The Crosswalk Devotional: A Daily Devotional Christian Podcast

This devotional highlights the importance of intentional, Christ-centered community—not perfect people, but faithful ones who pursue Jesus together. Even when relationships feel messy or uncomfortable, God uses them to strengthen our faith, bring healing, and encourage us in ways we can’t experience on our own. If you’re in a season without a church community, this is an invitation to reflect, rebuild, and take one step toward the relationships God has prepared for you.
Highlights
Church community can be difficult to build, especially after past hurt, busy seasons, or constant life changes
Genuine Christian relationships require vulnerability, trust, and letting go of self-protection
Healing from church wounds is possible—and often leads to deeper, more meaningful community later
You don’t need perfect people—you need people who genuinely pursue Jesus, even imperfectly
Strong community isn’t found by accident; it’s built through intentional investment and consistency
Even Jesus modeled the importance of close, faith-centered relationships during His ministry
Community won’t replace God, but it strengthens and supports your faith in every season
Identifying what’s holding you back is the first step toward building the relationships God has for you
This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. If you are struggling with debt call Trinity today. Trinity's counselors have the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org
TrinityCredit – Call us at 1-800-793-8548. Whether we're helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments. https://trinitycredit.org
Full Transcript Below:
When You Don't Have a Church Community This Easter
By: Peyton Garland
Bible Reading:
“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (NLT)
In our first five years of marriage, my husband and I moved six times. Jobs and dreams pulled us all over the place, back and forth across the country. But while this wild newlywed season was beautiful, it left little time for us to invest in a church community.
Many believers are left without a church community this Easter, whether caused by time and location constraints, old church wounds, or a tried but failed attempt to find “their” people. Relationships can be complicated, awkward, and intimidating to navigate, especially for Christian adults who are encouraged to develop vulnerability and share their faults and fears with others.
Church community—the healthy kind—requires an unguarded trust in others, a release of self-preservation and appearances, but it’s in this uncomfortable place that our pride dies and our souls find the encouragement to continue in the faith when the days are dark and lonely.
Granted, I understand the skepticism of opening up to others in the church, especially as someone who once had a bitter taste in her mouth for any assembly that remotely resembled the unhealthy church I grew up in. However, on the other side of my church hurt, after lots of therapy and answered prayers as my husband and I settled into a church community to raise our sons, I can say, wholeheartedly, that you need a church community.
You don’t need “your” people. You need Jesus people who messily, openly, sacrificially love Him. In finding those believers—and in becoming one of them—you find a community you can lean on in all seasons, even when the spiritual high of holidays like Easter and Christmas fades.
My church has a saying, “You don’t stumble upon great Christian community; you create it.” So no matter how many fair-weather churchgoers come and go in this religious Easter season, no matter your past hurt or the present inconveniences that make community easy to avoid, I challenge you to invest your heart and faith in others.
Jesus’ earthly ministry was short, only three years, but even He recognized the need for godly friendships and fellowship with others, calling twelve men to quite literally travel and live with Him. If Jesus recognized the need for a Christian community, who are we to disregard His example in this resurrection season centered on life, love, and sacrifice for others?
Intersecting Faith & Life:

When my husband and I met, we were both Christians, but both of us had been deeply, deeply wounded by the church. Legalism kept me tethered to weekly attendance, all out of fear, but my husband’s personal hurt had driven him completely away from church. When we met, and I mandated his church attendance if he wanted to continue dating me, he admitted it was the first time he had set foot in a church in roughly five years.
Today, we are life group leaders for seven young families in our church. It’s funny, and often ironic, how God not only heals us, but calls us to the places we thought we could never navigate again. God defies the impossible, even in our finite bodies, if we are willing and able to get uncomfortable and be molded for His purposes.
Meanwhile, though my husband and I have come a long way in establishing a church community for ourselves and our sons, we understand how hard it is to sustain these relationships. Jesus people are still people, and their flaws and your flaws combined won’t make for perfect friendships. Church community won’t save you. It won’t even sustain you, at least not on its own.
But when you dig your heels in deep and choose to love others because God dug His heels in deep to save and sustain you, despite all your wrongdoings, you find that His resurrection hope lasts far longer than the Easter season. You realize that His ability, through you, to be long-suffering towards sinners is what makes life worth living.
If you aren’t part of a church community, find some quiet time to take personal stock in why. Has your life season been overwhelmingly busy? Has the church hurt you? Did you try one or two different small groups or Bible studies that simply felt impersonal or off?
Recognize your why, but allow this newfound understanding to challenge you to step up, get uncomfortable, and relentlessly pursue the godly relationships God has in store for you.
I promise, you won’t regret it.
Further Reading:
How to Get Back into Church
Romans 12:4-5
Proverbs 27:17
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Struggling with anxiety, overthinking, or “what if” spirals? This special bonus episode from Faith Over Fear explores how to find peace through Scripture when your thoughts feel overwhelming and hard to control.
In this honest and deeply personal conversation, Jennifer Slattery and Carol McCracken unpack what’s really happening when anxiety takes over—and how God meets us in those moments. Through stories of health uncertainty, sleepless nights, and persistent fear, they reveal how biblical truth can interrupt anxious thought patterns and help us anchor our minds in God’s character.
Rather than trying to suppress anxiety, this episode offers a better path: renewing your mind through Scripture and learning to recognize the difference between fear-driven thoughts and God’s truth.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
Why anxious thoughts often feel true—even when they’re not
How “what if” thinking fuels anxiety and fear
What it means to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Why suppressing anxiety can actually make it worse
How to practice a simple “truth pause” when fear rises
Practical ways to retrain your mind using Scripture
To find more content from Faith Over Fear: Follow on your favorite podcasting app:
Spotify:
Apple
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Peyton Garland highlights how culture’s attraction to Easter reflects a deeper longing for hope, renewal, and life. While seasonal symbols like flowers and celebrations point to new beginnings, they ultimately fall short without the true source—Jesus. This devotion challenges believers to live out their faith authentically year-round, not just during holidays, so others can clearly see the hope of the gospel through their lives.
Highlights
Faith Is Not Seasonal: Following Christ isn’t limited to holidays like Easter—it’s a daily calling.
Culture Reflects a Deeper Longing: Easter traditions point to a universal desire for renewal and hope.
Authenticity Matters: People can recognize genuine faith lived out in everyday life.
Evangelism Is for Everyone: Sharing the gospel happens through how we live, not just what we say.
Hope Has a Source: True and lasting hope is found in Christ, not in temporary cultural symbols.
Intersecting Faith & Life
The world is searching for something real, and Easter often amplifies that search. When believers consistently live with joy, peace, and authenticity, others notice. Instead of waiting for the “right season,” we are called to embody the hope of Christ daily—allowing our lives to reflect the truth we believe.
This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. If you are struggling with debt call Trinity today. Trinity's counselors have the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org
TrinityCredit – Call us at 1-800-793-8548. Whether we're helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments. https://trinitycredit.org
Full Transcript Below:
Why It's Important to Recognize Culture's Draw to Easter
By: Peyton Garland
Bible Reading:
“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” - Luke 6:45 (ESV)
Believers were never called to be ostriches. We don’t get to stick our heads in the sand and wash our hands of the world’s problems. It’s hard to love nonbelievers if we are never around them. It’s hard to reach a world we’ve pushed away in the name of fear or a false sense of religious superiority.
We were also never called to be seasonal participants, waiting to share our faith when Easter or Christmas rolls around. Truth be told, friends, if no one knows anything of our faith outside the holiday obligations we push, what does that say of our hearts?
Scripture is clear that who we are, who we choose to be, will be evident by the life we live. We can preserve our comfort, keep our favorite sins close, and play the church game all day long, but the world is desperate for hope, and in this desperation, they will see straight through you.
This desperation for fulfillment is culture’s draw to Easter, even the secular aspects. The fresh flowers, baby chicks, and Easter eggs are marketable depictions of newness, life, and hope. They are images that beg people to wake up, look around, and rest in light.
But without the Light of the world, holiday simplicities can’t sustain us. Easter egg dye wears off, chocolate bunnies are consumed, and life moves on. Deep down, the world knows this. It groans because of it, creating a ravenous need for authenticity.
Don’t starve the world of the God who fills your soul with good things daily. You know the secret to eternal hope, to the Light that isn’t dimmed by circumstances or seasons, to the hope that makes death a gateway to eternal fresh air for our healed bones.
Evangelism isn’t reserved for religious seasons or church staff. It’s not limited to international missionaries or non-profit directors. It’s a mandate, an honor, bestowed on each of us as we love people in word and deed with the Love who saved our souls.
Interesting Faith & Life:
My husband and I celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary on a cruise, where we were paired with another young couple for dinner each evening. A few nights in, the husband looked at us and said, “I’m assuming you’re church people, right?”
He didn’t mean it disrespectfully, not in the slightest. He was genuinely curious and wanted to confirm his thoughts. My husband and I laughed and nodded our heads, knowing this was, in a simple form, a compliment to how we carried ourselves. We weren’t drilling them with theology or even trying any subtle evangelism. We were just living with the hearts God had curated in us.
This isn’t to brag on us. Trust me, apart from God’s grace, the two of us are a dynamic disaster, but we live what we believe as best we can. Our personalities simply can’t handle inauthenticity; most of that comes from all the deceit both of us experienced from our unhealthy church upbringings. But by believing in God as our source of goodness, freedom, and rest, we can live life with a sense of peace and joy. And apparently, nonbelievers see it. And they sense its importance.
After all, it’s created beings feeling that natural pull to their Creator, that soulful invitation from the Holy Spirit alone to come home to light and love.
Prayerfully consider the life you live, in and out of Christian holidays, and take personal inventory of whether others truly believe that you live what you claim, that Christ’s resurrection has given you joy to live life filled with boldness and peace, come what may.
Further Reading:
5 Thoughts on Being a Witness for Christ
2 Timothy 1:8
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Life and technology often make us feel like objects or devices rather than God’s created image-bearers. This devotional reminds us that we were made for connection, rest, worship, and creativity. By stepping away from screens and slowing down, we can rediscover our human purpose—to glorify God and enjoy His creation—living fully as His image-bearers.
Highlights
Created in God’s Image: We are designed for relationship, worship, and reflection—not as devices.

Technology vs. Humanity: Modern dependence on electronics can distract us from God and others.

The Beauty of Waiting: God’s timing is perfect; waiting cultivates richness and depth in our lives.

Disconnect to Reconnect: Time offline allows us to experience God’s creation, hear His voice, and enjoy meaningful relationships.

Living for Worship: Our purpose is to glorify God and delight in Him, giving Him attention that exceeds our screen time.

This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. If you are struggling with debt call Trinity today. Trinity's counselors have the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org
TrinityCredit – Call us at 1-800-793-8548. Whether we're helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments. https://trinitycredit.org
Full Transcript Below:
In God’s Image
By Cindi McMenamin
Bible Reading:
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).
Have you noticed the trend? We often refer to ourselves—and our daily activities—in electronic terms as if we were devices.
In our culture, as well as across the world, many people use Google as a verb and often feel more comfortable with their electronic devices than with one another. I can’t help but think it makes us feel more alone than ever—like objects rather than people, and digital code rather than designed creation.
Think about it. How often have you been encouraged to plug into a church and to unplug from your busyness? After a conference or webinar, do you find yourself saying you need to defrag from information overload? And when you’re high on adrenaline, you might consider yourself wired; when you’re burnt out, you might say you’ve run down the battery. When you and I need to rest, we say we must recharge.
And our interpersonal relationships are often mostly internet relationships. FaceTime used to mean what it sounds like, and it didn’t involve a phone, tablet, or laptop screen. Social used to mean talking or being with one another, not scrolling on a device.
You and I were made in the image of God, not in the likeness of a smartphone. Our sustainer is God Almighty, not Apple, Microsoft, Google, or even Amazon!
So how do we reclaim (or just remind ourselves of) our human status as God’s creation? How do we remember we were made in His image and for His glory? We can start by reassessing where our dependence lies.
The next time you are drained of power and need to recharge your body (or your phone), let your device run dry and keep it off for an hour or two. If you fall behind on what happened on social media or you miss a call, someone can leave a message, like back in the days when instant communication didn’t dictate our lives. (With your phone off, or in the other room, you’ll be surprised how much more time and space there is in your day for creativity, meaningful conversations, and thoughtful execution of what you deem your top priority).
God never told us in His Word to hurry up, produce more, or run down the battery. His words resonate at a different pace: “Be still and know that I am God,” (Psalm 46:10 ESV); and “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Yet our next-day or even “same-day delivery with Prime” has made us even more incapable of waiting on God who is not bound by time or delivery schedules. The words of the psalmists were not “Hurry up, God, I need an answer within the hour” but rather, “I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning” (Psalm 130:6 NIV). Good things, rich things, priceless things come to those who wait on God and His perfect timing.
Intersecting Faith & Life
Do you need to revisit some of the things humans, rather than devices, do so you can become a vintage believer who experiences the beauty of waiting on God?
One of my favorite humanizing activities is my daily walk around a small lake near my home. I can’t help but recognize and adore God when I’m outside among the beauty of His creation—away from technology, mobile devices, and anything with a screen or signal. It is then that I can tune into His signals—a gentle breeze, the way He parts the clouds and sends the sun’s rays to shine through, the song of a bird, the rustle of leaves, and the reminder that “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1 ESV). As you slow down and get outside and off your phone, you may rediscover the beauty of your Creator (not your Programmer) who calls you His masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10 NLT).
According to the Westminster Catechism, man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That means we were created—or dare I say wired—for worship. Being out in the beauty of His creation and worshipping Him reminds me of the Luke 19 account when Jesus triumphantly rode into Jerusalem on a young colt, and the Pharisees demanded He rebuke His followers for waving their palm branches and crying out praise to Him, their king. Jesus told the Pharisees that if the people remained silent, “the very stones would cry out.”
Our Lord must be praised. And we are the ones created in His image to do it.
Don’t leave your God-given calling and purpose to the rocks! Get off your device, notice God and the people all around you, and give Him, not your phone, the attention He deserves.
Lord, may zeal for Your Word, not the contents of my phone, consume me. Help my worship time to exceed my screen time, so I am reminded of the One for whom I was created.
Further Reading:
Psalm 139
For daily perspective on Whose you are and reasons to praise, see my book, The New Loneliness Devotional: 50 Days to a Closer Connection with God.
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God cares for those who feel rejected or excluded. Just as God gathered the exiled Israelites and restored their homes, He sees our wounds, our loneliness, and our social struggles. Even when we feel abandoned, God works to bring us belonging, comfort, and healing. In Christ, we are adopted into His eternal family, fully accepted and loved.
Highlights
God Sees Our Pain: He notices every wound, rejection, and injustice we face.

God Acts in His Timing: Healing, comfort, and restoration may come through people, circumstances, or His Spirit.

He Restores and Rebuilds: Like the Israelites returning from Babylon, God can restore what feels lost or broken.

Belonging in Christ: Through faith, we are adopted into God’s family, giving us eternal security and acceptance.

Hope Amid Rejection: Even in a world of brokenness, God leads us to people and places where we can experience care, support, and community.

This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. If you are struggling with debt call Trinity today. Trinity's counselors have the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org
TrinityCredit – Call us at 1-800-793-8548. Whether we're helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments. https://trinitycredit.org
Full Transcript Below:
God’s Heart for the Outcasts
By: Jennifer Slattery
Bible Reading:
The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. - Psalm 147:2
I suspect most anyone who survived elementary and middle school resonate with today’s verse. We’ve probably all found ourselves on the outside of some social circle wishing for a way in. When I was in fifth grade, I somehow finagled a tentative connection with the in crowd but soon got pushed out. This was also the year my inability to care for my naturally curly hair earned me the nickname “fro” and I became the brunt of jokes made by some of my male classmates.
Feeling humiliated and alone, I began spending my recesses inside.
Have you been there? Such experiences prick at our needs for acceptance and belonging. This is why these types of wounds can cut so deeply.
It hurts even more to fear we’ve been rejected by God Himself. This was likely how the ancient Israelites living during the Babylonian captivity felt. After centuries of rebellion, the Lord’s persistent pleas that they return to Him, His warnings finally became reality. God honored His people’s desire for autonomy, lifted His protective hand, and allowed their enemies to invade their land.
Although He assured them that His love remained—unconditionally and eternally (Jer. 31:3; Isa. 43:1-4), they felt abandoned and forsaken. Rejected by the One their souls needed most and forced to live as foreigners in a pagan land.
But God hadn’t forgotten them. Through it all, He remained their faithful and attentive defender and provider. He even blessed them in their new land and encouraged them to enjoy their new lives in Babylon. Then, when it came time for their prophesied year of release, He fulfilled His promise recorded in Deuteronomy 30:3-4, which reads: “Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.”
During the period of Ezra and Nehemiah, He brought those who wanted to return home and enabled them to rebuild their city and restore their Temple, the center of their worship and their social life. The place in which they experienced a profound sense of belonging.
Intersecting Life & Faith:
While most of us will never find ourselves physically exiled, we’ve likely felt that way socially—and will again. In those instances, may we draw comfort from today’s verse and what it reveals regarding our Father’s heart. He sees every wound or injustice we suffer, and the insecurity rejection often exacerbates.
But He doesn’t just “witness” our pain; He does something about it—in His perfect timing. Perhaps He’ll use an unexpected greeting card, phone call or text from a friend or family member to remind you of your inherent value, or will nudge someone in your faith community to sit with you in your sorrow so that you feel less alone. Maybe He’ll encourage you through a devotion you read online, podcast episode you listen to, a song on the radio, or a truth-packed sermon from your pastor. Or maybe He’ll make His presence tangible as He encases you in His love.
Regardless of how He addresses Your heartache, you can be sure of this: He excels at bringing His outcasts into environments that feel like home. If He can move a pagan Persian ruler named Cyrus to send his Jewish subjects back to Jerusalem—with abundant provisions and enable them to repair the city’s walls, the destroyed Temple, and homes, He can alleviate your pain and bring you figuratively home as well.
He restored what likely felt irreparable—because nothing is impossible for Him. More than that, in Christ, we always belong. Through faith, our Father felt pleased to adopt us as His beloved children and place us, irrevocably, in His global family, forever bound by the blood of His Son.
I understand this present reality doesn’t eradicate the pain we experience when others treat us poorly. But it does assure us that we’re never truly alone, nor are we destined for isolation. We’ll spend our eternity with Him and the rest of His followers, fully and forever accepted. As we wait for that glorious existence, we can trust Him to lead us to people who’ll accepted us as we are and help us heal from the wounds we experience in our sin-ravished, broken world.
Further Reading:
Ephesians 1:4-5
John 15:9-16
1 Peter 2:9-10
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