God knows what the human heart needs and it needs to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks. This is God’s good will for us. Giving thanks takes our focus off the things that we are worried about and puts our focus on the good things in life. What we focus on grows. That is…
Most things in life we want to learn take study and practice. Everything from cooking to running to singing and so on. It takes intentional practice to become skilled at something. The same goes for life with God. In the Old Testament, the word wisdom in Hebrew doesn’t just mean intelligence or some sort of…
I am always fascinated by the way God takes something ordinary, combines it with a little faith and obedience from His followers, and then uses it to display His glory and show forth His power. In the book of Judges, we encounter Samson, who one day wielded a simple object—the jawbone of a donkey—that God…
There is no greater proof or evidence of God’s love for us, than Jesus’ death on the cross. While we were ungodly sinners and powerless to save ourselves, Christ went first. He died for us and now we are reconciled to him and we get to experience the abundance of his love, poured out on…
We talk a lot about having stronger faith, and many people even encourage one another with the familiar phrase, “have faith.” But what does that really look like? It is one thing to try to have faith, it is quite another to walk in faith. Walking by faith requires action and risk. We put what…
One day, the Old Testament prophet Amos sees three visions. One of these is that of a plumb line. This tool involves a cord with a weight at one end that is held up to the top of a structure. As gravity pulls the weight downward, you can determine whether vertical structures are straight by…
God tells us to trust in him with all of our heart. Not part of our heart. Not even half of our heart. This means we are to have full confidence in him and rely on him and his wisdom rather than trusting in ourselves and our own knowledge. He says that when we follow…
A group of seafarers had a scary trip on a ship headed from Joppa to Tarshish. On the vessel was a passenger, Jonah of Amittai. Yes, that Jonah—the one who wound up inside the big belly of a whale. Instead of obeying God when told to go to Nineveh to preach to the people there,…
Jesus said when we pray, we are not to pray with the goal of being seen and praised by others. God is not impressed when we pray eloquent prayers in public. This does not mean we should not pray in public but rather when we do pray in public, we must watch the motivation of…
Sometimes I wonder what we look like to God when we try to get our own way. We plot. We plan. We try to get others on our side as we attempt to sway opinions and fix outcomes. And we aren’t the first ones to do it. In the Old Testament book of Hosea, we…