Do you need some hope for the New Year? I think we all do. We’re starting a new year and now that we’ve reviewed all that needs to be done, the tasks seem a bit daunting. We need the courage to begin and hope to lift our spirits, right? So I was delighted to see this phrase by Päivö Parviainen on Facebook: “We never approach Jesus in vain.” How true, how encouraging, how uplifting. How so, you ask. Let me…
It’s springtime, the Easter season, and we should all be joyful, right? Yet people seem to be gloomy and somewhat desperate because of COVID-19. These times remind me of the need of the lost art of lamenting. It’s not complaining, folks. Yet that seems what most people are doing right now. Instead, we should be lamenting. I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble.(Ps. 142:1-2, NIV,*)…
Summer seems to be a time when everything stops. Nothing happens. Yes, we need that kind of time to relax and rejuvenate. But too much is too much, right? Little by little we become anxious to do something, anything really. The wise thing here is to wait until it’s the right thing to do, not just because we are too anxious to wait. This happens in our spiritual life too. Waiting on God is a big part of Christian living. We…
Do you rush around like crazy? Trying this and trying that? And nothing really comes together anyhow? Have you thought about asking God in what you’re doing? Have you thought about beginning with a prayer? Or – this is even a wilder thought – have you thought about laying down your own agenda asking God what and when and how he would like you to proceed? Because that is how to build a beautiful life. Unless the Lord builds the house,…
Today I’ve been inspired by some thoughts on waiting and I want to share them with you. May they encourage you on your faith journey as well! We who have hope in Christ are able to wait because we know God is good all the time. For in [this] hope we were saved. But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what he already sees? But if we hope for what is…
Do you know how to be dressed in readiness? Then I want to hear from you. My word for the year 2015 is ‘readiness’ and I am trying to figure out what readiness means for me and how I could practice it more fully. Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. (Luke 12:35, NASB,*) We are all called to be ready for Jesus. But readiness for Jesus means more than ‘just’ being saved. And that’s what I will be…
I don’t hold a master’s degree in waiting on God, nor in patience. But I am praying that I’d be slowly molded into an artist of waiting on God. Biblical waiting means confident expectation, trusting that God will do what he has promised. That God knows best both what needs to happen and when it needs to happen. That God will be preparing us while we are waiting. That God works for the good who believe in him. There are…
Too often we worry about if we have done something wrong when God feels distant. The silence of God is part of salvation life. Sometimes it lasts few days or weeks, sometimes the silent period lasts months or even years. But it doesn’t mean that we would be abandoned. It doesn’t mean that we would be bad Christians. If God chooses to be silent there is nothing we can do to prevent it. The silence of God is not exceptional….
