We pray before we eat. Before our days begin. Before we go to sleep. Often, we pray before big events and decisions. We pray as loved ones face difficulties. But we don’t have to stop there. We can keep praying after. God doesn't say "cease praying" after the test results suggest the worst or the conversation ends terribly or the morning rush causes us to forget what we even read in the Bible that morning. In our limited sense of time, praying after things seem "finished" can feel Continue Reading
An Exercise in Awe {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
Sovereign. Omniscient. Omnipresent. Words like these accurately describe God's qualities, but sometimes we find them so obscure and over our heads that the awe gets lost. We pray vaguely aware that God can do whatever He wills- but the wonder and reverence get lost in the routine of it all. When awe of God is stifled, we tend toward self-sufficiency instead of faithful surrender. CT Today, join me in this little exercise in awe. (I suspect our wonder at God and trust in Him over Continue Reading
Leave God-Room (Recharge Wednesday LINKUP)
“Leave room for Jesus.” That’s what we’d tease dating friends who always seemed to want to be close to each other. It was a light-hearted way to remind them that God’s way is better than our way. The principle applies to much more than just purity in relationships though. Franklin Graham, in his autobiography Rebel With a Cause, describes “God-room.” A mentor of his explained it this way: “Listen, Buddy, ’God room’ is when you have seen a need you believe God wants you to meet. You Continue Reading
Questions about Loving Well {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
Paul's greeting to the church at Philippi warmly displays his godly affection for the fellow believers he was so invested in. Each expression of love in the greeting teaches us something about what it means to build one another up in Christ. Let’s not gloss over this passage as a nicety. Will you take it as an opportunity to examine yourself and your affection for fellow believers with me? “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Continue Reading
Seeing People as People {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
They didn’t see a man. They didn’t see his pain. They didn’t notice his need. They didn’t care that he was in the house of the Lord. What they cared about was entrapping their perceived enemy, the one who threatened long-held traditions and the law that elevated them to a pious, powerful place. They wanted to defend what they thought they understood. Their goal was to prove their point. So what they saw was an opportunity. “He went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled Continue Reading
Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys (Recharge Wednesday Linkup)
I was taking a month-long class in Ecuador. We traveled around the beautiful country- even into the Amazon rainforest. There, a few monkeys determined to do what non-cartoon monkeys in tourist traps do: harass people. The agile creatures stole anything loose they could grab. We tried to ask how to get our stuff back. A tour guide laughed. No one owned those monkeys. No one controlled them. He suggested we try trading goods with the animals. In the end, he might as well have said this Continue Reading
