We turn to Psalm 63 to name spiritual thirst without pretending it feels easy, then follow David’s path from desperation to memory, blessing, and trust. We wrestle with where God is in suffering, how to think about enemies through Jesus, and how longing can become a doorway to real satisfaction in God’s steadfast love.

• Psalm 63 as language for spiritual dryness and honest prayer
• the question of why God feels elusive and why we must seek
• naming pain without denial, including anxiety and fear
• enemies in the Psalms alongside Jesus’ call to love
• Ephesians 6 and the fight against sin and death rather than people
• remembering God’s past faithfulness as an antidote to forgetfulness
• hesed as covenant love that is better than life
• blessing and worship as a formative force, not a mood
• desire, idols, and the search for satisfaction in lesser things
• sleepless nights, spirals, and learning to meditate with trust
• Jesus fulfilling Psalm 63 through the wilderness and the cross
• clinging to God as a learned way of life

Support the show

We wrestle with Paul’s hardest lines in 1 Corinthians 7 and ask what “unhindered devotion to the Lord” looks like for single people, married people, and everyone in between. We frame the whole passage with eschatology, the now and not yet, and the hope that God’s future can reshape our ordinary lives right now.
• Paul’s “impending crisis” and the claim that the present form of the world is passing away
• Remaining as you are as a starting point for faithfulness rather than a command to freeze your life
• Unhindered devotion as the aim behind Paul’s counsel on marriage, singleness, engagement, and widowhood
• Eschatology as a lived reality that transforms time and loyalty
• Singleness as intrinsic value and a witness against idolizing the nuclear family
• Abiding in Christ from John 15 as the pattern for devotion
• Q&A on gendered language, engagement customs, desire and passion, LGBTQ questions, and married devotion
"we’ll have some people that are prepared to pray for you in the back of the room. They are both standing right now. Gene and Alexa, if you want to turn around, you can. they’d be honored to pray with you."

Support the show

We walk through 1 Corinthians 7 and name how Paul speaks to widows, widowers, married couples, and mixed-faith homes with a steady through line of trust and faithfulness. We hold Jesus’ hard words on divorce alongside trauma-aware wisdom, reminding each other that God sees real lives and meets us with grace, truth, and peace.
• Paul’s “gift” language around singleness and celibacy and why it is not a command for everyone
• How Paul separates personal counsel from a command of the Lord and what that shows about inspiration
• Why marriage is more than an antidote to lust and how a low view of marriage harmed people in purity culture
• Jesus’ teaching on divorce in Mark 10 and Matthew 5 and how to avoid both dismissal and legalism
• Modern myths about divorce rates and what the data actually suggests
• How betrayal, abuse, control, and deceit can function as covenant-breaking “sending away”
• Paul’s counsel for believers married to unbelievers and the call to peace
• The pressure to “perform” faith at home and a gentler, more honest posture of witness
• The deeper anchor of God’s covenant in Christ that holds when human covenants fracture
If you'd like to receive prayer, there'll be some folks at the back. You can make your way quietly back there if you need prayer

Support the show