But prayer isn’t asking God to do what we want. Prayer is asking God to what is right.
The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.
The stone was moved – not for Jesus – but for the women; not so Jesus could come out, but so the women could see in!
But God will use your mess for good. We see a perfect mess; God sees a perfect chance to train, test, and teach the future prime minister. We see a prison; God sees a kiln. We see famine; God sees the relocation of his chosen lineage. We call it Egypt; God calls it protective custody, where the sons of Jacob can escape barbaric Canaan and multiply abundantly in peace. We see Satan’s tricks and ploys. God sees Satan tripped and foiled.
There are times when God sends thunder to stir us. There are times when God sends blessings to lure us. But then there are times when God sends nothing but silence as he honors us with the freedom to choose where we spend eternity.
To live as God’s child is to know, at this very instant, that you are loved by your Maker not because you try to please him and succeed, or fail to please him and apologize, but because he wants to be your Father. Nothing more. All your efforts to win his affection are unnecessary. All your fears of losing his affection are needless. You can no more make him want you than you can convince him to abandon you. The adoption is irreversible. You have a place at his table.
The cross, the zenith of history. All of the past pointed to it, and all of the future would depend upon it. It’s the great triumph of heaven: God is on the earth. And it is the great tragedy of earth: man has rejected God.
Don’t you think God can work however he chooses?” “I believe God worked, and the rest is up to us.
Sometimes God takes his time:.
This verse is a call, not to a feeling, but to a decision and a deeply rooted confidence that God exists, that he is in control, and that he is good.
If Jesus heals you instantly, praise him. If you are still waiting for healing, trust him. Your suffering is your sermon.
You are never more like Jesus than when you pray for others.
Pieces don’t fit. Wine runs out. Water bottles burst. These are facts of life. But Jesus responds with this invitation: “Bring your problems to me.
He took on your face in the hope that you would see his.
God wants to be as close to us as a branch is to a vine. One is an extension of the other. It’s impossible to tell where one starts and the other ends. The branch isn’t connected only at the moment of bearing fruit. The gardener doesn’t keep the branches in a box and then, on the day he wants grapes, glue them to the vine. No, the branch constantly draws nutrition from the vine. Separation means certain death.
When Jesus says he will keep you safe, he means it. Hell will have to get through him to get to you.
The difficulties have taken much away. I get that. But there is one gift your trouble cannot touch: your destiny.
His life is an example. I pray that God will heal Jim’s body. But until he does, God is using Jim to inspire people like me. God will do the same with you. He will use your struggle to change others.
If prayer depends on how I pray, I’m sunk. But if the power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer, and if the One who hears the prayer is my Daddy, then I have hope.
Jesus did not enter the world to help us save ourselves. He entered the world to save us from ourselves.