I believe in being prepared. At least when it comes to my future books I’ll be reading.

After reading through Charles Spurgeon’s Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith this year, I plan on reading through another of Spurgeon’s books . . . Faith’s Checkbook.

If it sounds similar, it is. Basically, it’s an updated version of the same devotional. Gone are words like thee and thou and goest. Hopefully, it will be slightly more readable and quotable.

But again, you can’t go wrong with some Spurgeon in your life. There’s a good reason why he was called the Prince of Preachers back in the 1800s and why just about every single one of his sermons are available to read 130 years after he died.

I’d love to hear what your favorite devotionals are. Maybe you know about one that I have yet to discover. Please feel free to comment which ones you are currently reading or plan to read at some point in the near future.

As always, thanks for reading my posts. May the Lord’s blessings be yours for the rest of 2026 and into 2027 and beyond!

One of the most dangerous prayers you can pray is “Lord, lead me.” One of the most dangerous answers is “Yes, I will follow.” If you say, “Jesus, take the wheel,” it means you are okay with wherever Jesus is driving. He will take you to places you don’t want to go– to the broken places inside you and inside the world. You may not have chosen where you end up, but when you get there you wouldn’t trade it for anything, because it’s where God is and where He’s at work. That’s the promised land, wherever God is making His promises come true.

That’s something I wrote a long time ago. I’d probably say that the most dangerous prayer these days is “Thy will be done” because you never know where it will lead you. You never know where you’ll end up or what you’ll be doing. But in one sense, it’s not dangerous at all. Wherever God has you is always the best place for you because He made you and knows what’s best for you.

The most dangerous answer is “Yes, Lord” even before you know what the question is. It’s yes to whatever He asks of you or wherever He sends you or whenever He tells you to go. It helps to bear in mind that God will never call you to where He has not already gone or where He will not go with you.

Maybe the most dangerous answer is “No thanks, Lord. I’ll do it my own way.”

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer… like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning” (Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting).

Typically, June and July lasted a grand total of five minutes. Now on to August.

August is a strange month. It’s the apex of summer, but it’s also when school and regular activities start back up again, so in a way it feels like the beginning of the end of summer.

At this point, I’m usually ready for summer to be over with all it’s sticky hot humidity. But there is a certain kind of freedom that only exists in summer that I miss once fall arrives.

I’m aware that on the calendar, September 21 marks the official end of summer, but I suppose you could make a case for Labor Day when most of the swimming pools close. School starting back marks the end of most of the summer vacationing for sure.

These day, I love each season because God made each season for a purpose. They all play a part in God’s cycle of life and death and regrowth. Each of them has its own special days and holiday, though I’d argue that fall has the best — even not counting Christmas, which technically falls into winter.

Still, I know I’m getting closer to flannel weather and pumpkins and all things pumpkin spice. I can’t say I’ll be too sad when that happens.

“If you’re at the end of your rope, let go. And some where in the free fall, you’ll realize that you can’t, but Jesus can. Don’t fall into despair, fall into dependence” (Louie Giglio).

Ever since Adam and Eve took a bite out of that forbidden fruit, we’ve been chasing the illusion of self-control. We want to sit on the thrones of our own lives and be our own masters. The only downside to that is that we’re not very good at it. We were never designed to be independent.

We were born to need God. Even before the fall, our very lives — even our very breath — depended on God at every moment. The difference was that we knew it. We didn’t pretend to be fine apart from God. In fact, the notion of ever being apart from God never entered our thinking until that fateful act of disobedience.

But even now, when we let go of the illusion of control, we find that God is at the end of the fall. We can fall into everlasting arms that won’t let go. We find that we can’t but He can. We find that we’re not able but that He is more than able. And we find that our declaration of dependence is the most freeing thing we can do.

Thank You, Lord, that You are everything we’re not. You are our joy, our hope, our strength, our very life. When we stop pretending to control our lives, that’s when we finally realize that our lives begin. Thank You for every day of life and for every breath in our lungs. Amen.

I ran across this excerpt from The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis, and it was such a humorous (and very British) take on marriage with more than a smidgeon of truth mixed in:

“Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.”

Not that any of you married folks do this or anything . . .