6 Ways You Can Change a Person

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The reality is, it’s hard to change people. We can think we have the ability to modify their behavior or how they respond. But, our efforts are often in vain.Read More →

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Hannah left her only child, the little son she had prayed for so passionately, at the temple to work in service to God. What a hard decision. She would only get to see him once a year when they traveled to the temple for worship. Yet, she had prayed and made a vow to God. If God would give her a son, then she would give him back to God. Hannah followed through on her promise. Eli the priest noticed her bold and courageous move. Her act did not go unnoticed by God, either. God blessed Hannah with five more children, three sons and twoRead More →

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Do you follow through on your promises to other people? Have you kept them, or have you let someone down? Or, perhaps you know what it’s like to have a person fail to keep their promise to you. Promise keeping can get messy. Remember Hannah, our #PrayBoldGirl? We learned how she boldly poured out her heart to God. I skipped something important about her prayer. Hannah made a solemn promise to God. In her prayer she made a vow. A vow usually contains an “if” and a “then.” If you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant butRead More →

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What clashes have you had at home recently? We’re going to keep this question in mind as we continue to look at the story of my namesake in the Bible, Rachel In part one of Rachel’s story, we learned she did not take her problems to God. Today, we’re going to look at the troubles she had at home and discover the root cause of them. You can read along in Genesis 30. Rachel, unable to get pregnant, came up with a plan. It was nothing outrageous and perfectly acceptable in her culture, although the “method used” seems shocking to us. She would use her servant as a surrogate mother. So,Read More →

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My namesake in the Bible is not a good example of someone who takes matters to God. In fact we don’t read of her praying at all. Even so, we can learn a lot from her about why we should pray when life is not going smoothly. Rachel’s story is told in Genesis 29. If you don’t know it, you can read it here. You’ll notice how the writer sets the scene for us right at the beginning. He says: Leah (Rachel’s older sister) had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. My female instincts tell me this is going to beRead More →

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Have you ever wept bitterly? Your whole world falls apart and all you can do is pour out your anguish and sob your heart out. I wept bitterly when we moved to the States from loneliness and missing my home. I wept bitterly with the shock of a cancer diagnosis. I wept bitterly when my child was taken seriously ill and I didn’t know what the outcome would be. And often in those times, it’s not just the issue we face that is overwhelming, but other concerns and doubts rise to the surface and we cry about those, too. We can learn a lot aboutRead More →

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Hannah knew the pain of living with a mean girl. The constant niggling comments, made when no one else was around. The jibes so subtle her husband, Elkanah never noticed. Hannah never had any relief from the tormenting because Peninnah was the other wife of Elkanah. In ancient biblical society, it was acceptable for a man to take another woman if his wife couldn’t have children. Hannah failed miserably to get pregnant. Peninnah excelled in giving birth. You’d have thought that would be the end of the problem, but it was only the beginning. You see, Elkanah loved Hannah. He showed favor to Hannah overRead More →

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Last time in our #PrayBoldGirl series we discovered, through Eve’s story, how to look for and be thankful for God’s goodness in unwelcome consequences. This week we are looking at how Eve could have prayed when she realized she’d messed up. Eve is the only woman to have known what it is like to live in a perfect world. Perfection is impossible for us to imagine. We only know a life where childbirth is painful, husbands and wives argue and divorce, and many women, and sometimes men, are victims of domestic violence. We live in a world where women struggle to find a voice, to be heard,Read More →

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Eve! She might seem an unusual choice for our #PrayBoldGirl series. However, we can learn a lot from her about how we should pray, especially when we’re living with the consequences of our mistakes. I kinda feel sorry for the gal. She often gets blamed for our current circumstances. If only she hadn’t eaten from the tree! Yet, Eve is also deserving of compassion. “Really!?” You might think. Don’t we all want to be shown some leniency when we mess up? And that’s exactly what the Creator did. He showed grace by making garments of animal skins for Adam and Eve who now, ashamed, realized they were naked.Read More →

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In part one of Elizabeth’s story in our #PrayBoldGirl series, we learned to be persistent in prayer, especially when our prayer has not been answered in the way we want and we feel like giving up. Our lesson: Never give up praying. Today, we continue to look to Elizabeth’s story because there is still so much we can learn from her about how to pray boldly. Have you ever thought you were alone and suddenly realized someone else stood not far from you? It’s enough to make you jump. It’s understandable the angel startled Zechariah. Yet, Zechariah was perturbed in another way, too. Your prayerRead More →