Prayer

On Good Friday two thousand years ago, the criminal asked—prayed—for Jesus to “remember” him before he went to sheol, the land of forgetfulness. And Jesus replied with an affirmative yes! “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Then Jesus made his own prayer—not asking his Father to remember him, but asking why God had forgotten him.  About three Read more…

I have to wonder about the words—well, they are more like a prayer—of the criminal on the cross next to Jesus.  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Remember me… And Jesus said he would, quite willingly. He offered the man so much more. But, hang on a minute. Shouldn’t the Read more…

If you had been here… This is the statement that both Martha and Mary make separately to Jesus when he eventually turned up at Lazarus’s graveside.  Their words echo the uncertainty, confusion, and lack of understanding we should express in our prayers. The word “if.” It’s such a small word but loaded with such weight—in Read more…

I read that in the USA, the total unredeemed value of gift cards purchased is estimated to be around a staggering twenty-one billion dollars. It made me think about the gift cards I have partially used or not used at all. I can think of one occasion I added to that figure of twenty-one billion Read more…

The Bible has plenty of teachings about love. We are to love God with all our heart, soul and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). We are to love our neighbor (Mark 12:33). We are to love foreigners, those who are not like ourselves, and strangers (Deuteronomy 10:19). We are even to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44)! And Read more…

When I was a child, I looked forward to Valentine’s Day with great anticipation. I knew that once it got dark, Father Valentine would visit our house. Who on earth, you are probably wondering, is Father Valentine? As a child, I never knew who he was either. All I knew and loved, is that he Read more…

Esau and Jacob had a contentious and tumultuous relationship that could rival any antagonistic relationship that we have experienced or known. Twenty years had passed since Jacob deviously robbed his brother and Esau threatened and planned to kill Jacob.  Then the two men were to meet again. Tensions ran high. Esau approached with four hundred Read more…

Most of us are dealing with difficult people, whether it is family or friends. Perhaps you think that’s an understatement when you think about the relationships in your life!  We all have stories of relationships with family or friends that have gone wrong. A brother or sister we haven’t heard from in years. A child Read more…

Most of us don’t reveal in detail to other people the struggles going on in our families. Unless we meet someone who is going through the same thing we are experiencing. Then we are willing to open up because he or she understands the heartache, pain, problems, and frustrations. God, our heavenly Father, is also one who Read more…

Perhaps you can instantly think of one or two of your relatives who are in desperate need of prayer. Others may not be in need but could still benefit from being brought before the Lord for his favor. Some of your family members may never have anyone pray for them unless you do. 

Although the people of Judea may have hoped for their own leader and king of the Jews, they did live in relative peace within the Roman Empire. Yet, the announcement of the birth of Jesus came with the celebrations and fanfares of heaven because Jesus heralded a different kind of peace. 

I wonder what people thought, thousands of years ago, when they listened to Isaiah’s words: “For to us a child is born…And he will be called…Mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6).Perhaps they thought about the power with which God had separated the Red Sea for their ancestors. When we think about the word “mighty,” it is often with fear and trepidation. And yet, Jesus our Mighty God is like none of these thoughts or images.

I have never run, nor do I want to run a marathon. But from hearing and observing the experiences of friends and family who have, there are blisters, aching muscles, and exhaustion to endure along the way if one is to make it to the end. No wonder they need us and other spectators to Read more…

On our first Christmas, when we moved from England to New England, I discovered some of the Christmas traditions I was used to didn’t make it across the pond on the Mayflower. Or at least they have been changed over the years. Having turkey for Christmas dinner was one of them. As the traditional dish Read more…

One year we escaped Thanksgiving. As most Americans sat down to turkey and trimmings and pumpkin pie we were somewhere between Ohio and Kansas, driving from Boston to Breckenridge. This wasn’t to avoid giving thanks for all the good things in my life. Believe me, I know I should practice being more thankful, instead of Read more…

When we’re in the middle of tough times, often we can only think about the basics needed for each day or even to get through the next hour. It can be hard to give thought to being grateful when we’re simply trying to survive. But, when storms pass and we have time to look back Read more…

How has God rescued you? Do you remember the significant moment when you realized God came to save you through his Son Jesus? I remember that moment when God answered my prayer. He heard my simple cry for help and he reached down and turned my life around. I am so grateful. The Bible teaches Read more…

Daniel, who survived a night with lions, was a man determined to stay true to God and follow God, wherever that took him.  Daniel was also completely confident in God’s unwavering love for him and his people. Daniel knew that God loved him and his people, even when they had turned away from God. That Read more…

God loves children and babies. The Almighty, Eternal God who, with his breath and words, created our intricate world and commands billions of galaxies, is goo-goo over babies and children. You could have called me a career woman before I had children. I controlled large budgets, sat in boardrooms often as the only woman around Read more…

Love hurts. Wherever this expression originated, we can relate to it. All of us know the pain of giving our heart to someone or something. However, it’s not the intense feeling of love that hurts but the response or the outcome of our love that causes sorrow or suffering. It may be losing someone we Read more…

With technology such as the James Webb Telescope, scientists are discovering more about the universe than ever before. The telescope is giving images of star formation taking place 1,350 light-years from Earth, and challenging scientists’ knowledge and what they believed to be true. 1,350 light-years is a long way! The universe, scientists suggest, could be Read more…

Think about how you ask for directions. You make it simple, straightforward, and use words that you know, especially if you’re asking in a foreign language. It is the same when we ask God for guidance. This is the next lesson we learn when praying for God to guide us. We’ve already realized it is Read more…

When we pray for God’s guidance, we don’t just appeal to God’s promises to guide us well. We use our common sense too. Abraham had sent his trusted servant Eliezer, the man who had run his household for years, on an important mission—to find a wife for his son, Isaac. Eliezer had set out on Read more…

What do you need guidance on? Perhaps you have an important decision to make. Maybe you are trying to find the right person to fill a role or spend the rest of your life with. Perhaps you just need to know the right words to say. How should we ask God to guide us? Today, Read more…

Constantly throughout the Bible, we are told that God is our guide. And with God’s guidance we can be encouraged instead of discouraged, satisfied and feel content instead of being disappointed.

After my daughter and I had stood in line for thirteen hours to show our respects to Queen Elizabeth II and her reign, it led me to consider the sovereignty of God. Who is this sovereign God, and what does his power and authority look like so that we can worship him with complete reverence? Read more…

When Queen Elizabeth II died, my daughter and I traveled to London and stood in line for thirteen hours to pay our respects. We flew to London from New York, went to our hotel, showered, put a few bottles of water and snacks in a bag and headed to the beginning of the “queue” some Read more…

Sometimes though, it’s hard to wrap our minds around the meaning of God’s faithfulness. It’s a term that can be so familiar to us that it can lose its meaning. Or we base our knowledge of faithfulness on our experience with other people. Here are two understandings that I hope help us grasp the extent of God’s faithfulness to us.

Hope is not wishful thinking, but the living God who is around you and within you. You can trust him with your life and this hope will not lead to disappointment (Romans 5:5 NLT).

The idea of being in a place of physical ease and having a nice lifestyle is a more modern meaning of the word “comfort.” The origin of “comfort” in French and Latin has more to do with strength and support than freedom from hardship. This is the biblical meaning of the word too. In particular, it means to strengthen and console in times of grief and distress. 

when the Bible tells us that God is like a shepherd and Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd, we have to use our imagination and search in the Bible for clues as to what this means for us. 

Use the prayer to praise God for being rock solid and commit to running and remaining in him whatever circumstances you face.

I have climbed Quandary Peak, a fourteener in Colorado, twice. It is one of the fifty eight peaks in the Rocky Mountains range that is over 14,000 feet (4200+ metres).   The trailhead starts at 10,850 feet above sea level and the elevation gain to get to the peak is 3,450 feet (1050 metres). The Read more…

When was the last time you were amazed by the beauty of our world and fascinated with the universe in which we live? Perhaps it was this morning or maybe not for a while: the exquisite intricacy of a flower, the breathtaking colors of a sunset, or the magnificence of the ocean. For me, I Read more…

We can struggle to find time to pray when our days are full. Life can be busy from the moment we get up until we go to bed. Or when we do pray, our minds wander and we end up making our to-do list instead of talking to God. Prayer is hard to do. I Read more…

God wants us to trust Him. This might be easy to do when life is going well and we see God at work but when life gets difficult and we don’t see God doing anything, our confidence in him can waver. Here are 3 steps to being reminded of how God works: 1. Sometimes the Read more…

Sometimes, life is overwhelming. We can feel like we’re constantly fighting battles, both big and small. We may feel like we’re always on the go, with never a moment to rest. Or we may feel ill-equipped and poorly organized for the tasks ahead of us. If you are feeling this way, you are not alone. Read more…

Don’t underestimate what God can use. Sometimes, those things we think are a hindrance or threat to moving forward are the very things God can use extraordinarily and mightily. For example, with the Roman Emipire in the first century, tension existed between the local people and their Roman occupiers. Jesus’ followers wanted his kingdom to Read more…

Like me, you probably don’t have much contact with shepherds or sheep. Although on one occasion, when visiting a local farm near our home that was also an education center for children, I came to understand what it must be like to be a shepherd. As we walked around the farm and came to the Read more…

Sometimes we’d rather stay with what we know best and where we feel safest instead of stepping out into the unknown and experiencing God’s transforming power at work in our lives. But a lakeside encounter can change everything. Pebbles crunched under my feet and reeds rustled in the light breeze–the only sounds on a peaceful Read more…

Sometimes we may find it hard to pray. It can feel like a barrier, a brick wall, exists between us and God. Yet, on my trip to Israel, I found a wall to be a reminder of the freedom and open access we have to God through Jesus. To get to the Western Wall in Read more…

Sometimes, we can be unsure if the way we worship God is good enough or the right way. A visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, nestled in a corner of Jerusalem and accessed by the narrow streets of the Old City, gave me some insight. This large rambling church is built on a Read more…

I walked a pathway where Jesus is thought to have walked, and it made me thankful for the path to life he gives. The orange glow of street lights popped up across the Old City of Jerusalem in the failing evening light. In the stillness of the twilight, I walked down an ancient stone stairway. Read more…

Many things can make us feel defeated. Experiencing a loss, failure, losing a battle, or facing a crisis can make us feel like “this is over” whether it is our livelihood, a relationship, or even life itself. Jesus, however, shows us we need not feel defeated. Set on the side of the Mount of Olives Read more…

Jesus needed to pray, to spend time with his Father. Jesus modeled prayer for us. He gave us an example to follow. I went to Galilee, where Jesus prayed. Getting to the top of Mount Arbel took five minutes, a gentle climb along a stony pathway from the parking lot. It was enough to elevate Read more…

I needed some guidance this week and I decided to seek the godly guidance of a friend and colleague.  I apologized to her for offloading a lot of information. I was carrying a heavy burden. And after sharing the dilemma I faced, I asked “what would you do in the same situation?” It was probably Read more…

If you’re looking for God’s guidance but you feel inadequate, especially when you pray about it, then I want to encourage you that help is at hand. Here are three ways God helps you. God’s Spirit prays for YOU. Maybe you feel you can’t find the right words when you pray. Or you think you Read more…

So far, we’ve looked at two ways in which we can get guidance from God—Scripture and Sense. The third way God can guide us is through Signs.  I have to admit, I write this with some hesitation because we can believe anything random is a sign from God, and make our decision based on that.  Read more…

Last week, we looked at how we can get guidance on life from God’s words in the Bible—Scripture. This week, we are looking at the second “S” and the way we get help with our decision-making: Sense.  When we need guidance, we need to consider what makes sense. Sense, which we often refer to as Read more…

There are so many things we’d like guidance on. For instance, how to respond to someone who has upset us. Whether to take that job. The words we should say or advice we should give a friend. Who to marry… And so much more. And often we look to God for help and direction. In Read more…