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Authentic Relationships: Praying for One Another
To pray “in Jesus’ name” means to pray in His Spirit, in His compassion, in His love, in His outrage, in His concern. In other words, it means to pray a prayer that Jesus Himself might pray. Kenneth L. Wilson
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Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc
This summer my husband and I hiked one of the best and most famous trails in Europe—Tour du Mont Blanc. It was around 100 miles and took us 10 days. We prepared for months by reading, gathering gear, examining the itinerary, and praying. This hike was different than any other long trek we have gone on as we went with a company that provided a guide and secured our hut-to hut accommodations. This hike reminded me of so many realities of our journey with Jesus that I reflect on in the following paragraphs. Several months before our hike, the company sent us a day-by-day itinerary. It included what cities/countries we…
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Guided By an Unseen Hand – Part 2
Just two months ago, I wrote about trusting God’s hand even when you can’t see his plan. In a short time so much has changed, and yet the challenge to walk by faith remains. After a year and a half of waiting, praying, trusting, my husband was offered a new job. But it didn’t come in the package we expected. The trials of the past year opened our hands. Eventually we told the Lord we’d go anywhere—we just wanted to be used by him to make a difference. And he answered. My husband was offered a job nearly four hours from where we currently live. We’ve both grown up in…
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Compromise has Consequences
Gen 19-21 One of the hardest lessons for children to learn is that of boundaries and the consequences of compromise. We can take a lesson right out of scripture to teach these hard lessons to our little ones. God established boundaries for the land and for the people. In fact, after the colossal blunder of Adam and Eve and their compromise regarding God’s established boundary, He graciously put angelic forces at the entrance lest they seek to return. God graciously puts boundaries around us as well. In the book of Genesis, God uses a hard lesson for Lot to teach us the consequences of compromising our principles. Like Lot, we…
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Good Summer Reads
A good friend emailed me commenting on how much she is looking forward to the summer break. I do want to slow down this summer and catch my breath. Maybe even read a little in some of the books I have under my bed! Oh, how delicious – having a space of time to read; to let your soul recover from living in the fast lane and slow down to the speed of life. I, like my friend, am the stacker reader type. Books are stacked on most visible surfaces in my home. While I have more books waiting to be read on shelves that shout – no more room…
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Discover Prayer (Part VI): Have an Attitude of Gratitude!
Thankfulness is to render gratitude or express thanks for words spoken or actions taken on our behalf. However, to be thankful, we must be able to recognize the giver’s favor, gifts, or promises on our behalf. Realize the Bible is filled with as many as 30,000 different promises from God to us His children. Every day we receive God’s grace (i.e., God’s unearned favor) for the fulfillment of these promises — and yet we often let them go unrequited.
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Discover Prayer (Part V): Live a Lifestyle of Unconditionally Loving Others
We must live a lifestyle of loving others unconditionally for our faith to work and remember faith (1) is essential for our prayers to be effective. This is because by loving others when they do not deserve it, we cause our own spiritual hearts to believe that God loves us enough to help even when we do not deserve it. The result is our having the confidence to ask God for what we need, want, and desire independent of our circumstances. However, loving others must not be just words alone but rather with actions that are done without false pretense and conditions.
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Discover Prayer (Part IV): Pray in Faith!
if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) In the previous Discover Prayer blogs, we have reviewed the following tenets of prayer: With the introduction of these important foundation principles, we are now poised to analyze the process of prayer to increase our prayer efficiency.
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Discover Prayer (Part III): Pray the Promise, Not Just the Problem!
Pray the PROMISE, NOT just the PROBLEM. God was aware of our problem(s) before we were and provided a promise as the solution (i.e., scripture verse(s) in the Bible) long before it came to our attention. Furthermore, rehearsing ONLY the problem to God makes it grow larger in our hearts (1). Praying the promise causes our hearts to believe in God more than the problem. Remember, whatever you place your attention on will grow larger in your heart – PROMISE or PROBLEM.
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Discover Prayer (Part II): Seek Only Our Heavenly Father’s Glory!
When I was a child, my family had a dog named Angus by my father due to this Labrador appearing like a Black Angus cow. He was an outdoor dog that loved to play with me and my two brothers and sister. We could count on him meeting us when we walked home from school via a path through a cotton field. Sometimes he would even meet my older brother and me in the gym at school to the consternation of our coach! He wanted to be with us, even if just to sit quietly together in the cool evening breeze enjoying a sunset together. He was loyal, and although…
