Cole Phillips

09/04/2026

There’s a big difference between stumbling and surrendering. When you stumble, you say, "I fell." But when you surrender, you say, "Since I fell, I’m not going to try to get back up."

Satan’s most effective strategy after a failure is not just the fall. It’s the shame spiral that follows it. He will use one bad moment to build a whole story: that you’re a failure, that God is done with you, that everyone will reject you, and that you might as well keep going since the damage is already done.

None of that is true. Not one word of it.

Proverbs 24:16 says the righteous do fall sometimes, but then they get back up again. The distinguishing mark of a person walking in true freedom isn’t a perfect record. It’s the refusal to let shame add another mile between them and home.

Turn around quickly. Honestly confess what happened. Reconnect with the person who needs to know. Identify the access, trigger, or boundary that failed so that you can correct it specifically. Take the next right step. Receive grace fully because what Jesus did on the cross was not quite enough.

It was enough. It is still enough. Get back up and keep walking with Jesus.

Click on the link for a Freedom Plan you can download and work through to have a strategy for tackling temptation and living free.

09/04/2026

The harder you try not to think about something, the more your mind fixates on it.

That’s why lasting freedom takes more than just saying, “I’m going to stop.” You have to replace the old thoughts, habits, and responses with something better.

Replace temptation with truth.
Replace isolation with community.
Replace destructive habits with healthy disciplines.
Replace the old way of living with new life in the Spirit.

Don’t just get rid of the bad. Replace it with the better.

09/03/2026

Samaritan’s Purse looked at a proposed $300 million State Department macro grant and said, ‘We’ve already got a Provider.” Franklin Graham said the ministry depends on God and donors.

That’s either remarkable faith or the world’s least relatable budgeting meeting. Either way: much respect.

They are available to partner with the government in emergencies, but money comes with strings attached. Government can assist worthy work, but it should never become the church’s functional provider or voice. Independence preserves a ministry’s clarity and mission.

The U.S. government gave faith-based groups $2 billion in foreign aid. One organization declined to take their allotted money.

09/03/2026

Deception grows unchallenged when we are isolated, when shame deepens without interruption, and when the lies of the enemy echo without any other voice to contradict them. Disconnection has a predictable cycle: hiding leads to struggling alone, struggling alone leads to falling, falling leads to shame, and shame leads back to hiding.

God made us for community because He knew that the journey to freedom is not a solo effort. Hebrews 10:24–25 says that getting together with other believers is something we must deliberately think about and prioritize, especially as we face more pressures.

The walls we build to keep more pain from getting in will eventually keep our healing from getting in, too. Talking honestly with a trusted friend, a recovery group, a Biblical counselor, a pastor, or a sponsor is evidence that you understand how God usually works in our lives. He answers prayer by placing wise, grace-filled people around us.

You need to establish solid relationships with people before you experience a crisis. Build those relationships now, while the ground is stable, so that when the storm comes, the roots are already deep.

09/02/2026

“Free” shouldn’t come with hidden fees.

When Jesus offers freedom, there’s no activation fee, processing charge, or remaining balance for you to pay. At the cross, He paid the whole price for your sin.

You don’t have to earn His acceptance, add your good works to His grace, or finish what He started. Jesus doesn’t bait-and-switch the gift of salvation.

Your debt is paid. Sin’s claim is broken. In Christ, you are fully, totally, completely free.

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” —John 8:36

09/02/2026

You only have so much willpower. Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight through sheer determination alone already knows this. You can mean it with everything in you and still find yourself back where you started, because the problem was never a lack of effort. The problem was the source of the effort.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t just help you try harder. He changes your wanter. He shifts your desires from the inside out. Fruit doesn’t grow because the branch strains and pushes. Fruit grows because life is flowing through the branch from the vine. You can’t change your life through discipline alone. Your role is to stay connected to the One who brings change naturally as His life flows through you.

Walking by the Spirit is not a dramatic, one-time experience. It is thousands of small, daily surrenders. It is pausing before reacting. It is reading God's Word before absorbing the world’s noise. It is praying at the start of the day: "Holy Spirit, lead my thoughts, desires, and decisions." It is obeying the next prompt from God.

You don’t have to generate the power. You just have to stay connected to it.

09/01/2026

Any unthinkable act is due to some degree of mental illness. That doesn’t make the children’s lives less valuable.

While postpartum psychosis is a reality, it doesn’t excuse the unthinkable horror experienced by Cora, Dawson, and Callan.

A culture that devalues life in the womb shouldn’t be surprised when it struggles to defend vulnerable life outside it.

A pro-life society must show compassion for the victims first and accountability for the perpetrator.

My biggest concern about a lack of justice in this case is that it opens the door for others to follow Lindsay’s terrible example.

Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial have now gone through four days of deliberations without a verdict.

09/01/2026

One small nail was all the former owner needed to make the whole house unlivable.

The same thing can happen in our spiritual lives. We surrender most of ourselves to Jesus while holding back one hidden habit, one secret compromise, or one area we still want to control. But whatever we refuse to surrender can become a foothold for the enemy.

Jesus didn’t pay for just part of your life. He gave everything to redeem all of you.

Don’t leave the enemy a nail. Give Christ the whole house and the keys.

“Do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:27

09/01/2026

Removing something harmful from your life is a courageous and necessary step. But just getting rid of a bad habit or addiction isn’t the goal. An empty space doesn’t stay empty. Jesus made this clear in Matthew 12:43-45, where He described a house that had been swept clean but left unoccupied. The old spirit came back, and the final condition was worse than the first.

That’s why the goal isn’t just to stop. The goal is to replace it with something new and better. The answer to destructive anger is not the absence of emotion. It is the cultivation of patience and self-control. The answer to loneliness-driven habits isn’t isolation with more willpower. It’s an honest, grace-filled community. The answer to addiction isn’t a life of white-knuckling through empty hours. It’s a Spirit-filled life with new desires, new rhythms, and new relationships filling the space where the old master once lived.

God doesn’t leave you with a void. He fills the surrendered place. He replaces what is released. Every part of your life that you hand over to Him becomes a space where new fruit can grow.

08/31/2026

It’s not enough to remove what is destroying you. You must replace it with something that is life-giving.

Jesus warned that a life can be swept clean and put in order and still be empty. And empty spaces have a way of inviting the old occupants to move back in.

Lasting freedom isn’t just giving up an old habit. It’s giving Jesus full ownership of the space it once occupied, then filling that space with His presence, His Word, healthy relationships, and new rhythms.

Don’t just clean the house. Give Jesus the keys.

“He who the Son sets free is free indeed.” John 8:36