You don’t always have to give in to what the world, your family, or your own self declares is the way things are “supposed” to be. God desires goodness and joy for us. God, Jesus, and the Spirit went to great lengths to offer you and me the best good news ever. In Why Can’t I Get It Together?, Jamie Ivey, host of The Happy Hour podcast, guides us through six areas of our lives that are affecting our perception of God’s love in our realities. Dig deep into God’s Word to see what it says about why we keep sinning, how to stop, and what God feels about us in the midst of it all.

It is in the heart of every person to want God, but life gets loud, and we forget Him. We get consumed by our problems, our desires, ourselves. We forget our first encounter with the Savior and how much we once wanted Him. But Lisa Whittle believes that if we calibrate our attention, refocusing on God determines the perspective for everything in our life.

If you're a woman, chances are you know the cycle: You start the day already exhausted and end it defeated, all the while telling yourself things will get better if you can just power through this week. But then the weeks turn into months, and you start to believe you'll never be able to stop, slow down, or catch your breath. You wouldn't even know how if you tried. And yet God has made you for a life of abundance, not a life of exhaustion. It's time to quit the unsustainable pace and receive God's gift of realistic rest.

When it rains in life―it pours. With each wave of resistance in life, it can be so tempting to simply give up. To quit the difficult calling. To leave the meaningful relationship. To walk away from the dreams God placed on your heart. If this is where you find yourself, take heart. Nick Connolly has also been there―and he’s written Don’t Give Up Just Yet for you to find the motivation and encouragement to help you to keep going. Join Nick in the journey to choose persistence in the face of resistance; find renewed energy and faith; and confidently pursue the promise of who God made you to be.

Through personal experience and countless conversations, speaker and Bible teacher Jennie Allen has come to realize that most of us need to unlearn some deeply damaging messages about our emotions. We've been taught, for example, that emotions are untrustworthy when, in fact, they are a gift from God to help us notice what is wrong and where we need to heal. Your emotions are not something to suppress or ignore. They are meant to be felt, examined, and shared.

Though it's easy for our overwhelming pain to cloud our view of reality, the truth is that, even though we can’t see it or feel it, God is at work in the darkness. Our Creator is in the business of bringing dead—and nearly dead—things to life. Even now, no matter how fresh your wounds might be, he invites you to unearth his hidden treasures in your hurting, to reframe your darkness as a sacred space in which the light of hope can shine most brilliantly. Come join Katherine Wolf as she vulnerably shares her own places of wounding and the life-changing insights she has found there.

It's all too much. Too much laundry and too many bills. Too many appointments, meetings, and open tabs on our browser. Yet in the midst of so much, we feel deprived. Limited. We make another family dinner while shelving our passion for art. We tend our tiny patch of grass while envying the time our neighbor has to garden. We go to bed exhausted, too tired to enjoy a few minutes with our own thoughts.

Crafted in the early days of the pandemic of 2020, the words of the poet-King David speak directly to the anxiety, fears, and troubles of our own day. And as the psalm leads to green pastures, still waters, and pathways ahead, the listener will find their confidence and faith in God renewed and refreshed. When the Lord is My Shepherd makes the ancient psalm sing a new song in our own day. 

Whether by choice or circumstances out of our control, we will have moments where we feel like we've been punched out, dragged down, or knocked out. What do we do in those situations? You must learn to persevere. Perseverance requires a deep sense of hope, and thought leader, pastor, and podcaster, Bianca Juárez Olthoff, knows that personally. Using the life of Paul the Apostle as a case study, Bianca shows how grit was the genesis of his transformation from a judgmental Pharisee to a world-changing follower of Jesus.

Do you sometimes feel as though your body is a problem to solve? Discover how to make it part of the solution instead. It’s now known that the emotional and relational pain we’ve lived through has a profound negative physical effect on our bodies. Alisa Keeton, popular fitness professional, proposes that the reverse is also true: What we do with our bodies can have a dramatic positive effect on our emotions, relationships, and our connection with God.

Offering solid, practical advice and a fresh perspective on making this gift a bigger part of our families, The Blessing powerfully communicates these biblically based elements as necessary to prepare children for positive future relationships, including their relationship with a loving God.

The words we say and the things we pray matter to God and to our health. Where we rest our gaze and how we think about God directly impacts the condition of our souls. Proverbs 14:30 states, "A heart at peace gives life to the body." God is well able to restore and renew us even when culture swirls around us. The world needs healing. But we can't impart what we don't possess.

When you feel overwhelmed by the pressures of life, you can pause, restore calm, and choose joy by exploring new ways to break free from worry and anxiety. With Breathe, soul-care mentor Bonnie Gray is here to help you create new wellness habits to rest and renew your spirit.

What lies heaviest on your heart as you lay your head on your pillow? Are paralyzing fear and anxiety stealing tomorrow's peace? Listen to this invitation from Jesus: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28 NIV). Experiencing this kind of rest won't come from escapism, more vacation days, or stuffing our feelings. Jesus Himself provides rest to our weary souls. While He may not always fix everything right away, we can fix our thoughts on His Word.

Too often, we feel disappointed with our "right now"—our life circumstances, our relationships, our progress, our daily grind. We want to do so many things—good, godly things—but our situations don't allow us to step into them. Are we missing out on our own lives? Why does right now seem so far from where we really long to be? Bestselling author Ruth Chou Simons reminds us that it's okay to not like the right now we've been given, but we don't have to like it to lean in.