My book on prayer can be purchased on Amazon or Barnes & Noble websites, plus a Kindle version is also available from Amazon. IGNITING AN IMPASSIONED PRAYER LIFE – How to Develop the Energized, Extended, and Sustainable Life of Prayer You’ve Always Wanted. Do you wish...
Prayer, like most spiritual practices, is subject to a spectrum of opinion and conviction as to how it is best practiced. Prayer in a word, means different things to different people. Typically we associate prayer with some form of communication and personal encounter with God....
When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD… Numbers 11:2 (NIV) Why is prayer often the great omission when it comes to discussion of spiritual leadership? In my humble estimation the topic of leadership is the most frequent focus of...
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 43:5 NIV
This is a powerful illustration of what the Bible refers to as the Spirit warring against the flesh or soulish self, and triumphing over it by speaking truth.
Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones observed “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”
Making a habit of talking to our self, rather than allowing our self to talk to us, releases faith to see a situation transformed and a thing established, simply by declaring it. (Job 22:28)
“You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north.” Deuteronomy 2:3 NASB
With this command God summed up and signaled the end the 40 year wilderness journey of the Israelites and finally released them to go forward into the promised land. It was music to their ears.
Moses doubtless remembered a similar breakthrough directive a generation earlier at the Red Sea when he heard God say “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” (Exodus 14:15)
While “moving on” takes immense courage, it beats doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result, and prods us, with God’s help and grace, to cross over into the new beginning He has for us.
“My peace I give you.” John 14:27
One of the temptations we all face is being drawn into fighting battles that we are not meant to fight – particularly no-win conflicts that waste time and energy and rob us of peace rather than secure it.
The peace that Jesus promises is not gained by fleshly conquest, but a gift He gives to those who choose to cease striving and simply trust Him to fight the battle for us.
The peace He gives is an internal tranquility of heart independent of external circumstances; and seeking, valuing, and guarding that above all else is a sure guide to victory.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.” Philippians 4:6 NLT
“Don’t worry about it!” We’ve all heard that from family or friends but for many, myself included, it’s not much help because of worry’s power to pacify and immobilize us as victims of our circumstances.
Breaking free from worry’s grip as this verse suggests, requires a redirection of our energies channeled into an offensive strategy of prayer, in which we begin to contend in faith to overcome the things we fear.
Worrier or Warrior? It basically comes down to a choice we must make between continuing as a victimized worrier in passivity or rising up as a victorious warrior in prayer.
“Male and female He created them, and He blessed them.” Genesis 5:2
This week I have tackled the daunting task of cleaning out two large filing cabinets of sermon research and notes dating all the way back to the 1970’s. Whew!
Discovering numerous files on marriage, including on such books as “His Needs, Her Needs” (1986) and “Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” (1992) I had to laugh and feel a bit embarrassed, about teaching so much on a topic I know now I knew so little.
Truth be told, after 50 years of marriage I am just beginning to get it, and the fact is, males and females get along, despite all our stark “wood duck” differences, primarily because of God’s blessing and nothing more.
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