Page 344 – Guideposts Articles

The Importance of Living by God’s Grace

Posted on March 10, 2026April 23, 2026 by Rebecca Barlow Jordan

My God is changeless in his love for me. Psalm 59:10 (TLB)

Throughout the year I have invited the Lord to point out anything wrong in my heart (Psalm 139:24). That’s a good thing. Jesus accepts our confessions and loves a pure heart. Unconfessed sin blocks our fellowship with Him and makes us vulnerable.

On the other hand, my relationship with Jesus doesn’t change when I sin. Jesus is faithful to forgive (1 John 1:9). Sometimes, after offering that prayer for cleansing, I’ve parked temporarily on my weaknesses and failures instead of seeing myself as Jesus does: as His beloved, forgiven child. That has created a pause in my ability to move forward. I know the error of asking Jesus to show me what’s right in my heart or to boast of any good points. Jesus wouldn’t even call Himself good, claiming that none are good—except God (Mark 10:18).

One popular Pinterest meme I posted, which describes us in Scripture as loved, redeemed, victorious, transformed, and favored, has been reposted numerous times, suggesting that many others may need the same reminder about their worth in Christ. I understand that Jesus values us. I know that just as we are saved by grace, Jesus also wants us to live by His grace.

But like other believers’, I allow my fluctuating emotions to affect my perspective. After confessing the wrong things in my heart, what do I pray next? Surprisingly, when I ask that question, I hear Jesus’s sweet whispers reaffirming what I know: I belong to Him, He accepts me as I am, and His love for me is changeless. I can rest in the knowledge that I am His and He is mine—forever.

Faith Step: This coming year, as you confess any wrong things in your heart to Jesus, remember to thank Him for His changeless love and acceptance.

Excerpted from Mornings with Jesus 2019.

Spiritual Composting: Turn Your Personal Scraps Over to God

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Rick Hamlin

I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ. —Philippians 3:8 (CEB)

I picked up the flyer that had been slipped under our front door and groaned. “They want us to recycle our kitchen garbage,” I said to my wife. We were already sorting our plastic, glass, cans, and paper; now a new citywide program was encouraging us to throw our food scraps into a special bin for composting.

“It’s all about making something useful out of what we throw out,” Carol explained.

Over the next few weeks we got into the habit of throwing food scraps in a bag in the freezer, which I’d take down to the bin in the basement every four days. I’d see lemon rinds, apple cores, coffee grounds, potato peels, carrot stubs, cauliflower stems, artichoke peels, broccoli trunks, tea bags. It’d be amazing if something could be made of my own personal garbage, I thought. My pigheadedness, selfishness, anger, jealousy.

The city picked up the composting once a week, and the recycling became a habit. One day I was walking through the park on my way to work and saw a city truck dumping a dark, moist pile of fertilizer next to a clump of trees. Is that what came of our garbage? I wondered. I walked closer to inspect. It had that satisfying loamy feel to it; it didn’t even smell. Whatever had happened, it had been transformed.

I headed toward the subway where I would settle into my prayer time. Maybe I needed to think of it as a sort of spiritual composting, turning my garbage over to God, trusting in His forgiveness and mercy and powers of transformation.

Lord, thank You for the fragrance of forgiveness You leave in Your wake. Forgive me for all the wrongs I’ve done.

Digging Deeper: 2 Corinthians 5:17

Excerpted from Daily Guideposts 2017.

She Took On a Spiritual Discipline for Lent

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Amy Eddings

I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.—Ezekiel 36:26 (NAB)

“Hi, Mom. What’s up?” I said, answering my cell phone with an exasperated sigh.

“Hi, honey. We haven’t talked in a while, and I just wanted to hear your voice! You sound distracted. Did I catch you in the middle of something?”

“Mom, I’m always in the middle of something,” I snapped.

Something in me opened, and I noticed the meanness of my tone. “Mom, I’m sorry,” I blurted.

Lent was about to begin, and I had been thinking about a spiritual discipline to take on. I found it in that phone call.

“Tell you what, Mom,” I said. “For Lent, I’m going to call you every day. It can just be for five minutes. But I’m going to call you. Every day.”

And I did. I called Mom in the evening as I drove home after work. We talked, as such daily contact leads you to do, about what she and Dad had for dinner, how loud my husband snored the night before, the funny snippet of conversation she heard in the grocery store. I appreciated her insights and her wit. I relaxed into our talks and shared more deeply.

A few weeks into this practice, my husband and I visited my parents. My dad pulled me aside. “Those calls to your mother,” he said, “keep them up. She really enjoys them. They make her day!”

I smiled. They had already started to make mine too.

God, help me to see where I’m acting from a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh.

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 11:25; Galatians 5:22–23

Excerpted from Walking in Grace.

READ MORE ABOUT LENT:

Warm Your Heart as You Prepare for Winter

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Rebecca Barlow Jordan

May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant. Psalm 119:76 (NIV)

We heard the freeze warning on the news, signaling an early winter. My beloved gardens were still producing in early November: seven-foot-tall pepper plants and tomato vines nestling multiple clusters of green tomatoes.

Most of the perennials would simply fall asleep like bears in hibernation, returning the following spring. But what about my twenty-five potted annuals, including my green and flourishing ferns? Before nightfall, my husband and I gathered the plants, covering them with sheets on the back porch. They looked like lumpy ghosts.

The next morning I checked the damage. Most of the perennials survived, but the beautiful, trailing, sweet potato vines lay shriveled, yellow, and brown, along with my colorful coleus plants. Too sad. The annuals would die.

Just when the winter doldrums were descending, I walked into the living room and found my husband had started a blazing fire, comforting and warm. Not only that, he’d collected a sack full of green tomatoes. That night we enjoyed a Deep South staple, fried green tomatoes—for the first time.

Most of us dislike winter, endless days of unchanging, frigid weather, threatening to shrivel our faith and discourage our spirits. Like those dying plants, we may feel useless and void of color.

Jesus taught me a lesson that day, one I often forget. Every season has a purpose. Jesus is like that warm, blazing fire, beckoning us to sit awhile and partake of His comfort and warmth. Even in the harshest circumstances, He will cover us with His love and may even surprise us with good things that emerge from that season, if we’ll watch for them.

Faith Step: Think about a time when it felt like winter in your life. What good things came out of those experiences? Today, thank Jesus for His continuous covering of love.

Staying Devoted in Hot Weather

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Julia Attaway

It’s hot, and my prayer life isn’t.

These sweltering days leave me without much motivation. I pray, but not passionately. I get distracted, and wonder how the Israelites survived 40 years of desert heat. I imagine the sweat streaming down Abraham’s face as “he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day” (Genesis 18:1).

But I do try to pray. I make time in the morning, at midday, at bedtime; I send up a word when a siren wails or I see someone struggling or hear of a person who is sick. Granted, I pray quick prayers, dull prayers, everyday prayers. They’re what I have to offer when the temperature and humidity are nearing 100.

As long as I’m clear about the difference between “I can’t” and “I’m uncomfortable and don’t want to,” I have nothing to feel guilty about. But to keep myself honest, I offer two little prayers as well:

Lord, I give you everything I have to give today

and

Jesus, keep me from excuses.

May you pray well this week, even in the heat.

Shred Last Year’s Resentments

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Evelyn Bence

Get rid of the old… I Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)

“I meant to do my work today…”

That’s the first line of a favorite poem by Richard Le Gallienne. Today I “meant to do my work,” specifically, to set up my account books for the new year. But I got distracted by a plastic wastebasket I walk past several times a day. It’s full of papers I’ve let pile up all year because I’ve been waiting for a spare minute to slip them through the shredder. I couldn’t seem to turn my full attention to my new-year accounts until I’d properly disposed of last year’s.

I rather mindlessly shredded the old accounts, until a twinge of anger welled up at the sight of an old work order. I had completed the job on time. Why had they waited three months before paying me? “Shred it,” a small voice urged.

As the machine slashed the paper and its print, my memory relinquished the experience. I picked up another paper—representing another grudge still intact, stashed away earlier in the year. A guest’s tactless comment. A friend’s neglectful slight. With each zwip of the blades, I let the Holy Spirit rip.

Tomorrow I’ll be ready to turn to my new-year work, now that I’ve shredded the contents of two wastebaskets, only one of them made of plastic.

Lord, before I tackle the projects of the new year, distract me with the task of shredding last year’s resentments.

Renew Your Spirit This Spring

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Sue Monk Kidd

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

—Ephesians 4:23

Today I woke up with a restless feeling pulsing inside. I want to dig in the dirt and make something grow. I want to clean out my closets and paint the bedrooms and chase butterflies. I am full of stirrings and longings born sometime during the night. Every year about this time, it happens to me. Somewhere between the last breath of winter and the first green leaf, I contract “spring fever.”

Suddenly I am struck by a thought. Could spring fever actually be a spiritual phenomenon? Could my hunger to grow a flower, redecorate the house and follow the flight of a newly resurrected butterfly actually be a sign of some deeper need? Could it really be a hunger for my own growth and resurrection?

I begin to hear God speaking to me, showing me how insular, barren and static my spiritual life became through the cold winter. My prayers are frozen like the January ground and my commitment seems unfocused and neglected like a cluttered closet.

So I decide. Yes…I will go and plant seeds in the earth…follow a butterfly…and clean my closets. But I will also take time to cultivate the “spring” burgeoning within my spirit. Beginning now.

Father, there is something wonderful stirring deep within the cocoon in which I have wrapped myself—unfurl new life in me.

Put Spring in Your Spirit

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Erin Keeley Marshall

“Sing to God a brand-new song, sing his praises all over the world! Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause, with all the far-flung islands joining in. Let the desert and its camps raise a tune, calling the Kedar nomads to join in. Let the villagers in Sela round up a choir and perform from the tops of the mountains. Make God’s glory resound; echo his praises from coast to coast.” Isaiah 42:10 (MSG)

SPRING, SPRING, SPRING! Can you smell the fresh breeze through my open window? Ahhh!

READ MORE: SPRING CLEAN YOUR SPIRIT

I love the freshness of spring each year. I walk taller, feel healthier, enjoy more color in my face and a boost in my energy. Everything about spring breathes of life and newness. I love seeing green fields with baby calves reaching up for a drink from Mama. At home, I can’t get enough of my own children running coatless around our yard, exploring each square foot as if it were brand-new. I can’t help but lift my face to thank Jesus for the smile He gave me through His wonderful creation of springtime.

I guess that’s why I love Isaiah 42:10, which draws a picture of a world reveling in the joy of praising God. I can almost hear it. It’s amazing how God—the Ancient of Days, the Omega, the One Who Was and Is and Is to Come—is Lord not only of our past, but also of our future. He is Lord of all that will be new as he makes it beautiful in his time. (See Ecclesiastes 3:11.)

Imagine the newness experienced by people whose lives spanned the time before Jesus’ birth until after His death. The handful of His people who believed in Him back then felt not only the longing for the Messiah but also the new joy that He arrived at last!

If springlike praise has faded in your heart, ask Jesus to plant in you fresh seeds of joy.

Faith step: Draw a picture of something you’d like Jesus to make new. Write on it a favorite verse or song of praise.

Prepare for the Birth of Jesus

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Gina Bridgeman

Joseph went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. Luke 2:5 NIV

"Come, Thou long-expected Jesus” says the Christmas hymn, and usually when I hear it, I think of how long the people had waited for their Messiah. But no one could have waited for Jesus’ birth with more anticipation than Mary.

It’s been a while, but I remember what it was like to be pregnant. Nine months to ponder questions that can’t be answered until the baby arrives; the same kinds of questions Mary might have asked. Am I truly prepared? How will this baby change my life? It all came back to me when a young co-worker was pregnant, with some new concern or question every day.

One day she was telling Jeanne, the most experienced mother in our office, that she wished the waiting didn’t have to take so long. “Think of it as a gift,” Jeanne said. “God gives you nine months to get comfortable with the idea that your life is never going to be the same!” That’s a decidedly uncomfortable—but accurate—thought.

Advent provides a similar opportunity: four weeks to ponder what Jesus coming into the world means to me. Christmas is one day of excitement and joy, as is the day of a baby’s birth—a rush of emotions that passes in a blur. But Advent brings time to consider how the birth of this baby will change my life. Can my faith grow stronger? Can I truly become more like Him? Each year, the season of Advent gives me a fresh opportunity to welcome Jesus and think about how I can be changed because of Him.

Loving Jesus, although I think of You now as a baby, You have the full-grown power to change me. Use this time of Advent to prepare my heart for Your arrival.

Plant a Faith Seed

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Cynthia Ruchti

“As long as the earth exists, seedtime and harvest, cold and hot, summer and autumn, day and night will not cease.” Genesis 8:22 (CEB)

The day the first seed catalog of the year arrived in the mail, it was twenty below zero with a biting wind chill. My first thought was, That’s just cruel. Pulling my wool sweater tighter around me, I stared out at the snow-covered ground, the garden stiff and lifeless. The seed catalog cover made me sigh. It would be many months before I’d see color like that in my garden.

The season of hibernation, not the season of growth. Too many gray days made me resistant to the joy-potential the seed catalog held.

“Plant a future seed.” The idea came as soft as a summer breeze. Instead of mourning the contrast between my current circumstances and what the catalog promised, I could plant a virtual seed.

Get your copy of Guideposts Daily Planner here.

I spent the next hour plotting what new flowers I’d add to my garden in the spring. What would my vegetable raised beds hold? A new variety of an old favorite? Should I try cabbages again and find a more efficient way to fight off the cabbage-loving chipmunks?

My view out the window showed the same bitter, stark, cold whiteness. The view in my heart sported all kinds of anticipated color, dewy, sun-drenched magenta blossoms and fragrant herbs. Jesus knew we’d be prone to getting mentally stuck in our current circumstances without a nudge from Him to think ahead to the joys that lie before us. The spring at the end of the winter. The lush garden of answers to replace our barren seasons. The heaven that awaits. Winter to spring. Illness to health. Stress to peace. Broken to mended.

It might be time for me to plant a few more seeds.

FAITH STEP: Have you planted seeds, mapped out a garden, envisioned what it will be like when this season of life passes? When the medical crisis abates? When the prodigal comes home? When you make it through the financial upheaval? Plant a faith seed today.

Not Just the Reason for the Season

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Rebecca Barlow Jordan

They ran to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. Luke 2:16 (NLT)

One Christmas I stepped back and looked at the tree in our living room. I had finished the simple decorations, and the lights, tinsel, and ornaments looked balanced and beautiful. The stockings were hung by the fireplace with care, and festive music boxes adorned the mantle.

On one side of the fireplace sat the wise men: three, crudely crafted coke bottles that had been sprayed and glued with fabric and jewelry years earlier by my children’s hands to resemble the Magi. But as I glanced at the miniature, ivory figures grouped together on the middle of the hearth, I noticed something missing in the small nativity set. I counted shepherds, Mary and Joseph, sheep, a cow or two, camels, a smaller set of wise men, an angel, the manger, and some straw.

The baby Jesus! Where was Jesus? I searched back through the original box, but found nothing.

Somehow, we had lost Jesus. It wasn’t until after Christmas was over, and I was putting things away, that I saw something shiny at the bottom of another Christmas box.

I removed the wad of paper partially hiding the object, and there lay the baby Jesus! How easy it is to “lose” Jesus in the trappings of busy lifestyles, misplaced priorities, and forgotten boxes in our lives.

Christmas is not the only time we forget the most important part of life’s celebration: Jesus.

Without meaning to, we can hide His witness through fear of embarrassment or ignore the most important things in life through simple negligence–any time of year.

That Christmas was a whispered wake-up call to me that Jesus is not only the reason for the season; He is the reason for every day of my life! For me, without Jesus there would be no life, no joy, no peace, and no celebration.

Faith step: Write a letter to Jesus, thanking Him for what He means to you throughout the year. How can you give Him first place in your life this year?

Devotion for the New Year

Posted on March 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Erin Keeley Marshall

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. . . .” Luke 24:36–39 (ESV)

Have you ever faced something new in your life and been confused about what Jesus was doing, how much He was really involved in your circumstances? These days I’m confused about some new things Jesus is doing with my family.

My husband started a new business and we’ve relocated to a new neighborhood, and frankly, life feels foreign, as if I landed in the middle of someone else’s life and am supposed to take it from here. It’s unfamiliar territory, and at any given moment I feel more unsettled than peaceful. But I’ve got enough history with Jesus that even when my feelings speak otherwise, I know who holds today and the future.

RELATED: MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE

He’s the same One Who has held me to this point. When I quiet myself, I can recognize Him. I have to look for Him, just as He invited His shell-shocked followers to do when they struggled with fears and shaken peace at the new way He was showing up in their day-to-day lives. They’d never seen Him appear suddenly like that. They were uncertain and scared about how to respond or even process what had just happened. Jesus is Lord of the new, and I need to be ready for Him to do something new in my life.

Faith Step: Think of a time when your life changed. Name the emotions you felt. How did you sense Jesus’s presence in your circumstances? Ask Him for eyes to look for Him and a heart to see and respond to Him.

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