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Why do God’s children undergo pressures, suffering, and deadly peril? Paul answers clearly: “that we might not rely on ourselves but on God” (2 Corinthians 1:11). God uses our weakness and inadequacy not only to build our character, but also to manifest His strength and grace to us and through us.

A few weeks ago I had a delightful conversation with Dr. Lee Warren for his podcast about my book Happiness. Now may seem like a strange time to be talking about happiness, especially with so much heartbreak and sadness in our broken world. Please don’t misunderstand: nothing in this interview minimizes the reality of suffering.

Brian Stewart, ACTION USA’s Executive Director, writes, “The suffering of the Ukrainian people has greatly increased, but so have the opportunities to share the Gospel and minister to urgent needs.”

Nanci and I have had end-of-present-life conversations going back years and again in recent months. She is ready to meet Jesus. After what I have seen in the last several days—which has been so hard on her—I feel ready to let her go, even though in another sense of course I can’t be ready.

We’re told that we are aliens and strangers in this world, and should be longing for a better country (Hebrews 11:13-16). However, that better country isn’t up in the clouds—it’s down on the New Earth.

God’s Word contains countless expressions of concern and anguish about the hard times people experience and the fact that they sometimes don’t feel God’s closeness. In this fallen world, “Why?” is a common question.

Abigail Dodds makes a series of balanced points that remind us we shouldn’t buy into the myth that when we have one belief we must dismiss as evil or stupid every belief of those who disagree. Read slowly and carefully and see if you can understand what she’s saying and whether or not she’s right.

On hearing the news of the invasion, my own mind immediately went back to 1991, when my longtime friend and pastor Steve Keels and I spent two weeks in Russia and Ukraine. It was the very year Ukraine would assert its independence, just months after we were there. 1991 was a unique and historic time in Ukraine. Change and the hope of freedom were in the air we were breathing. 

Satan paints a target on each of our chests. But we have a choice about whether Satan will hit that target. Sexual sin is NOT inevitable. Many Christians are seeking God’s will in any number of areas. A good place to start is with God’s directly stated will: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

The fact that we really don’t know what Paul’s thorn was turns out to be both merciful and instructive to us. It’s merciful because, given the various possibilities, we all can identify with Paul to some degree in our afflictions. It’s instructive because what Paul’s thorn was isn’t the point. The point is what God’s purpose was for the thorn.

The concentration camps of Nazi Germany are a testimony to what happens when people start deciding who has the right to live and who doesn’t. The sign at Auschwitz says, “Never Again.” Yet holocausts have happened again. I hope that someday our country will admit that abortion kills children and will say, “Never Again.”

This prayer (with updated language) is from the February 15 morning entry of Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening: Daily Readings. There’s hardly any man outside of Scripture itself who speaks to me like Spurgeon does. 

I enjoyed a Sports Spectrum article about Rams WR Cooper Kupp finding ultimate purpose in honoring God on his journey to the Super Bowl. It included two great short videos of Kupp being interviewed before the game.

Our actions should be in concert with our prayers—we should pray to find happiness in God and then take the kind of actions that will help us find happiness in God.