Justin Poythress – Washington Presbyterian Church

Don’t Stock the Pantry with Temptation

We are used to preparing for almost everything. We prepare our clothes, our food, our vacations, and more. Paul is saying that whatever you do, do not prepare to sin. Instead, actively take steps to cut temptation out of your life. Deliberately arrange your life so that sinful desires are harder to satisfy. Avoid certain environments. Put a filter on your phone. Cancel that streaming service. Throw away those books. Cut out influences that tempt you toward sin.

Identity & Literature: Eeyore is Worse Than You Remember

Justin Poythress writes about some of the dangers of pride.

Pride tells you that you are worth a lot more than you’re getting. You’re amazing, brilliant, talented, kind, considerate, and self-sacrificing—it’s just no one ever sees. No one recognizes how exceptionally humble and valuable you really are. Poor you.

How do I help my children who are constantly arguing with each other?

Thanks to Cliff L for his help in rounding up links this week!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Embrace Your Life by Enjoying Quiddity

Come for the chance to learn a new word (quiddity!), stay for advice on enjoying life exactly where you are.

How do you become a deep person? You can hear it in the word itself—it’s the desire to mine, uncover, excavate. That doesn’t happen in 14 seconds. One method, then, is through reading great books, but it’s not the only way. Lewis presents a method available to any person at any point in his or her day—practicing attentiveness.

What Is Fasting?

Cassie Achermann has written a nice overview of fasting: what it is, where it shows up in Scripture, and why you might consider doing it.

I began fasting out of a sense of deep need for God. A Bible study I had worked through left me yearning for God to bring revival in my heart as well as in my church. I started small, skipping lunch once a week and instead spending that half hour praying. Not long after, I added a second day in the week. These weren’t aimless, wandering prayer times; I was asking the Lord urgently for help in two specific areas: first, for a breakthrough in an area of ongoing sin, and second, for spiritual revival in my church, where I’d been facing discouragement and difficulty for a while.

Righteousness

Our poem of the week: Righteousness, by Kate Bluett. This is a meditation on hungering and thirsting for righteousness, as Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called 3 Poor Reasons to Read the Bible. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!