Do you regularly barrage yourself with self-condemnation? Here’s not only how we can combat such destructive self-talk, but also why those words of self-condemnation are wrong.

Before we begin learning how to study the Bible, we need to set our foundations. It is critical that we understand the purpose and characteristics of the Bible if we want to study it well. If we are to rightly delight in the Word of God, we must begin with a knowledge of it.

A friend has just unloaded her suffering to you, and as you take it in you feel like a deer in the headlights. What do I say? How do I begin to bring truth to this hurt? Here’s what to say when you don’t know what to say.

My husband jumped up from the floor and opened his arms to embrace me. “You’re pregnant, babe! We’re going to have a baby!” He wrapped me in his arms, and immediately my heart and mind both began racing. How can it be? How did it happen so easily? How am I pregnant so quickly? And then, the inevitable thought, What if I miscarry?

I wanted to find healing for my guilt. I knew many of the Bible verses that talked about forgiveness, but that didn’t feel like enough. No matter how many people told me that was a thing of past and I was forgiven, this guilt seemed to lay heavier on me each day. I poured my heart out to an older friend, and she hit me with a hard truth I did not expect: You don’t need to forgive yourself.

Is perfectionism perhaps your greatest weakness? Could it be the leading cause of your anxiety?

When we are in the midst of something very personal and specific, we can feel isolated by our pain as we look around and think, “There’s no one who could ever fathom all that I am going through.” In the midst of your loneliness, I want to offer you the hope God has shown me in first Christ, and also his church.

These fears led me into my own exile. I didn’t dare to have long conversations with friends because my anxiety might come up. I didn’t want to be at church because people were always asking how I was doing. Maybe you are struggling in the same way and wondering, How do I battle raging fears that lead me into isolation?

For most pregnant women, preparing their nursery for the arrival of their precious baby marks an exciting time. Happy thoughts of rocking their baby to sleep fill their minds, along with sounds of their baby’s sweet coos as they snuggle in the crib. But my first thought was not so sweet. Instead, it was bitter: What if my unborn baby dies? How do we learn to trust God with our unborn child?

You don’t need to stop warning others and pointing out false teachings in order to be gracious. You can be both a grace-filled and discerning church member simultaneously. But first, it requires remembering the grace of the gospel.

Christians, we don’t need to wait for a new year in order to grow in our obedience to God. Instead of getting stuck in New Year Resolutions this year, let’s seek to change daily. But first we must recognize why we need to change daily, how to change, and finally how to persevere in daily change.

In my striving to be godly woman and wife (and future mother) I become discouraged with this woman. How does she do all that she does? In such a pursuit, I forget that the foundations for such a woman is not works, but theology. A woman who is a theologian first can in turn do the good works, teach with wisdom, discern truth, smile at the future, and fear God.

Do I seek relief and fulfillment from God or my husband? Where do I run in times of need? What ultimately comforts my soul in difficult times—the return of my husband after work or my Perfect Father above? If all I had left was Christ, would He be enough?

Our natural tendency is to be defensive when others point out our faults, our failings, our sins, or where we have gone wrong either in thinking or action. However, this is not the godly reaction. We must learn to properly discern and handle criticism when it comes. Here’s how.

Discernment is known as the ministry is which a person warns others of false teachers and their teachings. This has the possibility is being a gracious gift to the church. However it can, by means of sinful man, become something monstrous when it is based on conscience issues, facts are founded on lies, rudeness is prominent, and God’s glory is not the goal.

Life presents a multitude of decisions to make: Who to marry, should I marry, what school do I attend, what degree do I take, what career do I pursue. How do we make a decision that honours God? Scripture is sufficient for any decision you need to make.

Perfectionism paints a pretty, promising picture for us of the picture perfect life. In reality, perfectionism leaves us exhausted, frustrated, anxious, and hopeless. The way of the gospel offers greater rest.

What is a biblical view of vulnerability? A nuanced, careful view that brings glory to God, not ourselves.

Is that how you would define productivity? I can think of many other ways I would have previously defined productivity: accomplishing many tasks with ease, an organized way of using one’s time, effectively attacking your to-do list. But each of those definitions is that they are void of God and others and instead filled with self. We need a God-glorifying definition.