“And the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.” - Zechariah 1:13 Sometimes my struggle hasn't been whether God can do something, but just whether He will. It becomes difficult to trust that He will act since we don’t know if He will. When a prayer is seemingly unanswered, we fall back on what we know, that our God is all-knowing, kind, and knows what is best for us. And that can mean He doesn't act because it's what is best for our current situation. Even though I can reason this out, it does leave me in a place of discouragement sometimes. The verse above is a beautiful look into the character of our...
“But Abram replied, ‘O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?’” - Genesis 15:8 We've read about Abraham's many acts of faith, even called the "Father of Faith" by some. In Hebrews 11, he left everything and moved his family to an unknown destination because the Lord told him to. We recall his act of obedience to sacrifice his only son on the mountaintop found in Genesis 22. Even in Genesis 15, he is recorded to believe God and counted as righteous because of his faith. It would be easy to elevate Abraham in our minds as someone above us, higher than us, and somehow different than us because of his excellent displays of...
But when Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the Lord had told him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people at the Temple mobbed him. “Kill him!” they shouted. “What right do you have to prophesy in the Lord ’s name that this Temple will be destroyed like Shiloh? What do you mean, saying that Jerusalem will be destroyed and left with no inhabitants?” And all the people threatened him as he stood in front of the Temple. - Jeremiah 26:8-9 Reading through Jeremiah, it can be difficult to get into the headspace of God's people at that time as they were being attacked and taken. It is easy to discount their continued disobedience and rejection...
“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”– Matthew 21:22 I received this story via email sometime ago. I have no idea if it is true, but it illustrates simple truths about prayer and our Father in Heaven. Last week I took my children to a restaurant and my six-year-old son asked if he could say grace. As we bowed our heads he said, "God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. Amen!" Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, I heard a woman remark, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how...
