is another place where the Kingdom takes root. Every act of forgiveness is another place where pride loses its grip. Yes, planting churches and reaching the lost advances the Kingdom, but each of these small things also do - within you. The battle is fought in the heart. And by His grace, so is the victory wrought in the heart. 

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21

Take a few moments today and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the quiet places where pride still competes with love, fear competes with trust, or self-will resists surrender. Then simply invite Christ to reign there. His Kingdom doesn’t begin by changing the world around us… it begins by transforming the world within us.

PS:
Every simple act of humility is a declaration that another King reigns.

One of the most beautiful realizations I’ve had over the last twenty-five years walking with Jesus is that I wasn’t called to invent Christianity—and neither were you. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the meticulous things of the faith, that we forget to become as, and remain like, little children. We weren’t called to invent every inner working of the Christian faith. We were invited to receive it like a gift being given to a child! To behold a beautiful Mystery that is now revealed to the saints. 

If I can speak practically for a moment; as humans, there’s something in us that wants to be original. We sometimes want a new insight, a fresh revelation, or a perspective no one has ever seen before. Something that keeps us feeling like we are on the “cutting-edge” of history. I get that. But the Gospel actually invites us into something much older and much more beautiful. 

We become part of a story not that we initiate with a new understanding, but one that began long before we arrived… and will continue long after we’re gone.

For some, this is depressing news. Won’t our faith grow stale? After all, isn’t God always doing a new thing? Well, Each generation must encounter Christ for itself. But the same Holy Spirit who breathed life into the first disciples is still breathing life into His people today! We aren’t creating a new faith—we’re receiving the ancient faith and allowing it to become alive in us. I think there may be more freedom in that rather than in the latest trend or new theological perspective. New ideas are abundant. Carefully guarding and stewarding something that is ages old… that’s an art. 

And the craziest thing? Jesus Christ is both the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end! Nothing in the cosmos is so ancient, yet so ever new; so infinitely transcendent, yet intimately immanent.

We don’t have to carry the burden of being spiritually novel. We don’t have to chase every new trend or feel pressured to discover some hidden truth no one else has found. Perhaps there’s more glory on faithfully receiving what has been entrusted to us, allowing it to shape us, and then handing it on to those who come after us. 

Maybe that’s what it means to be a pilgrim. We don’t own the path. We simply walk it well, leaving footprints for others to follow toward Christ. 

“What you have heard from me… entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:2

Take a few moments today and thank God for those who handed the faith to you. Whether it was a parent, a pastor, an evangelist, a friend, or someone whose name you’ll never know, your journey didn’t begin with you. And by God’s grace, it won’t end with you either.

PS:
A faith worth receiving is also a faith worth preserving! And not by hiding it away, but by living it so faithfully that others catch a glimpse of Christ through your life.

One of the strangest discoveries I’ve made while following Jesus for twenty-five years is that His Kingdom almost always works in the opposite direction of the way one would naturally expect. When we think we need to become stronger, He teaches us that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we want to climb higher, He calls us to take the lower place. When we want to defend ourselves, He reminds us that He is our defender.

The Kingdom of God turns every single ladder upside down! The world tells us to strive, to prove ourselves, to make something of our lives. Jesus invites us into a total paradigm shift. He teaches us that greatness is found in humility, strength is perfected when we fully depend on Him, and that those who lose their lives for His sake are the very ones who find them.

Another strange thing I’ve learned is that, as much as you’d might think they do, most of the greatest moments of spiritual growth don’t happen when everything is going well. They happen in the humiliations we never would have chosen, in the prayers that seem to go unanswered, in the seasons where our pride is slowly being stripped away. If we offer those moments to God instead of fighting them, He has a way of transforming them into grace.

The way up in the Kingdom has always been down first. Jesus didn’t ascend to glory by avoiding the Cross, but by embracing it! And if we walk with Him, we’ll often find that our own path looks remarkably similar.

“My power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Take a few moments today and ask the Holy Spirit to help you stop resisting the places where He is teaching you humility. The very thing you wish God would remove… just might be one of the primary ways He is forming Christ in you.

PS:
There is no shame in taking the lower place. In the Kingdom of God, that’s where the deepest transformation begins.

The world often calls “foolish” what Heaven simply calls faith. I’ve noticed this since my first few weeks as a believer twenty-five years ago. I can’t tell you how many time I’ve been called foolish over the course of my ministry! And sometimes it was the people closest to me who were the most discouraging.

But you know what? If you are called foolish for your faith, you are in great company. In fact, you have a family of Saints both in heaven and on earth who are rooting you on!

 Noah looked foolish. Abraham looked foolish. The prophets looked foolish. The apostles looked foolish. And the Cross itself looked like an absolute ridiculous defeat… until the Resurrection.

Now we live on this side of the Cross, this side of the empty tomb, and on this side of Pentecost! So it shouldn’t surprise us when a life surrendered to Christ still looks strange to a world that cannot yet see His Kingdom.

Choosing forgiveness over revenge doesn’t exactly lineup with “normal.“ Promoting peace over panic and generosity over self-preservation. Maybe reflecting humility over spreading self-promotion. Having joy in the midst of suffering! To many, this all seems quite irrational. But holy “foolishness” is simply living from Heaven’s reality… in a world that hasn’t seen it yet.

When your identity is secure in Christ, you no longer need the approval of those who cannot yet understand the life you’ve been invited into.

“We are fools for Christ’s sake…” 1 Corinthians 4:10

Take a few quiet moments today and ask the Holy Spirit to help you see life from Heaven’s perspective instead of the world’s.

It’s easy to desire things like breakthroughs and miracles, but what about fruit such as gentleness and humility?

After 25 years of journeying with Jesus, I’ve found out that humility doesn’t look like thinking less of yourself, but like becoming so secure in the Father’s love that you no longer need to make much of yourself.

The Cross settled your worth once and for all! We are not defined by “original sin” because the blood of Christ determined our original value.

When we discover that we are accepted in the Beloved, we become free to serve without needing recognition, forgive without keeping score, and love without demanding applause!

Christ descended before He was exalted. He washed feet before He wore the crown. And because His Spirit now lives in us, humility is no longer something we strive to manufacture… it’s the fruit of His life expressed through us.

The safest place for the heart is not at the top…It’s in Christ.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus… who emptied Himself.”
Philippians 2:5-7

Take a moment today and ask the Holy Spirit to show you what love looks like in the ordinary places. Heaven’s greatest victories often happen where no one else is looking.