Become New with John Ortberg

How do you recognize pride when pride itself can keep you from seeing clearly? John Ortberg walks through Bernard of Clairvaux’s twelve stages of pride, exploring comparison, boastfulness, defensiveness, and our resistance to correction.

Drawing on Peter Jones’s Self-Help from the Middle Ages, John invites us to ask God for honest self-awareness. He closes with a simple practice: allow one harmless imperfection and notice the urge to protect your image.

Where do you recognize yourself in these stages?

1. Curiosity. This is looking at things around us with a restless diss...

Can pride actually be a good thing? John Ortberg explores the difference between healthy satisfaction and sinful pride, and how comparison can steal the joy of doing something good.

Looking at Galatians 6:3–5 and drawing from Grace Hamman’s Ask of Old Paths, John considers a humble way to enjoy our work, acknowledge our limitations, and ask for help. A toddler arranging plastic flowers offers a memorable picture of delight without competition.

From a small act of kindness for a tired store employee to praying for the people around us, this episode invites us to participate in G...

What matters most when life is put in perspective? John Ortberg begins with a conversation about life and death, then explores humility, honest self-awareness, and our dependence on God.

Drawing on Romans 12 and Grace Hamman’s Ask of Old Paths, John explains why humility includes recognizing our gifts as well as our weaknesses. He distinguishes self-consciousness, which worries about how others perceive us, from the calm curiosity of self-awareness.

Today’s practice: Notice a moment when you are trying to prove your worth. Ask God to help you understand your motives, acknowledge your gifts with grat...

Am I becoming successful, or becoming good? John Ortberg explores how pride and the desire to be important can interfere with the person God wants us to become.

Drawing on David Brooks’s The Road to Character and the story of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, John examines the “Big Me”: the tendency to put our accomplishments, reputation, and agenda at the center. He invites us to turn the mirror toward ourselves and notice when making an impression matters more than caring for people.

Today’s practice: Review your interactions with God. Where were you distracted, defensive, or seeki...

How does humility make us wiser? John Ortberg explores the subtle ways pride affects our faith, relationships, and ability to see ourselves clearly.

Drawing on Proverbs 11:2, Cornelius Plantinga, and C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, John distinguishes healthy satisfaction from excessive self-congratulation. He considers how insecurity can fuel self-promotion and how pride can sneak into even our attempts to become humble.

John closes with a familiar song, “Jesus Loves Me,” and an invitation to admit our limits, ask God for strength, and experience the freedom of being loved without having to prove ourselves.

To...

Is having a bad thought a sin? John Ortberg explores the difference between an unwanted thought, temptation, and the intention to do wrong.

Drawing on Cornelius Plantinga’s Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be and insights from Dallas Willard, John begins with shalom: the biblical vision of life flourishing as God intended. He explains why sin matters, how pride damages that flourishing, and why the thoughts that occur to us are different from the choices we make about them.

Through Romans 8:6, Colossians 3, Philippians 4:8, and Hebrews 12:4, John offers a practical question for spiritual growth: “What s...

Is pride running your life in ways you don’t recognize? John Ortberg explores pride as an alignment problem: the gap between what we know is good and the desires that pull us in another direction.

In this opening teaching focused on pride, John shares a story about his first car, a personal moment of defensiveness, and an unexpected lesson from a four-year-old singing a Rolling Stones song. Through 1 Peter 2:11 and the image of the Lord as our shepherd, he examines how approval, comfort, money, and reputation can take priority over our deepest values.

Today’s pr...

Why does telling yourself “Don’t do it” sometimes leave you stuck on the very thing you want to avoid? John Ortberg uses a golf analogy to explore the thoughts shaping our character and a simple way to invite God into everyday life.

In episode six of Become New’s series on sin, the seven deadly sins, and grace, John traces the framework’s history through Peter Jones’s Self-Help from the Middle Ages. He considers sin as distorted love, Dante’s compassionate confrontation with human weakness, and the ways modern technology can appeal to ancient desires.

John clos...

John Ortberg challenges the quiet belief that our everyday choices don’t matter and explores how good intentions can give way when we feel pressured, insecure, or afraid.

Drawing on Christian Miller’s The Character Gap and Langdon Gilkey’s Shantung Compound, John examines the difference between wanting to do good and developing a character that keeps choosing love under difficult circumstances. He shares the example of Eric Liddell, the Olympic runner depicted in Chariots of Fire, whose selfless service encouraged others during internment in China.

John closes with six daily questions about surrender, gratitude, forgiv...

Sin isn’t only about the wrong things we do. It’s also about the good we leave undone. John Ortberg explores the two kinds of sin, commission and omission, and the spiritual practices that help us address each.

Drawing from Proverbs, James, and the teachings of Jesus, John explains how to strengthen your “don’t” and “do” muscles. He also introduces a surprising spiritual discipline: chatting. An ordinary conversation can become an opportunity to encourage, connect, and offer the right word at the right time.

Who could use a word of encouragement from you today? Share y...

Why do we stretch the truth, even when we want to be honest? John Ortberg explores the insecurity, desire for approval, and self-protection that can drive our little lies, and how God helps us become truthful from the inside out.

In episode three of Become New’s series on sin, the seven deadly sins, and grace, John shares a funny story from a pastors’ conference where church attendance became a measure of importance. Through Psalm 51, Colossians 3, and Peter’s promise to remain faithful to Jesus, he examines the gap between our sincere intentions and our instinctive responses under...

Do you really want the truth about yourself, or would you rather have it sugarcoated? John Ortberg explores why honest self-examination matters for spiritual growth and how knowing we are loved gives us the courage to face what needs to change.

In episode two of Become New’s series on sin, the seven deadly sins, and grace, John draws on Dallas Willard, Peter Jones’s Self-Help from the Middle Ages, and a story about Wendell Berry as a demanding writing teacher. He considers Jesus’ hard words to his disciples and the ways we minimize attitudes and be...

Why do I keep doing what I don’t want to do? And beneath the problems with my job, finances, or circumstances, am I actually becoming a more loving person?

In the opening episode of Become New’s series exploring sin, the seven deadly sins, and grace, John Ortberg starts with a funny parallel-parking encounter and a surprisingly important question: “What’s your problem?” Through Romans 7, John explores the difference between individual acts of wrongdoing and the deeper patterns within us that willpower alone cannot overcome.

This teaching looks at spiritual growth, the limits of behavior m...

Why do AA meetings sometimes feel like the safest place to tell the truth? And what could the church learn from that kind of honesty, acceptance, and shared dependence on God?

In this episode, John Ortberg explores how the 12 Steps can help us approach spiritual growth, stubborn habits, and the struggles we keep trying to overcome alone. Whether you’re wrestling with anger, fear, control, greed, or the familiar gap between who you want to be and how you actually live, the invitation begins with honesty. You don’t have to pretend you’re doing better than you ar...

Can you have peace while the situation you’re facing is still unresolved? During one of the darkest periods of his life, John Ortberg found himself awake early in the morning, needing something solid to hold onto. A passage from Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart helped him consider what peace might mean when circumstances remain frightening.

John explores the exhausting work of trying to control outcomes that are no longer in our hands. Picture someone bowling: the ball has been released, yet their whole body keeps leaning and twisting as though they can still steer it...

What do you say to yourself when you make a mistake? For many of us, one wrong answer, awkward conversation, or disappointing performance can turn into a harsh verdict about who we are. John Ortberg offers a different response, borrowed from conductor Benjamin Zander: “How fascinating!”

Through stories about music, tutoring, Eugene Peterson, and the disciple Peter, John explores how a growth mindset helps us approach mistakes with curiosity and a willingness to learn. Instead of constantly asking, “How do I look?” we can begin asking, “What can I learn?” That shift changes how we respond to challenges...

Why does God sometimes make us wait for something we’ve asked him for again and again? Jesus tells us to keep praying, asking, seeking, and knocking. Yet the silence can be difficult to understand, especially when someone we love needs help.

John Ortberg explores that tension through Jesus’ encounter with a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15. She comes to him pleading for her daughter, and at first Jesus says nothing. Drawing on New Testament scholar Kenneth Bailey, John considers how this encounter may also expose what Jesus’ disciples think about the woman and whether they will recognize her ne...

Can you lead with authority and still be genuinely vulnerable? Many of us treat those qualities as opposites. If we want to be strong, we assume we need to protect ourselves from being hurt. But in this conversation with Alan George, John Ortberg offers another picture of leadership.

Drawing on Andy Crouch’s Strong and Weak, John explains that authority and vulnerability are two distinct qualities. Jesus held both. He acted with authority and willingly opened himself to pain for the sake of love. John and Alan explore the temptation to avoid that kind of openness, including th...

What can still grow in your life after you’ve been hurt? John Ortberg explores that question through a story author James Michener remembered from childhood: an aging apple tree, eight rusty nails, and an unexpected harvest.

Years later, after heart surgery and other painful health challenges, Michener returned to that image. He resolved to keep bearing fruit. John connects his story with the poetry of John Milton and the lives of Hank and Jan, a couple whose faithful care for one another became a powerful expression of love.

John does not try to explain aw...

What do you do when God seems absent from your story? 

Maybe you still pray, read Scripture, and show up, but the closeness you once felt is gone. Does that mean you’ve done something wrong? Has God left?

John Ortberg explores those questions through John of the Cross, the sixteenth-century spiritual writer associated with the phrase dark night of the soul. John explains that this phrase can mean something more specific than a difficult season: a time when the pleasure and reassurance someone once found in spiritual practices seem to fade. For som...

Everybody wants to make a difference. We spend billions developing leaders, and schools, businesses, and churches all talk about raising up the next generation of them. But when Jesus began the movement that would change countless lives, his invitation was just two words: “Follow me.”

In this episode, John Ortberg asks what it really means to be a follower of Jesus. He challenges the idea that followers are passive or weak. A follower of Jesus can be courageous, curious, persistent, and willing to learn through mistakes. Following means letting Jesus shape the way we think, see, love, and...

Is there a habit you keep trying to break, or one you wish you could finally build? You’re in good company. 

When John Ortberg asked the Become New community about their habits, more than a thousand people responded. They named struggles with worry, anger, procrastination, screen time, negative self-talk, and much more. Some felt too ashamed even to say what their hardest habit was.

Into that struggle, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” But then he invites us to take on his yoke. H...

What do you do with a part of yourself you wish you could change? 

Maybe you feel limited by your personality, your abilities, your age, or something your body can’t do. It’s easy to compare yourself with someone else and believe that if you just tried harder, you could finally become enough.

In this episode, John Ortberg invites us to practice radical acceptance of our limitations. Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, and Abraham each had reasons to think they weren’t the right person for what God was asking. Yet their limitations did not limit God. Jo...

What happens when someone really listens to you?

In this special bonus episode, John Ortberg sits down with Become New Creative Director Jackson Lane, who shares a story about a childhood stuffed animal, a remarkable ninth-grade teacher, and one small act of kindness he still remembers nearly 15 years later.

The story leads John to a beautiful idea about the way God loves us: there is a kind of love that looks for value, and another kind of love that creates value by treasuring what it loves.

Sometimes loving another person begins with something...

Today we're revisiting an episode from SHINE, our walk through the book of Philippians. And there's a reason we're bringing this one back: we've just launched a new Bible reading plan on the Bible App based on the SHINE series. So if today's teaching is helpful to you and you'd like to go deeper, you can now walk through the whole series one day at a time in the Bible App.

What if there were a law of the spiritual world as dependable as gravity?

In Philippians 2, Jesus doesn't grasp for power...

Thank you for being part of Become New, a global community growing spiritually in Christ, one day at a time.

With an impromptu message from John, filmed on his iPhone in the Grand Tetons, this video is a personal thank-you for being part of this community—and an invitation to help make this work possible.

Your generosity helps our small team create and share daily Bible teaching, prayer, study guides, YouVersion Bible plans, The Formation Podcast and Newsletter, and masterclasses—all freely available to help people put Christ in charge of their spir...