daily discipline

God Is Still Working

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Sometimes life gets so quiet that you start to wonder if God has forgotten about you. The prayers feel like they’re bouncing off the ceiling. The promise hasn’t shown up yet. And from where you’re standing, nothing seems to be moving.

But silence is not the same as stillness. And stillness is not the same as stopped.

God is still working.

John 5:17 gives us a glimpse into how God operates — Jesus said, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.”

Always. Not sometimes. Not when it’s convenient. Always.

The problem is we’ve conditioned ourselves to only trust what we can see. We want visible progress. We want timelines and updates and confirmation that something is actually happening. But faith doesn’t work that way. Faith says God is moving even when I can’t see it.

Think about a seed in the ground. You plant it, cover it with dirt, water it — and then nothing. From the outside, it looks like absolutely nothing is happening. But underground, in the dark, in the hidden place — life is forming. Roots are growing. Something is pushing toward the surface.

Your season of waiting is your season of underground growth.

God is doing something in you that has to happen before He can do something through you. The character. The patience. The faith that only gets built in the waiting room. None of that is wasted. All of it is preparation.

So don’t give up on the promise just because you can’t see the progress. The same God who spoke it is the same God who’s working it out right now.

He hasn’t forgotten. He hasn’t changed His mind. He hasn’t moved on.

God is still working. And what He starts — He always finishes.

-Terrence Burton

Gratitude is a Weapon

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Gratitude is not just a feeling. It’s a weapon.

When everything around you is falling apart, when the bills are piling up, when the relationships are strained, when the dream looks further away than ever — gratitude is what keeps your heart anchored to the goodness of God. It’s what shifts your focus from what you don’t have to what He’s already done.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Not for all circumstances. In all circumstances. There’s a difference. God is not asking you to be thankful for the pain. He’s asking you to find something to be thankful for in the middle of it.

That’s a posture. And it takes practice.

When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, they spent so much energy complaining about what they didn’t have that they missed the miracle of what God was already doing. Manna fell from the sky every morning. Water came from a rock. Their shoes didn’t wear out for forty years. God was showing up daily — and they were too focused on what was missing to notice.

Don’t make that same mistake.

Gratitude opens your eyes to what God is already doing in your life. It softens a bitter heart. It silences the spirit of complaining. And it creates an atmosphere where God loves to move.

You woke up this morning. That’s a gift. You have breath in your lungs. That’s a miracle. Someone in the world prayed for a tomorrow that you got for free.

Start there. Be grateful for that. And watch how gratitude begins to shift everything around you.

Praise is the gateway — and gratitude is the key.

-Terrence Burton

Fear Has No Authority Over You

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Fear is loud. It has a way of filling up every room, drowning out every promise, and making the impossible feel inevitable. And if you’re not careful, fear will make every decision for you.

But God never meant for you to live that way.

2 Timothy 1:7 is direct about it — “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Let that sink in. Fear did not come from God. Which means when fear shows up — you are not obligated to let it in.

Now I’m not talking about wisdom. Wisdom tells you to look both ways before you cross the street. I’m talking about that paralyzing fear that keeps you from stepping out in faith. The fear that tells you you’ll fail before you even try. The fear that has you playing it safe when God is calling you to step out.

That kind of fear is a spirit. And it doesn’t belong in your life.

Think about Peter walking on water. The moment he kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on top of the impossible. The moment he looked at the waves — at the size of the problem, at the logic of the situation — he started to sink.

Fear will always point you to the waves. Faith keeps your eyes on Jesus.

What is fear keeping you from right now? The business you won’t start. The conversation you won’t have. The step of faith you’ve been putting off for months — maybe years.

God has not given you a spirit of fear. He’s given you power. He’s given you love. He’s given you a sound mind.

It’s time to use them.

Step out of the boat.

-Terrence Burton

Prayer is Not Your Last Resort

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Prayer is not a last resort. It’s not what you turn to after you’ve tried everything else and run out of options. Prayer is the first move. It’s the foundation, not the fallback.

But somewhere along the way, a lot of us got it backwards.

We strategize first. We stress first. We call everybody we know first. And then when nothing is working and we’re exhausted and out of answers — we finally get on our knees.

What if we flipped that?

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Every situation. Not some situations. Not the big emergencies. Every. Single. One.

God wants to be involved in your daily life — not just your crises. He wants to hear from you about the meeting you’re nervous about, the conversation you’ve been avoiding, the decision you can’t seem to make. Nothing is too small to bring to Him. Nothing is too complicated either.

Here’s what prayer does that nothing else can do — it shifts the atmosphere. It moves things in the spiritual realm that your natural hands can’t touch. It invites God into situations that are completely beyond your ability to fix.

Elijah prayed and it stopped raining. He prayed again and the rain came back. Not because Elijah was extraordinary — but because he served an extraordinary God and he knew how to talk to Him.

You have that same access.

So before you send that email, say a prayer. Before you make that call, say a prayer. Before you walk into that room, say a prayer.

Prayer doesn’t just change your circumstances. It changes you. And sometimes that’s exactly what God was after all along.

-Terrence Burton

When God Says Wait

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Nobody likes waiting. We live in a world built for speed — fast food, same-day delivery, instant answers. So when God tells us to wait, it can feel like a punishment. Like somehow we did something wrong and now we’re stuck in a holding pattern with no ETA in sight.


But waiting on God is never wasted time.


Isaiah 40:31 says it best: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”


Read that again. Waiting on God doesn’t drain you — it renews you. That’s not how the world works, but that’s exactly how God works.


Here’s the thing about waiting seasons — they’re not empty. They’re loaded. God is doing something in you that can only happen in the stillness. He’s building character. He’s removing what doesn’t belong. He’s aligning people, places, and opportunities that you can’t yet see from where you’re standing.


Joseph waited in a pit. Then a prison. Years went by. And then one day — not a moment too soon, not a moment too late — God elevated him to a palace. The waiting wasn’t a detour. It was the preparation.


Your waiting season is your preparation season.


Don’t despise it. Don’t rush it. Don’t try to manufacture what only God can produce. The promotion, the breakthrough, the healing, the restoration — it’s coming. But it has to come in His timing, not yours. Because His timing is always perfect, even when it doesn’t feel that way.


So while you wait — worship. While you wait — stay faithful. While you wait — keep your eyes on Him instead of the clock.


The wait is almost over. And what God has on the other side of it will be worth every single moment.


-Terrence Burton