Jon Bloom Photo

Jon Bloom

Jon Bloom serves as teacher and cofounder of Desiring God. He is the author of four books, including Not by Sight and most recently True to His Word. He and his wife have five children and make their home in the Twin Cities.

When God Seems Silent

When God Seems Silent

All of God’s saints, if allowed to live long enough, are led into the lonely, disorienting, weary wilderness. God may seem silent, but he’s not.

The Cool God Is a Puny God

The Cool God Is a Puny God

Americans, and most Westerners, live in cultures governed by the god called “Cool.” Cool doesn’t have a temple we can see or visit, but his images and shrines are everywhere. Cool is a god that we actually invite to take…

The Unexpected Answers of God

The Unexpected Answers of God

As you wait for God to answer your prayers, learn to expect the unexpected. God wraps most of his greatest gifts in painful packages for our good.

Before the Children Are Gone

Before the Children Are Gone

Time is our most precious earthly asset because all other earthly assets are governed by it. We can’t really save time. We can only spend it. So we try to manage it. But that’s very hard. Never in history have…

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

July 4th is the day we commemorate the Continental Congress’s declaration of independence from the nation of Great Britain. People still debate over whether or not Britain’s offenses warranted colonial secession and war. Regardless, it was a bold, very risky…

How Can Self-Denial Be Hedonistic?

How Can Self-Denial Be Hedonistic?

The Christian life is a journey to the greatest joy that exists. But “the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14). Why is that? Because, paradoxically, as Jesus’s disciples learned in…

God Makes Our Misery the Servant of His Mercy

God Makes Our Misery the Servant of His Mercy

Naaman was Syria’s foremost general when Elisha served as God’s foremost prophet in Israel. After a Syrian raid on Israel, Naaman brought back his wife a gift: a Hebrew servant girl. When she saw that Naaman suffered from a serious…

Jesus Wants You to Be You

Jesus Wants You to Be You

God had you specifically in mind when he created you and called you to follow him. You are custom-designed for your calling. But when you face the difficulty of your calling, you may look at others and be tempted to…

This May Push You over the Edge

This May Push You over the Edge

Most of us read, see, or hear thousands of messages during the course of our lives. But only a few strike us with such force that we remember them distinctly. These messages uniquely shape us. They haunt us. We can’t…

The Treasure Makes All the Difference

The Treasure Makes All the Difference

One of Jesus’s most powerful parables is also one of his shortest: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all…

Let Darwin Teach You

Let Darwin Teach You

Charles Darwin loved his scientific studies. They were his “chief enjoyment and sole employment throughout life.” However, as the years passed, Darwin experienced a tragic atrophy. He described it near the end of his life in his autobiography: Up…

Why Was Judas Carrying the Moneybag?

Why Was Judas Carrying the Moneybag?

Jesus put a thief in charge of his moneybag. Has that ever struck you as odd? Last week we focused on Mary, who poured a year’s wages on Jesus’s feet, and Judas, who saw Mary’s worshipful act as huge…

When Wasting Your Life Is Worship

When Wasting Your Life Is Worship

We all are happiness hunters. We are all treasure seekers. And as Judas and Mary illustrate, there’s one sure way to measure what we treasure: what we’re willing to spend to obtain it. The dinner table was buzzing with happy…

Remember

Memorial Day, as Americans have come to know it, began in the years immediately following the Civil War. But until World War II, most people knew it as “Decoration Day.” It was a day to decorate with flowers and flags…

The End of Books

The End of Books

Why is reading so important to Christianity? How is the Internet changing the way we read? How can we become better readers? These questions, and other critical topics about literacy, were addressed by Desiring God’s own Tony Reinke in an…

Escaping the Slavery of Selfish Ambition

Escaping the Slavery of Selfish Ambition

Selfish ambition is a sin that always seems to be “crouching at the door” (Genesis 4:7). It contaminates our motives for doing just about anything. It shows up even in the most holy moments, like it did for Jesus’s disciples…

Ten Reasons to Memorize Big Chunks of the Bible

Ten Reasons to Memorize Big Chunks of the Bible

You can memorize big chunks, even books, of the Bible. And you should. Here are ten reasons to commit more than Bible verses to memory, and how to do it.

When Waiting Doesn’t Work

When Waiting Doesn’t Work

Fifty-one years ago this spring, thirty-four-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in a Birmingham jail cell, technically because he had been “parading without a permit.” But that was a sham. Everyone knew it. He was in jail because he had…

Don’t Idolize Your Leaders

Don’t Idolize Your Leaders

Barak was a hero of early Israel, serving during the pre-monarch period when Deborah judged the nation (Judges 4–5). His great military feat was the complete rout of the Canaanite general, Sisera, and his army. However, in the process he…

When It Seems Like God Did You Wrong

When It Seems Like God Did You Wrong

The story of Naomi in Ruth chapter one teaches us that how things look and how things feel are often not how they are. The last time Naomi had seen her hometown on the Judean hillside, the barley fields had…

It Is Finished

Good Friday

The triune God had the Jews, Pilate, and Satan where he wanted them. They had no authority over the Son at all that was not given to them from above.

When Fear Attacks

When Fear Attacks

Without exception, regardless of our situation, following Jesus requires all of us to repeatedly exercise courage, because God frequently calls us to face or do things we’re afraid of. In this, Joshua, the son of Nun, is an example for…

Why God Gives Us More Than We Can Handle

Why God Gives Us More Than We Can Handle

God does give us more than we can handle, and for good reason. When we face enemies too strong to handle, he’s teaching us to rely wholly on him.

The Folly of What Noah Preached

The Folly of What Noah Preached

Paul wrote, “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). In Noah, we have an Old Testament illustration of this.…

How to Get Your Mind Back on Track

How to Get Your Mind Back on Track

Our emotions and thoughts are less like engines and more like train cars: they follow wherever the engine of trust leads them.

New Resources
in Your Inbox

A digest from Desiring God