Mark Batterson

“Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word skillfully spoken.” –Proverbs 25:11 When I was in seminary, I spoke to a gathering of men at a drug-rehabilitation program. I met a man who had made some mistakes that contributed to his addictions. He had gotten out from under the umbrella of…

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” -Ephesians 6:10 My wife and I used to have a little saying taped to our bathroom mirror: “Choose your battles wisely.” There are some battles you need to bow out of. They aren’t worth your time or energy. Then there are battles you cannot…

One of the most beautiful and powerful images in Scripture is found in Psalm 56:8. It’s a precious promise that begs to be circled: “You have collected all my tears in your bottle.” There are many different kinds of tears. There are the tears shed by the mother of a little boy in the ICU…

“Show me your vision, and I’ll show you your future.” I was twenty-one when I heard those words, and I’ll never forget them. But it’s not just the words that impacted me; it’s the fact that they were spoken by the pastor of one of the largest churches in the world. His words carried extra…

The longer I live, the more I crave the favor of God.  The greatest moments in life are the moments when God intervenes on our behalf and blesses us way beyond what we expect or deserve. These are humble reminders of His sovereignty. And these favor moments can become our favor-ite memories. One of these…

While it’s not recorded in Scripture, I promise you that Moses prayed. Isn’t that what we do when we cannot figure things out ourselves? When we find ourselves in situations that are beyond our control or beyond our comprehension, we pray. Moses must have felt like he was running off a cliff, but that is…

As window-shoppers strolled up and down the promenade, I scribbled down a personal definition of success on a napkin. That napkin may as well have been a stone tablet inscribed by the finger of God on Mount Sinai. God redefined success for me and spelled it out on that napkin. Like definitions in the dictionary…

Like everyone else, I have my fair share of idiosyncrasies. I don’t know why, but I always set my alarm clock to an even number. An odd number would totally mess me up. I always start shaving on the right side of my face. I never drive off after pumping gas without checking my left-hand…

Who are you going to offend? That is one of the most important questions a man has to ask and answer. This I promise you: you’re going to offend someone! So who will it be? If you’re afraid of offending people, you’ll offend God. If you’re afraid of offending God, you’ll offend people. It’s one…

One of my goals as a father is to infect my children with childlike wonder. Arthur Gordon is one of my role models when it comes to wonder. I read his incredible book, Wonder, on our fifteenth anniversary trip to Italy—making it all the more meaningful. In fact, we saw one of the natural wonders…