Podcast
Daily Readings by Wild at Heart
Hosted by John Eldredge · EN
Daily Readings are a daily excerpt from books and teachings from John and Stasi Eldredge and Morgan Snyder.
168episodes
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The Heart Is Central
Jun 1200:01:26Tap to summarizeThe heart is central. That I would even need to remind you of this only shows how far we have fallen from the life we were meant to live—or how powerful the spell has been. The subject of the heart is addressed in the Bible more than any other topic—more than “works” or “serve,” more than “believe” or “obey,” more than money and even more than worship. Maybe God knows something we’ve forgotten. But of course—all those other things are matters of the heart. Consider but a few passages: Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5) [Jesus called this the greatest of all the commandments—and notice that the heart comes first.]Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34)Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5) Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You. (Psalms 119:11 NASB)These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Matthew 15:8) For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today.
Transcribe →It's Not Christianity
Jun 1100:01:59Tap to summarizeWe've exchanged that great hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" for a subtle but telling substitute, a song that is currently being taught to thousands of children in Sunday school each week, which goes something like this (sung in a very happy, upbeat tune):I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery, I may never fly over the enemy but I'm in the Lord's army, yes sir!There is no battle and there is no war and there is no Enemy and your life is not at stake and you are not desperately needed this very hour, but you're in the Lord's army. Yes, sir. Doing what? may I ask.The reason I bring this up is that if you want the real deal, if you want the life and freedom that Jesus offers, then you are going to have to break free of this religious fog in particular. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). So here's a bottom-line test to expose the Religious Spirit: If it doesn't bring freedom and it doesn't bring life, it's not Christianity. If it doesn't restore the image of God and rejoice in the heart, it's not Christianity.The ministry of Jesus is summarized by one of those who knew him best when Peter brings the gospel to the Gentiles: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and...he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him" (Acts 10:38). The stream of Spiritual Warfare was essential to Jesus' life and ministry. It follows that it must be essential to ours if we would be his followers. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today
Transcribe →Settling
Jun 1000:02:26Tap to summarizeThe only fatal error is to pretend that we have found the life we prize. To mistake the water hole for the sea. To settle for the same old thing. Christopher Fry called such a life “the sleep of prisoners.” The most tragic day of all is to prefer slavery to freedom, to prefer death to life. We must not stay in this sleep. The time has come for us to wake, to arise from our slumber. As the Scriptures say, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead” (Eph. 5:14). And so George MacDonald prayed, When I can no more stir my soul to move,And life is but the ashes of a fire;When I can but remember that my heartOnce used to live and love, long and aspire—Oh, be thou then the first, the one thou art;Be thou the calling, before all answering love,And in me wake hope, fear, boundless desire.(George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul)Bringing our heart along in our life’s journey is the most important mission of our lives—and the hardest. It all turns on what we do with our desire. If you will look around, you will see that most people have abandoned the journey. They have lost heart. They are camped in places of resignation or indulgence, or trapped in prisons of despair. I understand; I have frequented all those places before and return to them even still. Life provides any number of reasons and occasions to abandon desire. Certainly, one of the primary reasons is that it creates for us our deepest dilemmas. To desire something and not to have it—is this not the source of nearly all our pain and sorrow? Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today.
Transcribe →A Wonderful Secret
Jun 900:01:21Tap to summarizeI am letting you in on a wonderful secret.What happens when God comes and releases us from long-held fears or fears that have long held us? What happens when we surrender fear to God and invite his love to overwhelm it? What is on the other side of fear? Is it faith? Yes, but the form it takes is desire. What comes is a surfacing of desire. Or perhaps a resurfacing of desire.Desires surface that you didn’t even know you had. Freedom rises to embrace your life and live it. I mean really live it. To live unabashedly. Desires rise in your heart for yourself and for others. Desires awaken regarding what you want to offer, do, experience, become. No longer bound by fear, how high can we soar? How deep can we dive? How much delight can we experience? Yes, there will be sorrow too—it’s a part of the deal—but life gets the final word. Life. Life always gets the final word. Every single time. Forever. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming Myself today.
Transcribe →What Jesus Offers
Jun 800:01:02Tap to summarizeLate into the night, early in the morning, walking down the road, in the middle of his supper, at home, abroad, Jesus offers. His time, his words, his touch, flowing like the wine at Cana. To appreciate the reality of it all, remember, this is not Superman. Remember his loneliness, his weariness, his humanity. This is utterly remarkable—particularly in light of the fact that this is a man on a life-or-death mission. He is lavish with himself.And that's the key, right there—that giving of himself. That is what is so precious. Moses offered leadership, and tirelessly. Solomon handed out the rarest of wisdom free of charge. Pilate seemed willing to toss to the crowds anyone they wanted. But Jesus gives himself. This is, after all, what he came to give, and what we most desperately need.Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today.
Transcribe →I’m Not Here
Jun 700:01:41Tap to summarize“Nothing dangerous is happening here.” Incredible. What a self-indictment. Those men have already been taken out because they’ve swallowed the Enemy’s first line of attack: “I’m not here—this is all just you.” You can’t fight a battle you don’t think exists. This is right out of The Screwtape Letters, where Lewis has the old devil instruct his apprentice in this very matter:My dear Wormwood, I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves.As for those who want to be dangerous (cutting-edge), take a close look at 1 Peter 5:8–9: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”What is the Holy Spirit, through Peter, assuming about your life? That you are under spiritual attack. This is not a passage about nonbelievers; he’s talking about “your brethren.” Peter takes it for granted that every believer is under some sort of unseen assault. And what does he insist you do? Resist the devil. Fight back, take a stand.Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today.
Transcribe →More Than We Are Now
Jun 600:01:44Tap to summarizeWe all—men and women—were created in the image of God. Fearfully and wonderfully made, fashioned as living icons of the bravest, wisest, most stunning Person who ever lived. Those who have ever seen him fell to their knees without even thinking about it, as you find yourself breathless before the Grand Canyon or the Alps or the sea at dawn. That glory was shared with us; we were, in Chesterton’s phrase, “statues of God walking about in a Garden,” endowed with a strength and beauty all our own. All that we ever wished we could be, we were—and more. We were fully alive.So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you have set in place — what are mortals that you should think of us, mere humans that you should care for us? For you made us only a little lower than God, and you crowned us with glory and honor. (Psalms 8:3–5 NLT) I daresay we’ve heard a bit about original sin, but not nearly enough about original glory, which comes before sin and is deeper to our nature. We were crowned with glory and honor. Why does a woman long to be beautiful? Why does a man hope to be found brave? Because we remember, if only faintly, that we were once more than we are now. The reason you doubt there could be a glory to your life is because that glory has been the object of a long and brutal war. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today.
Transcribe →Repentance in the Moment
Jun 500:00:59Tap to summarizeWill we do it perfectly? Of course not. Friends, let’s set perfection aside. We are on our way, we are being transformed, but the moment we insist on total perfection we set ourselves up for bitter disappointment. Sin shall not be our master, because we are under grace. Grace. So it might be more helpful for us to talk about what to do when we blow it.Repent quickly. The sooner the better. For one thing, you do not want to lose your intimacy with God. For another, you know the enemy is going jump all over you when you blow it, and you don’t want to get hammered by that for days, weeks, months, years. Also, you are after freedom; the longer you wait to repent, the deeper a hold the sin gets in you. Repent quickly; it looks something like this:First, run to God."Father, forgive me. I’m sorry. I ask your forgiveness for [fill in the blank – this envy, that comment, the lust, my cowardice]. O forgive me, father."Second, renounce it. If you intend to repeat it, your repentance is a fraud. By renouncing it you summon your soul to the posture that you do not intend to repeat it. Furthermore, when you sin, you give way to forces that you do not want running pell-mell around your soul. Sin is what gives the evil one a place in our life: “Do not sin, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26-27). You do not want him taking advantage of your fall. Renounce it quickly."And Father, I renounce this. I renounce [the envy, comment, lust, cowardice]. I renounce choosing this; I renounce giving it a place in my heart and soul. I renounce every claim I’ve given to the enemy through my sin. I reject this, in Jesus’ name. I banish this from me. I am dead to sin, and alive to God."If you don’t really renounce it, you’re not really breaking with it; which means, you’re allowing for the possibility that you’ll repeat it again. And what kind of repentance is that? If you ignore the enemy’s role in this (many Christians just want to ask forgiveness but not resist the devil) then you are being naive; you are giving him the opportunity to hang around and use this against you – either through further accusation, or, by urging you to do it again. Did Satan take advantage of Adam and Eve’s sin? You bet he did. Don’t let him take advantage of yours. Third, cleansing and renewal. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) and “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)."Father, cleanse me with the blood of Jesus; wash me right here, from all of this. I plead the blood of Christ over this sin. Wash me clean; renew me. O father, sanctify me through and through right here, in this. I ask you for your holiness here, in this."It took me longer to explain it and longer for your to read it than it actually takes in practice. Really – you can jump straight to this in your car, in the elevator, as soon as you step out of the meeting (or why wait; do this silently in your heart in the meeting). If you will practice this – instead of, say, just going to self-loathing for several hours, or giving way to resignation – you are going to love the freedom it brings. Absolutely love it. Friends, holiness is ours, if we will ask for it, seek it, pursue it. “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again” (Proverbs 24:16).Want more? Order your copy of Free to Live today.
Transcribe →Every Precious Moment
Jun 400:03:08Tap to summarizeI remember a conversation I had as a therapist with a young mother. She came to see me not because of some crisis, but in tears nevertheless over the passage of her children’s childhood right before her eyes. “These are such precious, precious days,” she wept, “and they are passing so quickly I can’t hang onto them. I can hardly bear it; I’m grieving during days that ought to be joyful.” Few of us remember the taste of our first ice cream (what flavor was it?), the first book we read ourselves, our first kiss. We can barely recall that vacation we planned for so many years; it was over in mere weeks.I name this loss because it is loss—tragic, sweeping, and expansive. Your entire life, every dear moment, is currently being swept downstream from you even as you read this sentence. It does such harm to the soul and our life with God. All good things come to an end. I hate that phrase, hate it like the sound of sirens, the sound of dirt falling on a casket.Lest we despair, God has given us “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT) and to be quite specific, it includes the restoration of every precious day of our lives. Heaven is not a memory wipe. It is the time and capacity to truly relish the story of our lives, to see the hand of God in it all (how many times angels rescued you), to be vindicated, and even rewarded. “‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:37–40). Notice that this promise cannot be fulfilled unless our stories are known, down to the smallest details.Your story matters. Your story will not be lost. But I wrote more fully about that in a book entitled All Things New, so I will only mention it here. All good things do not come to an end.Not even close.In the meantime, God in his mercy has given us a grace for this recurrent, incessant, unavoidable, daily experience of loss, and that gift is memory. Through which—if we make use of it—we can go back and drink more deeply, savor, take in the full gift of wonderful moments great and small (for the full gift can never be taken in during the moment).Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today.
Transcribe →A Subtle Erosion
Jun 300:01:07Tap to summarizeThere are few things more crucial to us than our own lives.And there are few things we are less clear about.This journey we are taking is hardly down the yellow brick road. Then again, that's not a bad analogy at all. We may set out in the light, with hope and joy, but eventually, our path always seems to lead us through dark woods, shrouded with a low-lying mist. Where is this abundant life that Christ supposedly promised? Where is God when we need him most? What is to become of us?The cumulative effect of days upon years that we do not really understand is a subtle erosion. We come to doubt our place, we come to question God's intentions toward us, and we lose track of the most important things in life.We're not fully convinced that God's offer to us is life. We have forgotten that the heart is central. And we had no idea that we were born into a world at war. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today
Transcribe →