“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Troubled? Christ tells us we can turn to his speech in John 14-16 any time and receive comfort and peace from knowing the Father himself loves us and that someday he will bring us out of our present sorrow and deliver us to joy. He promises us hardship and trouble and travail in this life and that the unbelieving world will hate us if we are truly walking with Him, and has indeed oftenRead More →

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. (1 Peter 5:5b-6) Some of you are thinking the title and this verse don’t match. Others I’m sure got only as far as the title before they stopped there, thinking, “Wait, that’s backwards, the bible tells us not to think too highly of ourselves.” Yes, it does, but if you’re mentally correcting me,  you’re likely not afflicted with arrogance in reality and likely in no need ofRead More →

“Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17) Did that headline get your attention? O:-) Okay, so most of us would not say out loud, “God, my problem is too hard for you” with a straight face. If we’ve been a Christian any length of time, we know in our heads that, like Jeremiah praised God, “Nothing is too hard for you.” Our hearts, on the other hand, often are praying that to God behind our backs. We can find out ifRead 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 →