“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.” (Psalm 138:8) Verse eight follows verse seven, where the psalmist says to god, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out  your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.” We all have times when trouble surrounds us on every side, where the heat is on, angry voices mock and scorn us. Sometimes the enemy works through people, sometimes it’s a voice inside our heads. Either way, it is allRead More →

“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.” (2 Thessalonians 3:3) This world will eat you up and spit you out. It comes at us with a thousand things all demanding our attention at once and we’re expected to figure out in a nanosecond which of the thousand items is where our attention needs to be. We live in a high stress, instant, now-now-now world that leave us feeling exhausted, frustrated, and emotionally spent. In the middle of this steps the Apostle Paul, quietly asking (in verses 1-2) for us to pray that the  word of GodRead More →

“but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) In verses 29 and 30, God says even youths, who usually have tons of energy, get tired, become weak, faint, and exhausted, probably meaning both literally and spiritually, and promises to empower us.  If we wait for the Lord, he will refresh and revive us with new energy and vigor, to soar, to run, and walk with him. But what does it mean to wait? This is an instant now culture, soRead More →

“Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;his name is the LORD; exult before him! Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” (Psalm 68:4-5) The palmist worships the Lord for riding through the deserts, for being present in the lonely, dry, lifeless places often symbolically associated with not sensing God’s presence and running dry on the river of life that flows from the Lord, who else where promises us rivers in the desert. We are encouraged to exult before him who is there even when we areRead More →

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13) Sadly, some of us can’t relate to this verse. Our fathers weren’t compassionate, and we certainly didn’t associate the fear our fathers produced leading to him being gentle, kind, and loving toward us. Verses six through twelve give us insight into what this creature called a compassionate father is supposed to be like, however. Elsewhere we learn God’s people are also the bride of his son, and the son does what he sees his father doing, hence all of this applies to husband-wife relationship, too. TheRead More →