The Igniting Hope Blog

Decide and He Will Provide By Steve Backlund One temptation we all face is the desire to have complete certainty in details before we move forward. We want to know how everything is going to work out. We want confirmation that the resources will be there. We want assurance we won't fail. Yet God often works differently than we expect. This is a word for many of you today: Decide, and He will provide. While wisdom tells us to pray, seek counsel, and count the cost, faith event

Lies Smart People Believe By Steve Backlund Breakthrough is rarely blocked by obvious rebellion. It’s usually limited by reasonable conclusions. The most dangerous lies don’t feel evil — they feel intelligent. They show up as thoughts like: “I’m just being realistic.” “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” “I don’t want to be disappointed again.” “That’s just how I am.” “I’m just being humble.” None of those sound rebellious. They sound mature. A logical lie is a conclusion that

Flipping the Script on What We Believe is Hard By Steve Backlund The belief that something is hard (or difficult) is almost always a bigger problem than what we believe is hard. Steve Backlund Hard means “difficult to bear or endure”. “Steve, this city is hard for the gospel.” This is what I was told in 2001 in the first week of my new pastorate. The person who told me this was sincere in expressing his experience, but I knew if I believed and renewed my mind with that bel

The Two Most Important Words? By Steve Backlund Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Igniting Hope. We are so thankful for you. Here is a special word for you to encourage you today. This message will replace our normal Monday blog email. “The weapons we fight with . . . have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor

Embracing “Failure” By Steve Backlund Let’s reject the lie that says, “If something is hard to do for us, then we can’t do it.” If we fall for this deception, we are determining our future from our past. This faulty thinking is something we cannot take with us in the higher plans and purposes God has for us. The opposite of this lie and life-restricting mindset is this: I embrace failure as part of the process of learning to walk in higher levels of living. As I think about

“Row Like Your Life Depends On It!” By Steve Backlund “Row like your life depends on it!” Our raft guide yelled these words to the six of us who were in a raft headed into treacherous river rapids. It felt like how God speaks to me when He is leading me into times of risk and spiritual adventure. God has wired us to love risk and adventure. (Teenage boys especially tend to create stress for their moms by what they do. Let’s just laugh at that!) If we always play it safe, we