Today many people in America slavishly devote themselves to a political party without engaging in critical analysis of whether the philosophies of that party are really in sync with their true values and with the betterment of their position in society. If decades of such devotion leads to more broken families, more out-of-wedlock births, more involvement with the criminal justice system, more poverty and more dependency on government, maybe it is time to ask whether such devotion is warranted.

Even if the steering wheel fits, you don't have to keep gripping it.

God will put you in a position to wrestle with your identity and choose whom you believe: Him or you.

If we can come up with a God we can fully explain, we have come up with a different God from the Bible's. We must beware of recreating an image of God that makes us feel better. Of this I'm certain: If in our pursuit of greater knowledge God seems to have gotten smaller, we have been deceived.

The Bible describes a God who is a thousand things to His children, even though some of these are beyond our ability to understand. So when people insist on humanly reasonable theologies to satisfy their need to believe, the lesser god they're buying is not the God of Scripture. We must beware of recreating an image of God that makes us feel better.

If the Word of God is about anything at all, it is about God's will rather than ours. Our liberty is paradoxically discovered through the will of God rather than our own.

TRUST GOD. Plain and simple. Not easy, mind you, but basic and uncomplicated.

We don't see any signs for us. There is no longer a prophet… . Why do You hold back Your hand? Psalm 74:9, 11

Nothing is more ignorant than choosing man's intelligence over God's.

Why do you take Him to court for not answering anything a person asks? Job 33:13

We don't always have the explanations for certain events and acts of God. He is sovereign. He owes us no explanation. He purposes to teach us to walk by faith and not by sight. When Scripture records an event or judgment

Nothing is like experiencing the affirming, undeniable nod of God. So I'm praying that He will do something obvious to show you that you're on the right track—so that when seasons come with fewer evidences, you'll have the unwavering assurance that God is believable. Go into this new year believing God!