Trust That Grows Slowly | Your Nightly Prayer

Published Jan 29, 2026

Sometimes life slows down without warning—plans change, timelines stretch, and we find ourselves stuck in circumstances we can’t control. In this episode, Dr. James Spencer reflects on how “winter seasons” expose our limitations and invite us into a deeper kind of trust. Drawing from a long, weather-delayed drive that became unexpectedly peaceful, we’re reminded that slowdowns can create space to be present, to listen, and to rest in God’s care. Trust doesn’t always arrive in dramatic breakthroughs. Often it grows quietly—through steady prayer, patient obedience, and daily dependence on the God who sees the whole road ahead.


James SpencerJames Spencer, PhD, is a biblical scholar and author whose work concerns Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He earned his PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and an MA in Biblical Exegesis from Wheaton College. He serves as president of the D. L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology, and as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College's MA in Leadership program. James has published multiple works, including Serpents and Doves: Christians, Politics, and the Art of Bearing Witness, Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ, and Useful to God: Eight Lessons from the Life of D. L. Moody. His forthcoming book, Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press, 2026), offers a theological account of information and formation in a digital age. His work challenges Christians to remember that God sets the agenda for his people. James is an elder at Skyline Church in O'Fallon, Illinois, where he lives with his wife, Kim, and their four children. Listen to the Thinking Christian podcast and read more of his work at thinkingchristian.org/james.

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