“How Can I be sure…” Is my need for assurance okay? I ask myself the above question often because I do not want my need to be assured that I am on the right track to be a lack of faith. I am afraid, however, that my attempts to be righteous mask my need to…
“Gracious and merciful, slow to anger.” “What characteristic of God are you the most grateful for?” My therapist asked during a session. Thinking for a moment, I responded, “His patience.” I am overwhelmed when I think about how patient God has been with me through the years. If I were God, I would have given…
“The living God is among you…” Have you ever had a time when someone one-uped you? You have the ability, you have diligently put in the effort, and the time has arrived for everything to come together. Instead, another colleague, acquaintance, or stranger steps in and steals your entrance, the job, or says what you…
“I am with you always.” Do you ever feel pulled in a million different directions? We are needed here, there, and everywhere, all at the same time, and we do our best to accommodate this inhuman behavior. Thanks to modern technology, we can be here, see what is going on somewhere else, and feel like…
“The eye of the LORD is…” Are your prayers more about getting God’s attention or confidently claiming His promises? Recently, I confess I have been in a fit-throwing, attention-grabbing, a bone, a scrap, anything God, type of prayer mode. Unlike the passionate tenacity of the persistent widow in Luke 18, my prayers were motivated by…
“You will grant us peace.” “Don’t drink your own Kool-Aid!” the interviewee, Annie F. Downs replied. Her response was a warning to all new podcasters for if and when sudden success might happen. We often dream of success defined through money, followers, subscribers, productivity, achievements, or how well others like us. Our dreams only hit…
“I begged the Lord to take it away.” How many times have you asked God? “I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times, I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time, he said, “My grace is all…
“For I am with you.” What do we do when we are face down, palms open, and desperate to hear from God, but there is no voice to be heard? We have done everything covered in the past four blogs of the Hearing God series: believed God still speaks, attuned ourselves to hear, receptive to…
“the sheep recognize his voice and come to him.” Are you desperate to hear from God, but equally as concerned about your ability to recognize His Voice? My prayer life often reflects two desperations. One is my relentless petitions of crying out to God in need of direction or for God to move on my…
“And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying.” In what ways does God Speak to us? If we knew with absolute certainty every possible way God may use to communicate with us, would we be receptive to hearing him? In the past two blogs, we covered the first week the importance of our…