Are you feeling down? Is your soul singing unexpected blues? Are you weary, burned-out, at the end of your rope? Don’t worry. There are loads of fresh hope reserved just for you. You might not believe it right now. But bare with me. Do you remember how Jesus, in his sermon on the mount, calls people happy or blessed who are hopeless? Why on earth would he do that? Read it yourself: “Happy are people who are hopeless, because the…
Following Jesus is my heart’s desire. Now that I’ve been waiting for God’s guidance for quite some time, I’ve caught myself wondering what I’ve been doing wrong. Maybe I could have done this and that. The list gets very long very quickly. And it gets me off the track very efficiently. Following Jesus in real life is more difficult than we’d like. You see, when you heart is at the right place, when you’ve surrendered yourself to Jesus, God will…
Sometimes you hear people venting their frustrations with God. You know, they’re disappointed because God has not met their expectations. What do you say? Are you disappointed with God? The only way I can understand the statement is that God’s promises are misunderstood. Because God has not promised to give us whatever we want. God has not promised there wouldn’t be any hardships in our lives. Therefore, if God has disappointed you by not meeting your expectations, maybe your expectations…
Are you in need of rest? Don’t be fooled. Don’t look for it in the wrong places. Turn to God, get away with him, and find real rest for your soul. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. (Matthew 11:29, AMP,*) God is gentle and humble at heart. He wants what’s…
What would it take for you to take a risk of faith? What would it take to get you out of your comfort zone and into an adventure of faith? These are the questions that have been running through my head as I’ve been reading the fourth diary in Mary DeMuth‘s and Frank Viola‘s brand new book The Day I Met Jesus: The reavealing diaries of five women in the gospels. The fourth diary is of a woman with a…
Do you desire to have peace of mind? I think we all do. When we have peace of mind, we are happy. It is that wonderful feeling when you know all is well and all is going to be all right. But how to have it in the midst of every day chaos? How to have it as the world gets tougher day by day? How to have peace of mind when it seems all we have is the opposite?…
Are you ready to say goodbye to the old and hello to the New Year? There’s two Bible verses to help us deal with the change. The first one is very familiar and the second one little less so. But they help us to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new into our lives. First of all, we all mess up. No matter how hard we try we don’t quite succeed. The trick here is not to…
Have you ever read a novel with a protagonist who just doesn’t get what s/he needs to learn in order to succeed/find happiness or balance in his or her life? You as a reader just can’t understand why s/he does not get it. The protagonist struggles with the same thing over and over again until finally s/he gets a break through and things start looking better. It is so easy to know what’s good for the protagonist while you’re reading…
Do you dare to hope when there’s no reason to hope? Do you dare to hope when your life as you’ve known it has been taken over by a razing storm? Do you dare to hope when life has become bitterness and poison? I hope so. I’ve been there. Everything but God was taken from me. But God was more than enough. I can testify that God is faithful. That’s why I can assure you: God will also see you…
Do you know how to live carefree? Would you like to live carefree? I think we all do. Stress-free living would be lovely, don’t you think? But most often we think carefree living is meant for children only. That’s not true. At least, if we think of childhood as a stage of life. But it is true for God’s children who learn to trust God’s care. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you. (1 Peter 5:7, MSG,*) Trusting…
