Every day, we spent at least 15 minutes during our hour with God directed to sit in complete silence, and we were prompted to focus on a singular phrase. Through the 40 days, that was over 10 hours of meditation. Early in the process, I started compiling the individual phrases into a singular prayer, not knowing if it would make sense or flow together. I love what it produced, and I wanted to share it with you all. I hope it blesses you. I'm thankful to have this prayer with me year-round, even though the 40 Day Crucible has finished. The Crucible Prayer Jesus, I believe that with you, the best is yet to come. In all things, I take you at your word to me; so I will rise and go as you tell me, because I want to get well. I trust and declare that You alone are enough. I hear you telling me who you are, and I will not be afraid. There was a time that I was blind, but now and only through you, I can see. I hear you calling me out of my sin and death by name, because you love me. I'm in awe that you created me in your own image, and with your own hands you formed me; and unlike anything else in your creation your breathed your own breath of life into me. I am overwhelmed that you are mindful of me. You hold all things together when I seek You and heed your Wisdom. You are very great, O Lord. Through your sacrifice, the old man is dead and you have made me a new creation. Jesus, crush the lies of the Enemy that will come against me to try to separate me from You. You became the curse of my sin and nailed the curse to your cross; yet sin is crouching still, but You will deliver me. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Your rainbow is your promise, and I trust in You. Above anything the world has to offer, God, I turn to you. I trust in You and what You tell me. I choose to live by faith and love as your image bearer, and not for my own power, control, or glory. I am thankful that You draw near to me. Jesus, cover me with your blood. I will stand still and see all that You are doing in my life.

One thing I want to say up front. While I helped bring Forge Tribe together, this is the first time I’m actually walking through this content in real time. I’m not ahead of it. I’m being exposed to it the same way you are. The story of Cyrus stood out in a way I didn’t expect. Cyrus was a Persian king, not part of Israel, yet God names him in Scripture and uses him to restore Jerusalem and send the Jewish people back from exile. That’s not random. It shows a level of continuity and intentionality in the Bible that’s hard to ignore. God isn’t just working inside one group of people. He is orchestrating history itself, using whoever He chooses to move His story forward. That shifted how I see things. It makes me think about how often God is working through people and situations that don’t look obviously spiritual, but are still part of something much bigger than we can see. As the week moved into the life of Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount, what stuck with me was how direct He is about the heart. Not just behavior, but what’s underneath it. It made it clear that this isn’t about meeting a standard. It’s about something deeper that none of us can fix on our own. That tension between wanting to live rightly and recognizing that I can’t produce righteousness on my own kept coming up for me. But Day 35 was what brought everything into focus. I was sitting there holding my third son, a newborn, while reading it, and that changed how I saw it. Most of the language around the table, the bread, the cup, the covenant feels heavy and layered. It’s easy to understand it intellectually but still feel a distance from it. What connected for me was something simple. My son can only receive. He doesn’t contribute anything. He depends completely on what’s given to him. And it made me realize how difficult that posture is for me. Most of my life has been built around figuring things out, carrying responsibility, and making things happen. That instinct has served me, but it also shapes how I approach God.

Thank God for blessing my family with my new nephew! I'm proud of you brother @Joe Dunphy

Team, within these 40 days I had an issue with my knee degenerate rapidly. A small meniscus tear went from bad to worse; requiring surgery. I am now out of surgery and healing. However, it is a very challenging time for it to happen for two reasons. I was moved up to a new and important position at work, but I had to get surgery within my first five days of moving up. It was very awkward to have to ask for immediate time off. The other reason this is challenging is work is where I am weakest at faith. It is where I seek validation as a man. It is a very slippery slope into sin for me. I had started to address the issue in my heart and put things that were coming to light in the Crucible into practice on the battlefield. Now I’m sidelined. I’m feeling down for not working and also not working on good practices from the crucible in the field. So I ask for prayer for healing because it does need to heal correctly. I can mess it up if I try to do too much. But more importantly, to let go of my desire to work and earn healing (physically and spiritually). I still think I have something to do. Something to put into practice. Disciplines to cement into my life. But right now, I definitely can’t do much! So I ask for prayer to accept these challenges and to be changed by God outside of my own work (which my work is very little at this point). I would like to thank you for any prayer ahead of time and appreciate what is happening for all of us right now. Have a great day and God bless.

New podcast is live: Control, Surrender, and What We Actually Trust This episode came directly from the questions you guys posted in the community during the first half of the Crucible. A lot of what surfaced wasn’t just about discipline, silence, surrender, or hearing God. Underneath all of it was a deeper tension: What are we actually trusting in? God… or our ability to control, perform, and hold everything together ourselves? In this conversation, John, Pete, and Joe work through the real questions you asked, including: - How do I know if I’ve actually surrendered something to God? - How do I hear God in silence without just listening to myself? - What’s the difference between discipline and dependence on God? - How do I live this out with real responsibilities like work, family, and pressure? - What actually lasts after the 40 days are over? This was not a polished Q&A. It was an honest conversation around the things many of us are wrestling with in real time. If you’ve been walking through the Crucible, this episode should help put language to what’s been happening beneath the surface. If you’ve been following from a distance, it will give you a real window into the kinds of questions and transformation this journey is stirring up. Give it a listen, subscribe, and let us know how we can do it better next time.