“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.” (Acts 16:25-26, NKJV) No one was asleep that night. Even at midnight, well past most people’s usual bedtime, sleep would not come. Admittedly, this was no luxury hotel with a warm shower, soft sheets, and a comfy pillow. This was a prison, a dark, damp, dreary prison. awake at midnight The two new…
And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’ “(Luke 11:5-6, NKJV) Jesus was a storyteller. When He wanted to teach a lesson, He often wrapped that lesson in a parable to help His listeners understand. One day His disciples observed Him praying. As He finished, one asked, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Jesus began with the basics of prayer. Today we refer to it as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Many of us memorized this prayer as a child. It’s really a pattern or a template of how to pray rather than words to memorize and repeat. Within just a few verses, the Lord captures the importance of worship, consecration, forgiveness, intercession, and protection. Prayer persistence But the Lord did not stop with these prayer basics. He continued with a parable that taught something else they needed in their prayer life: persistence. The parable told of a man asleep when a sudden knocking at his door woke him.…
It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand” . . . Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. (Judges 7:9 and 16, NKJV) Gideon was a reluctant leader because he did not feel up to the task God was calling him to perform. God desired Gideon to lead an army against the Midianites. Although he began with 32,000 men, God said that was too many. Eventually, after God reduced their numbers, Gideon had only 300 men left to fight. This was not a great military strategy but it was a great “God strategy.” No one would be able to deny that deliverance came from the hand of the Lord, not by the efforts of men. As if having only 300 men wasn’t scary enough, they were heading into battle with a very unique type of weaponry. Each man was equipped with a trumpet and a pitcher with a torch inside. If they came out of this battle victoriously, it would not be because of their…
“The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.” (Acts 27:20, NLT) First Century travel was nothing like travel today. When we plan a trip, we have numerous options. We can drive, take a train, book a flight, or, for some locations, take a ship. When Paul and his companions traveled, not for vacations but for evangelism, their two primary modes of travel were walking and cargo ships. (Passenger ships as we know them did not exist.) It is estimated that Paul traveled over 10,000 miles during his…
“Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” Romans 9:21 A year or two ago, I decided to try a new craft with my two girls: air-dry clay. I had watched many videos and tutorials on how to make adorable little animal figurines and was determined to create some of my own. I (unfortunately) hyped my daughters up and convinced them that they would be masters of air-dry clay in a matter of seconds. You can probably guess how this venture ended. Air-dry clay is a formidable foe, and at the end of one hour, all we had to show for ourselves were dirty hands and a pile of clay that sort of, slightly, not really, resembled a mushroom, a unicorn, and a cow. This led me to wonder, am I sometimes difficult to work with in the hands of God? Do I fight the process, resolving early on that my ways are better and that I understand more than He does? Does my distorted perception interfere with my seeing clearly what God is trying to do in my life? Personally, the answer…
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11 Plans. We women love to make them. We purchase cute, trendy calendars at the beginning of each year in an often futile attempt to plan the next 365 days of our lives. We display calendars on our walls, have apps on our phones, and take mental notes of upcoming events on the schedule we need to plan/attend. I feel flustered and exhausted even typing this. Too often, our need for control and desire to see into the future bleeds over into our relationship with God. Surrendering control can appear daunting, but I echo the words in Psalms 37:25: “I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” In moments of doubt and uncertainty, when complete surrender seems to be too much of God to ask, I have never been forsaken by the One who authors my story. The KJV translates the word “expected” in the above verse as “cord, hope, the thing that I long for”. I imagine it as a constant connection, always in view of one another…