We live in a world that demands relentless perfection. Happy marriages and easy friendships. Bucket list–level adventures and matching family photos. But what if our actual lives don’t feel very #blessed? Might our everyday existence be worthy of a blessing too? Even an average Tuesday?

In Kate Bowler’s bestselling memoir Everything Happens for a Reason, listeners witnessed the ways she, as a divinity-school professor and young mother, reckoned with a Stage IV cancer diagnosis; in her follow-up memoir, No Cure for Being Human, she unflinchingly and winsomely unpacked the ways that life becomes both hard and beautiful when we abandon certainty and the illusion of control in our lives.

In a personal narrative style, the author relays the moments of promise after and through the storms of life. Linked with beautiful scripture pictures and terrific narrative, this devotional shines the light of God's love through his word as a reflection into our lives.

It’s no secret that we are overworked, overpressured, and edging burnout. Unsurprisingly, this fact is as old as time - and that’s why we see so many prayer circles within a multitude of church traditions. These gatherings are a trusted space where people seek help, hope, and peace, energized by God and one another. This book, curated by acclaimed author Sarah Bessey, celebrates and honors that prayerful tradition in a literary form.

It’s hard to give up on the feeling that the life you really want is just out of reach. A beach body by summer. A trip to Disneyland around the corner. A promotion on the horizon. Everyone wants to believe that they are headed toward good, better, best. But what happens when the life you hoped for is put on hold indefinitely?

Many First Nations tribes communicate with the cultural and linguistic thought patterns found in their original tongues. The First Nations Version (FNV) recounts the Creator's Story—the Christian Scriptures—following the tradition of Native storytellers' oral cultures. This way of speaking, with its simple yet profound beauty and rich cultural idioms, still resonates in the hearts of First Nations people. Whether you are Native or not, you will experience the Scriptures in a fresh and new way.

In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we can expand it. Taking a clear-eyed look at injustice, political polarization, and the destruction of the natural world, Gay shows us how we might resist, how the study of joy might lead us to a wild, unpredictable, transgressive, and unboundaried solidarity. In fact, it just might help us survive.

What makes a good life? The question is inherent to the human condition, asked by people across generations, professions, and social classes, and addressed by all schools of philosophy and religions. This search for meaning, as Yale faculty Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz argue, is at the crux of a crisis that is facing Western culture, a crisis that, they propose, can be ameliorated by searching, in one’s own life, for the underlying truth.

Richard Rohr Rohr goes through the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, explaining the historical and cultural context of each verse and offering guidance for what it means for Christians today.

How is the follower of Jesus to understand the words of the Old Testament? How are those words relevant to the New Covenant he is establishing? What might the words of the Lord’s Prayer have conveyed to his initial followers, and why is that historical information essential to the prayer two millennia later? In Sermon on the Mount, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine takes a detailed and colorful overview of Matthew 5-7, collectively known as Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama's appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem's artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives.

Every day, we find ourselves in gatherings, Priya Parker says in The Art of Gathering. If we can understand what makes these gatherings effective and memorable, then we can reframe and redirect them to benefit everyone, host and guest alike. Parker defines a gathering as three or more people who come together for a specific purpose. When we understand why we gather, she says - to acknowledge, to learn, to challenge, to change - we learn how to organize gatherings that are relevant and memorable.

What hope is, what hope isn't, and how to find it in hopeless times.

The best-selling 365-day devotional Jesus Calling is written as if Jesus himself is speaking directly to you—words of encouragement, comfort, and reassurance of his unending love. These writings are based on Jesus' own words of hope, guidance, and peace within Scripture—penned by one who loves him and reveres his word. These much-loved devotions will help you look forward to your time with the lord and experience a deeper relationship with Jesus as you savor the presence of the one who understands you perfectly and loves you forever.

Corrymeela is Northern Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organization. At its heart is a simple pattern of daily worship that is structured around meditation on the Gospels. This prayer book captures the essence of the Corrymeela prayer experience for everyone who wishes to incorporate its spirituality into their regular prayer practice.

In her new book, Stasi Eldredge meets listeners in their painful realities and offers an invitation to a joy that is defiant in the face of this broken world. This joy does not Pollyannaish-ly ignore life's heartache; rather, it insists that sorrow and loss do not have the final say. This kind of joy is present to both goodness and grief and interprets them in the light of heaven.

From your heart's deepest cry to life's joyful praises, Jesus is in them all! Knowing Jesus on a deeper, more personal level not only means sharing all aspects of your life with the Savior, but it means seeing Him at work in your life as well. Whether you're struggling your way through a valley or reaping a bounty of blessings, Jesus is very much alive and present. The question is, do you see Him? Do you recognize His voice? His comforting hand? His desire to fellowship with you?

A treasury of meditations for living from your heart - from a top teacher. With poetic brilliance and skillful instruction, renowned teacher Sarah Blondin brings you a treasury of meditations and spiritual teachings to help you detach from your busy mind and tune into your feeling heart. As the students of her popular online trainings can attest, these simple and powerful practices can instantly bring you into a deeper connection with yourself and others. And you can go back to these meditations whenever you feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or afraid.

Revival happens when passion for God breaks through human restraint and ignites one heart after another with his unquenchable love. Speaking with enthusiasm and vibrancy, Kim Meeder encourages listeners to seek transformation of heart, soul, mind, and strength by engaging the holy fire of God's presence. Within this place, fear and pride melt away and the desire burns brightly to reach all who are losing the battle for hope. Through inspiring true encounters, Meeder challenges each believer to accept Jesus' commission to carry the living flame of his love wherever he leads.

In Who Does He Say You Are?, Catholic missionary and speaker Colleen Mitchell captures the confessions of 12 more women from the Gospels and shows how their stories answer this crucial question of identity: "Who does he say you are?" Holding up Mary as the ultimate example of intimate, transforming union, Mitchell weaves together moving anecdotes of her own search for identity as a Catholic woman along with 12 accounts of women in Scripture that are at once fresh yet familiar.

In her most personal book to date, beloved teacher and best-selling author Caroline Myss draws on her own practice to help us regain our fluency in the language of prayer and renew our connection to the sacred. Intimate Conversations with the Divine offers 100 of Myss' personal prayers as a resource and inspiration to start a prayer practice of your own. Each prayer illustrates a different type of grace that feeds the human soul, from awakening, endurance, and healing, to silence, surrender, and trust.

First published in 1992, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home has become a classic on its eponymous subject. Awarded Christianity Today's Book of the Year award and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Gold Medallion award, Prayer continues to receive widespread acclaim as one of the most thorough and insightful treatments of this central spiritual practice.

It can be easy to have a heart filled with worship on a Sunday morning as the church band is playing your favorite song. But then comes Monday morning's commute and Tuesday afternoon's pile of laundry. How do we maintain a heart of worship in the daily grind? Darlene Zschech has spent her life thinking and teaching about worship. With wisdom and contagious joy, she shares her thoughts on what worship truly is and how it should invade every facet of our being.

Best-selling author Ruth Graham, daughter of Billy and Ruth Bell Graham, tackles the fear listeners face during times of change, uncertainty, and crisis and reveals how to replace these fears with hope and anticipation through the discovery of God and his power. Graham empathizes with listeners who feel inadequate, overpowered, or even beyond hope.

Marianne Williamson, author of the best-selling classic A Return to Love and world-renowned teacher, has taught millions around the world an incredible secret: You can transform your life and the world by simply changing how you think. Our thoughts hold our destiny. In A Year of Miracles, she provides 365 reflections and devotions that offer guidance and spiritual support for following the path of love. These affirmations help you to remember, each day, that you are not alone, that the universe is alive and ready to shower you with help and miracles when you strive to put your best self forward.