Ripple-Effect Faith with Twyla Franz

And I want to know his secret.  What compels the psalmist to pursue the teachings of God regardless of the hour? To chase after God's will with urgency and love God Himself wholeheartedly? It's not perfection, because the unnamed author of this Psalm openly admits failure to fully follow God's decrees. "Oh, that every part of my life would remain in line with what You require!" he exclaims (v. 5)....

Just imagine what might happen if the words we say breathed life, ignited hearts, and amplified hope when they were overheard! If what came out of our mouths was laced in humility and grounded in our God-identity. If our words repaired breaches and lent hope and lit a candle for someone else. Someone listening over our shoulder, curious how to trust God when life doesn't make sense. Someone observ...

We get both–the imposter syndrome and the subtly-inflating self-impression. We shame and doubt ourselves, wondering who we are to think God can use us for His grand purpose. And we're also guilty of esteeming ourselves too highly, as if our value has anything to do with us and not the One who breathed undeserved worth into our lungs just because He loves us so.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short...

What if we let go of the "metrics-based growth" Jennifer Dukes Lee cautions will "[hurry] our hearts," and lean instead into the two heart cultivators Jesus offers?   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE. 3. Jennifer Dukes Lee's books . 4. Get a FREE Names of...

After a rich, tear-wet journey through the Old Testament searching for who God is on every page, resting in His endless love felt like a bear hug. Again and again and again the truth that God's love never runs out and is always meant for us brought strength to my soul, filling me for another day of pouring out.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you g...

It hits like the curled top of an ocean wave: every name I've penned in Bible margins, in answer to Ann Voskamp's question in  Sacred Prayer –"Who do I say that God is today? (Mark 8:29)"–is who God is in the right-now. Not a single descriptor is merely a past-tense attribute of God's nature. Each name spans as far back and reaches as far beyond as endless eternity.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a...

We don't have to be more or less of anything.  Our presence alone blesses Him. I'm sitting with that as I ponder how we best serve God and minister to the people in front of us on His behalf.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE. 3. I'm taking Mary Demuth's ...

What strikes me about this picture of open hands is that for hands to be  unfolded daily, they must be balled-up daily too. I can relate to that.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE. 3. Get a FREE Names of God Phone Wallpaper  HERE .

It begins to connect as I pause at the word 'name' at the end of Psalm 91: because we know God by name–by His many names–we know TO call on Him, HOW to call on Him, and WHAT to call Him.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE. 3. I'm taking Mary Demuth's  90-D...

It begins to connect as I pause at the word 'name' at the end of Psalm 91: because we know God by name–by His many names–we know TO call on Him, HOW to call on Him, and WHAT to call Him.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE. 3. I'm taking Mary Demuth's  90-D...

This morning, wide awake way too early, I pondered how there's nothing else I'd rather have running through my head when I can't sleep than the weighty glory of God Himself. Unless I proactively tell my thoughts where to dwell, they wander willful and easily distracted. I lean into lies that incite fear or unworth rather than lean on the One who knows every tender hope and unspoken prayer. Maybe t...

These are the days of appointments and answers I don't like. Of whispering hope in a waiting room to one anxious heart.   Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE. 3. I'm taking Mary Demuth's  90-Day Bible Reading Challenge , searching for names of God as I read l...

It's a hopeful whisper: soul-sister friendship. Isn't that what we long beneath the obligatory "I'm good! How are you?" and mustered-up smiles and silent sighs? We want something more than surfacy talk about movies and weather, car lines and school projects. More than flighty friendship that unravels over bent feelings and assumptions. Perhaps your heart-felt prayer is not for more friends but dee...

How would you talk with God if you knew He was walking around in your house? I recently read a mandate God had spoken to the Israelites through Moses: "Treat your camp as a sacred place because the Eternal your God will be walking around in it" (Deut. 23:14, The Voice). And I wonder, what would it change if we knew how paper-thin is the distance between God and us? If we knew He was right here whe...

I'm writing by candlelight while walking but I can't stop. Here, another name. There, two more. I'm chasing the God I'm finding as I read. Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up  here. 2. Read the written version of this episode  HERE. 3. I'm taking Mary Demuth's 90-Day Bible Reading challenge (and you can too!). Sign...

You know that dismantling way a verse in Scripture can seem like it's just for you? How you feel seen through in an instant by the kind gaze of Jesus? That was me on day three of a 90-Day Bible Reading Challenge—overcome by "the God who answers me whenever I am in distress and who is with me wherever I go" (Gen. 35:3, The Voice).  Links mentioned: 1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every...

Maybe New Year's Eve feels like a celebration of endings. We get to bury what didn't do well or go right and start over. Plant fresh seeds and forget the ones that never grew. I get it. It's wearying caring for seeds that haven't sprouted yet. And your heart just needs a break, your lungs a moment to breathe. But here, on the cusp of all a fresh new year has to offer, I want to share what I'm clin...

In the midst of tinsel and torn paper tomorrow, may we remember the greatest gift ever wrapped is a baby in swaddling clothes. May our hearts thump with the excitement of a child when we behold Him, fully God even as a babe.  Links mentioned: 1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS monthly reflection sheets to amplify your growth  HERE . 2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to hel...

Sometimes you go looking for a word of the year, and sometimes it finds you–like a cat who adopts you first or a word nestled into Ann Voskamp's  Sacred Prayer  journal that stills your heart. And you know, without scouring word lists or weighing options or praying long for clarity, that the Hebrew word  korban  is your one word for 2025.  Links mentioned: 1. Get 200 Word of the Year ideas PLUS mo...

Sometimes you go looking for a word of the year, and sometimes it finds you–like a cat who adopts you first or a word nestled into Ann Voskamp's  Sacred Prayer  journal that stills your heart. And you know, without scouring word lists or weighing options or praying long for clarity, that the Hebrew word  korban is your one word for 2025.  Links mentioned: 1. Mary Demuth's 90-day Bible reading  cha...

How's this for a trade? Your never-named aloud fears, your residual shame, your tucked-deep message of unworth, the lists you haven't completed, the names you've called yourself inside your head, the band-aids over old scars–for the deepest inhale of grace that makes you feel light and lovely from your nose to your toes. Links mentioned: To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help...

Maybe you're just not feeling it this year, but you're wearing the smile anyways. You wish it could feel authentic. I see you holding so much extra. Extra and also less, for there's loss and disappointment and deeply-set worry scrunching lines in your brow. It's a lot under the weight of amplified expectations and hold-your-breath prayers and silent wishes that everyone could at least pretend to b...

I'm better at learning things fast—as if beginner to expert overnight is a goal worth pursuing. But the things that take grueling-slow learning and moment-by-moment surrender, those are the harder lessons to learn. The ones most worth learning. Links mentioned: It's not too late to join the #ReflectJesus challenge! Grab the challenge prompts  HERE  and I'll pop into your inbox the rest of the mont...

We give self-talk its own category and unreined license to belittle and badger. Under labels like inner critic, perfectionism, and people-pleasing, these self-directed lies appear safe. But maybe we've normalized lying to ourselves about who we are and what we're worth. Perhaps we've underestimated the impact of repeating self-condemnation and sharp comparisons, of setting inhuman standards of per...

Set out to reflect Jesus like a mirror and you come face-to-face with your list of what you lack. Your squabbles and squeamish fears, your flat-out insecurity and sneaky pride. The features you'd change. The less-thans and not-likes and labels confirming your unworth. Links mentioned: It's not too late to join the #ReflectJesus challenge! Grab the challenge prompts HERE and I'll pop into your inbo...