Spiritual Formation

Sin Breaks God’s Heart

By Ryan Bailey / December 14, 2021 /

Who do you love more than any other?  What have you done to show that love to them?  What have you sacrificed?  What struggles have you endured to love them?  What joys have you experienced in loving them? Now, what do you feel when they betray you?  Normally, it’s searing pain. But if you really,…

Read More

Thank God

By Ryan Bailey / November 20, 2021 /

Romans 1:18-23 teaches us that when we suppress the truth, we stop thanking God.  In other words, we become ungrateful.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 echoes this sentiment, encouraging us to give thanks in all circumstances. As we become ungrateful, we lose a ton of benefits, including: This year was filled with uncertainty, anxiety, and a ton…

Read More

Gratitude Has A Profound Impact On The Bottom Line of Business

By Ryan Bailey / November 20, 2021 /

The more I study gratitude, the more I am convinced that as Christian heads of companies, emphasizing gratitude to our teams will have a profound impact across our lives and even on the bottom line of the business. Look at this list of the general benefits of gratitude Stronger, healthier relationships Improved sleep quality and…

Read More

Who Am I?

By Ryan Bailey / November 15, 2021 /

How we define ourselves has a tremendous impact on our lives.  Our beliefs run our emotions, will, reason, and behaviors.  So if we have a negative belief about who we are, then we should expect that our emotions, will, reason, and behaviors will line up with that belief.  The same holds true if we have…

Read More

When You Don’t Want to Change But Know You Should

By Ryan Bailey / November 12, 2021 /

I am 52 years old and am over 300 pounds.  Though all my vitals are normal, there will come a day when hypertension, diabetes, or some other health issue will dominate my life.  More than that, God called me to be a steward of my body.  I don’t want my wife and kids to suffer…

Read More

Do You Love Him, Or Are You Using Him?

By Ryan Bailey / November 9, 2021 /

I’ve had a setback.  I fear that something I really wanted to see happen may not happen.  How many times in my career have I dreamed about something, developed plans around it, got my team on board with it, spent money on it, and then it came up short?  I fear that this will be…

Read More

A 7 Step Template for Chewing on the Gospel in Under 15 Minutes – Part 2

By Ryan Bailey / October 28, 2021 /

Below is an example of how I filled out my Gospel Break template earlier this week: Gospel Break:  What is the Gospel?   Father, your Gospel says that you had compassion on us sinners.  Despite our infidelity towards you, You were faithful to us.  We were dead in our sins.  We despised you, we replaced you,…

Read More

A 7-Step Template for Chewing on the Gospel in Under 15 Minutes – Part 1

By Ryan Bailey / October 27, 2021 /

As believers, our goal is to love God with all we have and are and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  We discussed in a previous blog how that comes only when we see how much God loved us first.  Unfortunately, we often only know intellectually that God loves us; we may struggle to truly…

Read More

7 Questions for Moving Truth From Head to Heart

By Ryan Bailey / October 26, 2021 /

How do you come to really believe that God loves you with all He has and is?  You believe it intellectually.  You’ve seen it in the Gospel.  But how do you get to a point of functionally believing something as big as that?  How could the God of the Universe possibly love you, specifically?  How…

Read More

The Gospel Is Our Path to Love

By Ryan Bailey / October 25, 2021 /

Love transforms us.  When we know something we’re doing bothers someone we really love, we stop doing it.  When we know that something brings someone we really love joy, we give it to them.   Our lives are not what they could be because we are not functionally convinced that God loves us with all He…

Read More