My Devotionals

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13)

So many AI conversations these days are pitting man v. machines. But that’s not quite accurate theologically. For the Christian, it’s not man v. machine, but God v. machine because we believe God is working through us (see Philippians 2:13).

While AI appears to be the supremely creative being on the planet today, it is not and never will be. Because only you and I have the Creator God dwelling in us—the One who made the human eye, the northern lights, and eight million species of animals.

That’s why we must resist the temptation to outsource our thinking to AI. Because when we do, we miss out on our most unique, creative, God-given ideas. And over time, we atrophy our intuition.

That, I fear, is one of the things most at risk of becoming extinct in our lifetime. Not gorillas, water, or oil, but God-given intuition which former Harvard professor Dr. Laura Huang defines as “comp...

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. (Proverbs 14:23)

There’s a scene I love in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have made diligent plans to break into the Ministry of Magic to steal an object that will help them save the wizarding world. Harry proposes they execute the plan. But Hermione says, “I don't know, Harry…There are an awful lot of things that could go wrong.” To which Harry replies, “That'll be true even if we spend another three months preparing…It's time to act.”

I’ve always been more of a Harry. But since the latest generation of AI tools entered my work, I’m tempted to be more of a Hermione. Why? Because AI offers an endless stream of feedback that, if I’m not careful, can lead me to trade my bias for action for a bias for overthinking.

For example, years ago I started feeding drafts of these devotionals to an AI chat app for feedback. But eventually I wasn’t asking one app for notes, but three. After missing...

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and how fathomless his ways! (Romans 11:33)

Charles Spurgeon once said, “There is no fool so great as a knowing fool.” In this age of AI, we are seeing a boon of knowledge applied foolishly and a dearth of wisdom applied biblically.

What’s the difference? I love how Billy Graham put it: “Wisdom is applying knowledge with discernment and good judgment; knowledge is fact-finding.” And the ultimate source of wisdom is God (see Proverbs 2:6). Which means that wisdom isn’t a cognitive capacity you can “scale up” with more data and processing power. It flows downward from God to human beings.

Non-believers discern some wisdom through God’s common grace (see Isaiah 28:24-29). Christians discern it through the power of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 2:14). But technology can’t discern a thing. It is incapable of making judgment calls because there is no soul behind the machine. “There is nothi...

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.” (Exodus 31:1-5)

We’re in a series laying down some biblical guardrails for working with AI. Here’s Guardrail #2: Don’t use AI to abdicate what God delegates. 

There are certain tasks within your work you sense God has uniquely wired you to do. Call it your “vocation,” “calling,” “zone of genius,” whatever. But you know it when you see it.

Bezalel was called “to engage in all kinds of crafts” in the construction of the Tabernacle. I know God has wired me to write and communicate complex truths simply and practically.

Ephesians 2:10 says “we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepa...

You shall have no other gods before me. (‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20‬:‭3‬)

I'm using AI every day to do my most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. But four years into the latest generation of these tools, I've seen enough peril in my own use of them to feel the need to articulate some biblical guardrails around how to use AI in God-honoring ways.

In this series, I’ll share five such guardrails that extend beyond the obvious black and white “don'ts” of AI (EX: feeding AI confidential information, using it to spread disinformation, etc.). These five guardrails will focus on the less obvious, far more common, and in many cases, far more dangerous ways AI can pull us away from God and others.

Before we get to the first guardrail, a very brief theology of technology is in order. Throughout Scripture, we see that God loves technology, which Bible teacher Tony Reinke defines as “the reordering of raw materials for human purposes,” which is exactly what God created us to do in ...