His sins were real and obvious, and yet David’s convictions were angled at imaginary wickedness.

Faith in the nearness of God creates the resilience needed to keep leading, loving, giving, evangelizing, serving, praying for, and preaching to.

Everybody needs a Nathan. Someone who will love us enough to tell us the truth. Who will see the plank between blinks and do the careful work of helping us remove it. Everybody needs a Nathan. Someone God has sent our way as a merciful missionary.

The empathy precedes the mercy. The sympathy holds hands with grace.

Unforgiveness, vengeance, and being guarded won’t keep you from evil though; it will instead cultivate evil in you.

We are raising babies and getting degrees and eating jackfruit pulled-pork sandwiches and listening to podcasts and exfoliating our pores—all while trying to serve in church and read the Bible and resist the world, the flesh, and the devil.

How we think about ourselves in light of our gifts will determine how and what we use them for. Either our glory or the Lord’s.

But if your fear of people discourages you from being faithful to the text and to God, then somewhere in there you don’t believe God is with you.

To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward.8