Grow In Faith

4:24

What Is Prayer and How Do I Pray? "Devote Yourselves...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/10/06

We agonize over whether to take this job or that one, go this way or that way. But some of God's will isn't a mystery at all. In Part 14 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff points to one thing Scripture makes crystal clear: devote yourselves to prayer (Colossians 4:2). So what is prayer? Mike shares the story of D.L. Moody asking a room of schoolchildren that very question and getting a Westminster Confession answer from a young Scottish boy: prayer is the offering up of ...

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4:34

How to Grow Spiritually as a Christian: What Is...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/10/05

Babies are adorable. But if a baby never grows, it stops being cute and becomes tragic. In Part 13 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff turns to a question every believer should ask: are you growing, or are you just growing older? Mike explains that spiritual growth isn't optional. Romans 8 says God's goal for everyone who comes to him is to be conformed to the image of his Son. We won't become gods, but we are meant to become godly: Jesus-like, with the character and the ...

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4:27

What Is Agape Love? The Biblical Meaning of Love (1...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/10/01

When one word covers your commitment to your spouse and your love of deep dish pizza, it's been spread a little thin. In Part 12 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff recovers the richer, tougher meaning of biblical love and shows why it changes how we treat the people God puts around us. Mike walks through the Greek words behind the English "love": eros (romantic attraction), phileo (brotherly affection, the root of Philadelphia), and agape, the big one. Agape is selfless ...

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5:13

Why Do Christians Need Community? Why "Just Me and...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/30

Some advice is easy to understand and nearly impossible to follow. In Part 11 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff opens with a story from a jog through a British Columbia park, where the local bear-safety rule was "hump, lump, black, attack," and uses it to raise an uncomfortable question: what about the biblical advice we understand perfectly well but are unlikely to take? The advice in question today is this: you were made for family and community. American folklore cel...

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4:29

Your Phone Is Stealing Your Focus From God: 2 Old...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/29

We are not auto-focus cameras. In a world engineered to capture every ounce of your attention, how do you keep your focus on God? In Part 10 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff offers two old ideas that still work in a modern, distracted world. First, establish a daily time with God. Mike finds mornings best, and even a few minutes is enough, though he'd recommend more. Just stop and be with him: talk, sit in silence, read his Word, pray. Drawing on Matthew 6, where Jesus...

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5:06

Loving God With All Your Strength — How to Do Your...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/28

Is your work just work, or can it be worship? In Part 9 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff wraps up the Greatest Commandment with the most down-to-earth piece of all: loving God with all your strength. That means your energy, your abilities, your hands, your schedule, your effort. In other words, loving God in practical, tangible ways. Mike offers a simple way to think about it. Even though God created everything you have, there are things he doesn't receive unless you g...

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6:16

Loving God With All Your Mind — Why Your Faith Needs...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/24

Does studying your faith too deeply put your heart at risk? In Part 8 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff pushes back on a myth he's heard for years — "seminary, cemetery," the idea that thinking hard about God cools your love for him. He makes the case for exactly the opposite. Jesus explicitly commands us to love God with our mind, not just our heart, soul, and strength. Mike names something he sees as one of the most neglected corners of the church today: a subculture ...

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5:04

Why Nothing Satisfies You — Loving God With All Your...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/23

Money, success, romance, celebrities, your kid's team, your golf game — deep down, we're all worshiping something. In Part 7 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff explains why that restlessness in your soul isn't a problem to fix with more effort — it's evidence of what you were actually made for. Mike points out that our culture's obsession with celebrities and athletes is really an attempt to borrow meaning from something bigger than ourselves — and it never quite works, ...

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5:13

Worship Is Not Singing for 20 Minutes — It's Your...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/22

If worship is just the 20 minutes of singing before the sermon, we've shrunk something enormous down to something manageable — and worship was never meant to be manageable. In Part 6 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff resets what worship actually means, and why it's a whole-life response, not a Sunday-morning activity. Mike unpacks Romans 12, where Paul doesn't ask us to offer God our voices — he asks us to offer our bodies, our entire being, as a living sacrifice. Worsh...

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5:14

What Does It Mean to Love God With All Your Heart? |...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/21

Remember the first time you fell in love — how you thought about that person the moment you woke up, all day long, and as you fell asleep, without anyone telling you to? In Part 5 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff explains that this is exactly the kind of love Jesus is describing when he commands us to love God "with all our heart." Not procedural. Not dutiful. Passionate. Mike tackles a question a lot of people quietly wonder about: doesn't it seem a little needy for G...

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4:28

What Is My Purpose in Life? Jesus' One-Sentence...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/17

What's your purpose in life? Someone actually asked Jesus that question — and his answer fits in a single sentence. In Part 4 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff unpacks the Greatest Commandment and shows how it distills your entire God-given purpose into one line: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength... and love your neighbor as yourself." Mike breaks down two things easy to miss in this answer. F...

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5:15

The Narrow Road vs. The Broad Road — Are You on the...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/16

You're on a road right now — and it's taking you somewhere, whether you've thought about it or not. In Part 3 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff unpacks one of the most sobering lines in the Sermon on the Mount: "Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13–14). Mike walks through why this matters far more than it first sounds. Every decision, every habit, every ordinary Wednesday is quietly shaping the direction of your...

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5:50

It's Not About You — Finding Purpose When God Is the...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/15

What if the reason life feels exhausting isn't that you're not trying hard enough — it's that you were never meant to be the main character? In Part 2 of our "Made for Something" series, Pastor Mike Woodruff makes the case that the search for purpose starts with one uncomfortable but freeing truth: it's not about you. Our culture constantly tells us to find ourselves, express ourselves, be true to ourselves. Mike flips that script using an idea popularized by Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven ...

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5:11

What Was I Made For? Finding Your Purpose in...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/09/14

Have you ever stood in a moment so humbling you had to ask, "What on earth am I doing here?" Pastor Mike Woodruff kicks off a brand-new devotional series, Made for Something, with a story that's equal parts funny and painfully relatable: failing a board-breaking test at a father-son martial arts class — in front of a room full of parents, after an eight-year-old and a six-year-old both nailed it on the first try. That embarrassing moment leads to a much bigger question — one you've probably a...

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2:47

You Can't Cram Your Way to Spiritual Growth — Best Of...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/08/13

You can cram for a final exam. You cannot cram a harvest. In the final part of this "Best Of" devotional series on the Parable of the Sower, Pastor Mike Woodruff wraps up the week with a modern parable that reframes everything covered so far — the difference between the "law of the student" and the "law of the farmer." Drawing from Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Mike contrasts two very different ways of approaching growth. Students can procrastinate all semester, pull an...

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4:59

I Built a Worm Compost Bin & It Taught Me About My...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/08/12

What does a homemade worm compost bin have to do with your spiritual life? More than you'd think. In Part 3 of this "Best Of" devotional, Pastor Mike Woodruff tells a story from 25 years ago — building a caffeine-fueled compost pile with Starbucks coffee grounds and bait-shop worms — that ends up teaching a surprisingly deep lesson about the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. Mike starts by pointing out something easy to miss: Jesus' parables were always drawn from the world right in front o...

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5:37

What I Learned Standing in a First-Century Farm Field...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/08/11

Have you ever wondered what farming actually looked like in Jesus' day — and why it makes the Parable of the Sower hit so much harder? In Part 2 of this "Best Of" devotional, Pastor Mike Woodruff shares what he learned standing in a recreated first-century village in Nazareth, Israel, and how it changed the way he reads Matthew 13. Mike paints the picture: hillside terraces, a narrow hard-packed path, good soil, and an unattended patch right against the rock wall — all within a few feet of ea...

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5:02

Which Soil Are You? The Parable of the Sower | Best...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/08/10

Same seed. Different soil. Wildly different results. In Part 1 of this "Best Of" devotional, Pastor Mike Woodruff opens up one of Jesus' most well-known parables — the Parable of the Sower, also called the Parable of the Four Soils — from Matthew 13. Mike reads through the full parable: a farmer scatters seed, and it lands on a path, on rocky ground, among thorns, and finally on good soil — each with a completely different outcome. Jesus then explains to his disciples why he teaches in parabl...

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2:45

Jesus Isn't Just the Good Samaritan | Best Of...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/08/06

You've heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan a hundred times. But have you ever noticed you're actually the man left for dead in the story — and Jesus is the one who stops to save you? In the final part of this "Best Of" devotional, Pastor Mike Woodruff reveals the connection most people miss entirely: this parable isn't just about how to treat others. It's a picture of the gospel itself. Mike walks back through everything covered this week — how Jesus challenged the racism of his day, how ...

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2:57

What Jesus Really Asked in the Good Samaritan Parable...

Grow In Faith ·

2026/08/05

Jesus doesn't ask the question you'd expect. In Part 3 of this "Best Of" devotional, Pastor Mike Woodruff finishes walking through the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:34–37 — and shows how Jesus flips the entire conversation with one brilliant question. The Samaritan bandages the injured man's wounds, puts him on his own donkey, pays for his care at an inn, and promises to cover whatever else it costs. Then Jesus asks the expert in the law: "Which of these three do you think was a ne...

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