Have you noticed that you tend to look at life through whatever lenses you're wearing when you wake up in the morning? If you wake up discouraged, for the next few hours everything looks discouraging. If you wake up aggravated, everything gets on your nerves. If you wake up encouraged, life looks great.

I think this is why a lot of Psalms speak of what we do "in the morning." For example, "I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble" (Psalm 59:16). It's a choice to reset your mind on truth. When you do, the rest of the day takes on a different flavor.

Earlier this week, one of my big projects was turning a pastor's spoken sermon into a written article. One of the major themes of the sermon was God's trustworthiness in keeping His promises. The next morning, a friend emailed me an article abut the importance of contending for God's promises. Ten minutes after that email, a fellow editor handed me a newly printed issue of her September magazine. The title on the cover? "Promises." And the trend continued for the next couple of days in my daily devotional readings and "verse of the day" entries on iGoogle. God was hitting on something: Trust His Promises.

What do you do when a certain theme converges in your life like that? Some people chalk it up to "coincidence." Makes me wonder what God has to do to actually get through to them. It's true that some people go overboard and see every hint of a whisper as a bright neon message from God, but I find that more Christians are much too reluctant to recognize repeated themes in their life as God-messages. I believe God is almost always speaking—Jesus is "the Word," after all—and I suspect that many of His messages fall on deaf ears. For both the Messenger and the receiver, that's sad.

Notice the converging themes in your life, whether during long seasons or even for just a day. Don't let God's messages fall to the ground. If you suspect He's sending you a message, it's okay to ask Him to confirm it. He loves to speak, and He loves for us to listen.

Maybe you've noticed that this blog has been stagnant for a while. Or maybe you quit noticing because . . . well, because it has been stagnant for a while. Though a combination of other projects and staff limitations temporarily forced the blog to the back-burner, it's time to bring it back. So check this space for at-least-weekly-if-not-more-frequent posts. I'll try to do a better job of keeping it current this time.

One of the topics I want to cover with some frequency is the issue of trust. I've noticed in myself and quite a few other people that God really seems to be dealing with our trust issues right now, almost as though it's a theme He's especially emphasizing in these times. Deep down inside, most human beings have a sneaking suspicion that God is holding out on them — that though we know He is good, we don't trust that His good gifts will actually be the ones we want or the ones that meet our deepest needs. Have you noticed this tendency in your own heart? Keep an eye out for it — it's the same subtle deception that a serpent first uttered in a garden long ago. Know that no matter how things look, God is on your side. Always. Ask Him to show you that He is and see what He does. There is no problem, no situation, that you can't trust Him with completely.