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David Mathis

David Mathis is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at Cities Church. He is a husband, father of four, and author of Workers for Your Joy: The Call of Christ on Christian Leaders (2022).

What’s It Like to Be a Christian? Faith, Obedience, and Living as Strangers

What’s It Like to Be a Christian?

Faith, Obedience, and Living as Strangers

What is Christian faith? Hebrews 11 not only answers the question but tells us what faith feels like, and how it leads to obedience, and living as exiles in this world.

The Use and Abuse of Scripture: How Christian Preachers Wield the Word

The Use and Abuse of Scripture

How Christian Preachers Wield the Word

Christ calls his preachers to “use Scripture.” It is the pastor’s tool belt, his staff, his weapon, his wand, his scalpel for the most delicate and exacting of surgeries.

His Majesty Lifts the Lowly: The Attractive Force of God’s Mercy

His Majesty Lifts the Lowly

The Attractive Force of God’s Mercy

Our God is majestic, both in his greatness and might, and his grace and mercy. In silence we wonder, What is man that you would care for us? Who are we that your Son would die for us?

Attack at Dawn: The Spiritual War Against Ordinary Devotions

Attack at Dawn

The Spiritual War Against Ordinary Devotions

Satan knows the devastating power of our early morning devotions. He will do whatever he can to disrupt them. But we need not be ignorant of his schemes.

Habits of Grit: Athletics, Grace, and the Christian Work Ethic

Habits of Grit

Athletics, Grace, and the Christian Work Ethic

The Christian work life is founded squarely on Christ’s finished work and aimed at his eternal glory.

Greet with a Holy Kiss? Applying an Uncomfortable Command

Greet with a Holy Kiss?

Applying an Uncomfortable Command

The call to “greet one another with a holy kiss” may strike us as odd and outdated. But what lessons might God have for us in this uncomfortable command?

The God We Can Kiss

The God We Can Kiss

Biblical kissing may seem foreign and uncomfortable today. But press through the discomfort, and the kiss is a stunning window into the glory of Christ.

The Leader You Long to Follow

The Leader You Long to Follow

From principals to presidents, leadership failures fill the news. We long for someone in power to lead with wisdom and fairness. Praise God, the ideal king has come.

Fasting, Feasting, and Our Daily Bread: Following the Diet of Jesus

Fasting, Feasting, and Our Daily Bread

Following the Diet of Jesus

God made us to fast, and to feast. But on most days, he made us to enjoy a modest portion of daily bread, received with thanksgiving and self-control.

Uncomfortably Affectionate: Toward a Theology of the Kiss

Uncomfortably Affectionate

Toward a Theology of the Kiss

It says something profound about our God that his people, in ancient Israel and the early church, are a kissing people.

Did Jesus Pursue His Own Glory? The God-Centeredness of the God-Man

Did Jesus Pursue His Own Glory?

The God-Centeredness of the God-Man

We might assume the God-centeredness of God would lead to the Christ-centeredness of Christ, but the Gospels present a more complex and wonderful picture.

Gentleness Made Him Great: Learning from the Strongest of Men

Gentleness Made Him Great

Learning from the Strongest of Men

The world has its own visions of manly strength. In Scripture, what sets godly strength apart is its added ability to be gentle.

What Does God Sound Like? Hearing the Voice of Majesty

What Does God Sound Like?

Hearing the Voice of Majesty

The people of God perceive his majesty not only with the eye, but by the ear — in the greatness, power, and surprising glory of his roaring, thunderous words and his still, small voice.

When Was I Born Again? How ‘Regeneration’ Blossoms in Reformed Theology

When Was I Born Again?

How ‘Regeneration’ Blossoms in Reformed Theology

You must be born again, says Jesus, to receive his saving grace, but how does ‘regeneration’ relate to predestination, justification, and the rest of salvation?

Train Them Up in Jesus: The One-Verse Vision for Dads

Train Them Up in Jesus

The One-Verse Vision for Dads

What does it mean to raise children in the “discipline and instruction” of the Lord? These two concepts represent indispensable facets of faithful Christian fatherhood.

Why We Sing About the Blood

Why We Sing About the Blood

Why do Christians sing about blood? Because of what happened at the cross, the otherwise morbid topic becomes one of glory, thanks, and praise.

Slow to Chide, Swift to Bless: Vision for Earthly Fathers

Slow to Chide, Swift to Bless

Vision for Earthly Fathers

As sinful as we are, our heavenly Father is “slow to chide, and swift to bless.” How much more should earthly fathers aspire to be the same with our children?

Do Outsiders Still Matter? An Overlooked Qualification for Pastors

Do Outsiders Still Matter?

An Overlooked Qualification for Pastors

For pastors to be “well thought of by outsiders” certainly isn’t everything, but it made God’s list of requirements. Is it still on ours?

The Forgotten Habit: Fellowship as a Means of God’s Grace

The Forgotten Habit

Fellowship as a Means of God’s Grace

Fellowship is an irreplaceable means of grace in the Christian life and offers us two priceless joys: receiving God’s grace through the helping words of others and giving his grace to others through our own.

God So Loved Himself: Overlooked Help from a Well-Known Friend

God So Loved Himself

Overlooked Help from a Well-Known Friend

God created the world to glorify himself. But does this truth diminish his love for his people in Christ? Consider Jonathan Edwards’s enduring answer.

Hamilton: An American Prodigal

Hamilton: An American Prodigal

Neither biographers nor Broadway can ignore Alexander Hamilton’s late-flowering Christian faith. He, like the prodigal son, finally came home after his journey into the far country.

Tree of Shame: The Horror and Honor of Good Friday

Tree of Shame

The Horror and Honor of Good Friday

Jesus endured the cross, Hebrews tells us, “for the joy that was set before him.” What joy did Jesus see on the other side of Good Friday’s shame?

Still on the Throne: The Glories of a Seated Christ

Still on the Throne

The Glories of a Seated Christ

Jesus rose and ascended, then his Father seated him on heaven’s throne. But what is he doing right now up there where he’s been sitting for centuries?

Thirty Days of Easter: Invitation to Enjoy the Risen Christ

Thirty Days of Easter

Invitation to Enjoy the Risen Christ

Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter — the best stories reward re-reading. And none matches the one we rehearse each spring as Easter approaches.

Press Afresh into Jesus: Four Truths About Genuine Faith

Press Afresh into Jesus

Four Truths About Genuine Faith

Genuine faith welcomes, enjoys, fears, strives after, and rests in God. And in doing so, genuine faith perseveres.

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