by Matthew West | Mar 31, 2026 | Featured, Life Advice, LO Library, Prayer, Wisdom
A few years ago I planned a special trip to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter Lulu before her high school graduation. We hopped on a flight across the country, rented a car, and drove four hours into Northern California to a campsite in the mountains for a weeklong father-daughter retreat. It was beautiful. Dozens of other dads had made the journey with their daughters. Of course, I didn’t realize that God had plans not just to strengthen my relationship with my daughter but to draw me closer to Him as well.
There were things I didn’t research very well about this camp experience. So, I was surprised to find we were completely disconnected from technology. The accommodations were much different from what I had anticipated. I’d assumed that since this was a father-daughter camp, Lulu and I would be sharing a comfortable cabin. I was mistaken. Instead, we were split up, and I found myself sleeping on a bunk bed in a cabin with nine other dads. Offstage I tend to be a somewhat private person, so spending a week bunking with strangers was not exactly my idea of relaxing. By the end of the week, though, I had created some incredible new friendships. I stayed up with the other dads late into the night, laughing like we were at a junior-high church camp all over again.
The week was filled with tough obstacle courses, rope climbing in the redwood trees, cookouts, swims in the lake, s’mores, and some powerful worship time. It was an outdoorsman’s paradise filled with the types of activities that pushed this city-raised Chicago boy out of his comfort zone.
Here is what I was told to say:
- You should listen only for the sound of my voice.
apart from others—awards, straight A’s, championships, applause. But while the world tells us to build our identities, God invites us to receive our identities. That’s where prayer becomes so key. When we come to God in prayer, we’re not performing. We’re not hustling. We’re not earning a title. We’re coming home. We’re remembering who we are and whose we are.
A friend of mine tells a story that illustrates why we struggle with identity. He was trying to give away a nice couch at his yard sale, so he put a sign on it that read “Free to a good home.” Dozens of people walked by this really nice couch and shook their heads. Some even asked him suspiciously what was wrong with it. Finally, frustrated, he changed the sign to read “$50.” The very next person who walked into his sale bought it without hesitation. People are suspicious of free things. But isn’t that how we treat God’s grace and His identity for us? We feel like we have to hustle, impress, and separate ourselves from others to earn what God has already given us. But our truest self—our identity—isn’t something we earn. It’s a gift. Paid for by Jesus and offered freely.
Your identity in Him is unshakable and unchanging. The Bible tells you that you are not your title, you are not your worst or best moment, you are especially not your most viewed Instagram reel. It says that you and I are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Peter 2:9). And the verse ends saying we were called from darkness into light so we can declare God’s praises. That’s identity with a purpose. So the next time the world tries to rename you, the next time your failures or your fears start talking louder than God’s promises, I challenge you to pray, “Lord, remind me who I really am.” Staying close to your Creator is the only way to fully embrace your true identity as a child of the one true King!
Before we set out on this journey together, we have to talk about some common obstacles we all face in prayer. The Bible tells us to “pray continually” (1 Thess. 5:17). But why does it seem so easy for us to let virtually anything and everything get in the way of our prayer life? I often go to bed with a million thoughts running through my mind from the day. The long list of stuff I didn’t have time to get done. The difficult business meeting that didn’t go the way I had hoped. Maybe a dude who cut me off in traffic or an awkward conversation with a friend. The worries about tomorrow. And I wake up with my head spinning with a million more thoughts about the day ahead of me—the long checklists of work to be done, family to attend to, bills to pay, meetings to attend… everything but prayer. To be honest with you, sometimes I think it is easier for me to sit down and write a chapter of a book or a new song about prayer rather than actually spend time talking to Jesus. It is frustrating how easily I can let my work, my busyness, my will, my worries, and my shame get in the way of spending time with my heavenly Father. As I have talked to people—both pastors and regular folks like you and me—I’ve found that we all have similar roadblocks that keep us from our time with God. Before we go any further, we need to remember the truths that can help us clear the path and refocus on the kind of prayer connection that can bring us closer to Him.
I’m guessing there are people reading this book who shook their heads as we talked about “prayer blocks.” I know some people have bigger worries than just busyness or the minutia of everyday life. People who are really hurting right now from prayers that have gone unanswered. I think it would be helpful to explain how those three questions I learned at that camp with Lulu came crashing into my life again recently and made me look more closely at my prayer life. I’d like to tell you the behind-the-scenes story that led me to pick up my old Gibson guitar in the Story House studio and start writing the song “Don’t Stop Praying.” I think it is important to address the season of helplessness and desperation that led me to write this book about prayer.
I’ve been on the road doing music and ministry long enough to learn that everyone has something or someone that they’ve been praying about for a long time. Almost everybody has faced a faith-testing situation that leaves them searching for hope and yearning for answers, wondering how to keep holding on when the outcomes remain unseen. No matter how long the wait or how difficult the journey is, can we continue to pray? If so, how?
Taken from Don’t Stop Praying: The God Who Hears is Just a Breath Away. Copyright © 2026 by Matthew West. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, www.thomasnelson.com.
by Matthew West | Mar 20, 2024 | Identity, LO Library
I recently took my family on a vacation to New York City. When I think of the term vacation, I picture white sand beaches, sunshine, a book, and falling asleep in a beach chair while listening to the tide roll in and out. But when you’re a girl dad, you learn that the word vacation is often interchangeable with the word shopping. And when it comes to shopping, New York City is the place to be.
We had a blast shopping our way through the Big Apple. But one evening we found ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a very crowded Times Square. We were quickly engulfed by a crowd of protesters, street entertainers, tourists, people selling watches and purses, and a host of interesting characters. The intensity of the scene made my protective instincts kick in. “Stay close,” I said as I took my daughters by their hands and led them through the intimidating crowd. People were shouting slogans and selling their wares, and we were overwhelmed by the chaos around us. It would have been so easy for us to get separated, and I was not about to let go of my girls in the middle of that madness. As long as they stayed close to me, they could block out all the yelling, stay safe, and keep heading in the right direction.
That moment in the crowds of that big city sometimes feels like a metaphor for my spiritual life. It seems as if we are constantly being pulled in different directions by the shouts of our broken world and by our own sinful nature attempting to lead us astray. And when we lose touch with our heavenly Father, we can lose sight of who we are and be fooled into adopting an identity that the world wants to assign us, one far from the true identity given to us by a loving Creator:
Your challenges in school can make you feel like your name is Stupid.
A dysfunctional family situation can make you feel like your name is Unwanted.
The mistakes you’ve made can make you believe your name is Failure.
A spouse walks out, and you are left believing your name is Worthless.
I heard a preacher say once that we spend too much time playing “dress up” and putting on identities of the world rather than leaning into who God made us to be. It reminds me of a Henri Nouwen quote I came across: “Spiritual identity means we are not what we do or what people say about us. And we are not what we have. We are the beloved daughters and sons of God.”
My role as a dad has helped me better understand the importance of staying close to my heavenly Father for direction, for assurance, for identity.
Like all those people shouting in Times Square, if we follow the leads and the voices of other people instead of God’s, we soon lose the true story of who we are in Him. Satan knows that if he can get you and me to believe a lie about who we are, we’ll never be able to step fully and freely into the plan that God has for us.
The Bible tells us the truth of our God-given identity: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). A relationship with Christ also means your identity is found in Him no matter where you have been or what you have done. The God of the universe is only interested in the identity that He has given you.
We are God’s handiwork, His craftsmanship. The psalmist reminds us that we were known by our Creator while we were still in the womb (Psalm 139:13). We are known by God! He knows us better than we know our- selves. It makes sense for us to look to Him when searching for our identity and place in this world. Just like my daughters needed to stay close to me in the middle of that noisy, wild New York City crowd, we must always stay close to our heavenly Father. If we focus on walking hand in hand with Him and hear His voice over the messages of this world, we will hear Him calling us by our true name—the only name that matters.
Remember that the journey to discover your true identity begins by staying close to your heavenly Father. Today, remind yourself that you are who God says you are, and you are living a story that gives Him all the glory.
CONNECT TO HIS STORY Read the following passage and consider how it applies to your life:
EPHESIANS 1:3–10 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to his good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”
Think about the words Paul uses in this passage to describe our relationship with Christ.
What is your identity as a believer according to this passage?
What are the riches of God’s grace in your life? How can you share that with others?
CRAFT YOUR STORY
Spend a few moments today writing about your identity. How do you define yourself? How would you describe yourself to others? Now write about how God sees you. What is your identity in Him? Think about how you need to adjust your view of your identity to coincide with your true identity in Christ.
SHARE YOUR STORY
Reach out to someone you know and encourage them that they are a son or daughter of God—that they can find their identity not in the things the world says but in Christ. Everyone is facing a battle for their identity, and today God could use you to be a much-needed reminder for someone else that they are a beloved child of God.
LIVE YOUR STORY
Spend some time researching what the Bible says about your identity in Christ. Pick out two or three verses to memorize and keep close to your heart in times when you are tempted to let the world define you.
by Matthew West | Sep 12, 2022 | Life Advice
The very idea of “normal” is interesting anyway because all our times have been uncertain since the very first moments after God came looking for Adam and Eve and they ran away to hide from Him. That choice made from guilt and shame and their exodus from the safety of the garden pushed them from a life of intimacy with God into a world filled with uncertainty. I’m not really a history buff, but if you do a quick Google search of the twentieth century, you’ll read about a worldwide pandemic in 1918, complete with black-and-white photos of people wearing masks at Yankees games in New York. You’ll read about the World Wars and the Great Depression and the Holocaust and natural disasters and worse. We live in a broken, fallen world that has always been anything but normal. Isn’t it interesting to consider the truth that no matter what we face in the coming years, there will be people who have faced similar circumstances before? Times like these have always been “times like these.” It seems that uncertainty is about the only thing we can be certain about in the world.
Several years ago, I spent my summer in Colorado. Whenever the topic of the weather came up, the locals would tell me with a smile, “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait around a minute.” But as a traveling musician, I’ve learned that people say this in every region and every city of America! If you don’t like the weather in Florida, just wait a minute. If you don’t like the weather in Dallas, just give it a minute. There isn’t “normal” when it comes to weather. No matter where you live, it is in constant change. But that is the thing about this world that we live in, isn’t it? Everything can change in an instant. One minute I am at a sound check. The next minute a worldwide pandemic has shut down everything. The old Bob Dylan tune rings out a great truth about the reality of life—the times certainly are always changing. Our politicians change. Our circumstances change. Our moods, our relationships, our health, our financial status, our choices, our behavior, and other people’s opinions of us all change. But as I said before, I am looking upward to a different kind of “new normal.”
I’ve spent most of this wilderness season remembering the One I can really count on. Is there anything in this life or in this world that we can be certain of enough to stand on without fear of it shifting underneath our feet? We may be living in uncertain times in a fallen world that offers promises that it will never keep, but I don’t believe that is the true normal that God intended for us. With that thought planted in my mind and the world opening up again, I returned to our storage space as we began to load the bus with equipment to head out for stages across the country. The T-shirts and merchandise boxes came out once more. The mics went hot in front of live audiences again. But there was that first moment, before all the busyness of the business, that moved me deeply. When I opened that warehouse door after over a year, I noticed the replica blue couch sitting in the corner that I had been writing about and thinking about. I walked over and sat down on it in the shadows of that storage space and took a deep breath.
My moment there on the blue couch reminded me of my cab driver’s broken-English version of “The God Who Stays.” The song that pointed me back to the fundamentals of my faith. It made me realize that I am truly walking into a new kind of normal. I want the fundamentals of my faith to begin with the God who, during all this change, is unchanging. He keeps His promises; He is who He says He is; He always does what He says He will do. In a world that is in constant change, chaos, and turmoil, I want that solid Rock, Immanuel, the Word, His love, His joy to be my normal. I want to be living in the awareness of God’s faithfulness to me. Sitting on the blue couch in that musty storage space, I was reminded of another great tune from the hymn books of my youth that shaped my love for music—“On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand”—and I began to sing it. How I want that to be my new normal! I want to live my life standing on His promises.
Matthew West is a five-time GRAMMY® nominee, a multiple ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter/Artist of the Year winner and a 2018 Dove Award Songwriter of the Year (Artist) recipient. He has received an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, a K-LOVE Fan Award and named Billboard’s Hot Christian Songwriter of the Year. Apart from his successful career as a musician (which you can learn more about here), he is also an accomplished author, passionate father, and husband.
