The second admission my young adult friends made is that they know their obsession is distracting them from God. Again, let me ask you to be honest. Do you think more about what God says in his Word or what people say on your feed? How much time do you think about God versus what to say online? Work hard to tell the truth. No matter how tempting it is to ignore him, if God is trying to get your attention, don't shake him off.

You will battle with discontent until you let Christ be all that you need.

God alone is God, and he alone merits first place—beyond every other love, every other anxiety, every other fear that consumes us.

As a young Christian, I was praying fervently one day for guidance on a particular issue when I felt the Spirit gently interrupt. I was shocked to think I heard him suggest that I was too busy seeking his will. How could that be? Then I heard the rest of his suggestion. "Don't seek my will in this matter. Seek me—and then you will know my will." Seeking God's will is important, but in this case my focus was wrong.

Righteousness has to do with the vertical standard that God gives us to please Him. Justice has to do with the horizontal expression of that righteous standard in the lives of others.

When pastors don't have rich spiritual lives with Christ, they become victimized by other models of success - models conveyed to them by their training, by their experience in the church, or just by our culture.

I now spend my time solely on those activities that only I can do, and even then only on those activities that have the highest return. These

Every decision you make in life has benefits and consequences. Sometimes you just have to go on faith, and even that comes at a price. It means you have to give up the idea that you're the one in charge

There are tons of things I could and probably should be doing for work right now. But at some point, you have to put it aside and get busy with the things that really matter.

don't want everything that's going on to be a…distraction for you two. I don't want you to

But pleasing to the eye isn't the same as pleasing to God.

In the end the women of Christmas quietly stepped aside, making room for the One who truly matters.