In the mornings when I first wake up, I like to lie there quietly and muse with God over His various wonders. This morning, the wonder that first popped into my mind was, “You NEVER fail!” Think about that! Who NEVER fails? Never, ever, ever? Goodness, I fail routinely as a simple matter of everyday life. But God? He never has failed, and He never will fail, and He has had a very long time to do that. Well, time doesn’t exist for God – He has no beginning or end – but

Whew! We have made it to the final post in this series on Praying the Lord’s Prayer. In so doing, we arrive at a line many of us have heard, memorized, and perhaps even assumed was part of the original prayer: “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” And yet… depending on the Bible translation in your hands, reading Matthew 6:13, you may notice something surprising: it is either completely absent or placed in a footnote. Or, your church b

Quick review! One day when Jesus was still on the earth, one of His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray: “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.'” — Luke 11:1 If you’ve been with me lately, you know I’ve been writing a series of blog posts based on the outline Jesus taught them, which we have come to refer to as The Lord’s Prayer .

I've been walking us through The Lord's Prayer , and " Give us this day our daily bread " comes just before this, but I did a post on this a couple of months ago: Daily Bread 'n Beyond . So, if you haven't seen that or want to review, just go back! It is absolutely always time to savor the wonder of God's rhythmic, always-on-time provision for all things for us, His "lucky" children! We now come to a line in The Lord’s Prayer that can be both deeply comforting and deeply

"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." God's answering of this one-sentence powder-keg prayer request spans eternity past, weaves its way through time, and moves on throughout eternity future. As I think about it, it really captures all of our longings as believers and even all of God's. Yes, I think it's safe to say that. "As believers." By that I mean as those of us who have received the sacrifice of the life of Jesus Christ on the cross and H

First, let me apologize for the delay in getting back to this! As many of you know, my husband Dale passed away in February, and there's been lots of extra things to do since then. I am blessed with continued joy and expectation as I consider him in his new "dwelling place!" I think of us as true spiritual partners - his feet established in absolute perfection in heaven beholding the face of Jesus Christ and mine still grounded here by gravity and imperfection on the earth

Such vast eternal riches revealed in just a few words! “Lord, teach us to pray.” Can you imagine being able to look God right in the eye as you would any other person and ask Him any question - any question at all! - you wanted to? The New Testament account of Jesus' life is so familiar to those of us schooled in the Bible, that we can sometimes fail to think about what it was to be among Jesus' companions while He was living as a human. It appears that although the dis

Standing in the Gap from Our Knees One of the most amazing privileges we have with God is to help make a difference in our world and in the lives of other people through our prayers. Don't you find that intriguing? Why would God who is, after all, God , need our prayers to accomplish His purposes? And, if He doesn't necessarily need them, why does He want them? Have you ever thought about that? If I have, I'll bet you have. It's one of those, well, "God questions." T

Do you ever wonder or think somewhere along these lines: "I'm praying, but I'm not sure I have enough faith. What if my prayers 'aren't working' because I just don't have enough faith?" Then, do you try to muster up a fierce bravado and say key phrases to God to convince Him your level of faith is equal to the level of the petition you are putting before Him? 🙃😉 We know from what we read over and over in the Bible that God wants us to have faith - or ultimate confidence

And so He should! If I had to name “the thing” I most want to do with my life here on earth for God, it would be this: to point anyone within my sphere of influence toward His immense, glorious stature and say, “Just look at Him— isn’t He…?” And then to trail off, because I cannot find a word in the English language adequate enough to finish the sentence. Glorious comes close—but He is far beyond glorious. When I try to picture what my response to God is like, I often see m

God invites us to pray to Him - talk with Him, commune with Him - with open arms. Over and over again the Bible assures us that He loves us and absolutely loves being intimate with us. However, as in any relationship, our sin can cloud our communication with Him. Scripture speaks plainly about conditions that hinder prayer—not because God is unwilling to listen, but because fellowship with God is relational, not mechanical. The Bible consistently teaches that unconfessed

I know all of us have had times when we’ve prayed for something we know the Lord can do (I mean—He can do anything , right?), and yet the answer we’re looking for doesn’t seem obvious. Right now, as I type this, my husband Dale is in his second week in the hospital in a confounding situation that has clearly become a waiting game. In early December he had what seemed like a normal stomach flu—and it was —but it didn’t resolve normally. The cause has been confirmed as norovir

Prayer is - first - about the most profound level of intimacy with the most profound and profoundly wonderful Person. The level of intimacy we are able to achieve with God is far beyond that of any other relationship, because all human relationships are flawed by sin and subject to natural limitations. I want to continue delving into the many facets of prayer - from praise, to praying for others, praying for health and healing, praying combined with fasting, etc. But today

God’s Heart Toward Those Who Are Searching Before we delve into praying as believers - those of us who have already placed our faith in Jesus Christ - his death and coming back to life - for our salvation, I wanted to talk first about how we related to God before that time. Where was God in our "prayers" before we bowed our heads in acceptance of His saving mercy and grace? What about all those times we simply cried out in desperation, "Help me, God!!!! If you're OUT THERE

If we truly understood the advantage prayer gives us, wouldn’t we pray more—and with greater faith? Cynthia, one of my clients-turned-friends and sisters in Christ popped into the shop Friday morning. She is a regular reader of these posts, and we got to talking about prayer. She has a prayer ministry - primarily intercessory prayer for others with a focus on physical needs and healing. During our conversation, I said, "That's it! I want to do my next writing on the topic

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He included a curious and deeply intentional request: “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11) Not weekly bread. Not bread for the upcoming month. Not a guarantee of plenty for the next year. Daily bread. This echoes the great wilderness lesson God taught Israel through manna: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day

At the risk of adding to all of the usual hoopla surrounding the New Year, new beginnings, and New Year's Resolutions, the Bible has a lot to tell about God and the newness of things. The newness that comes from God is unlike anything else when it comes to a fresh start. So, I thought, “What better time to take a dig into God and newness than the turning of the year?” 🪏 SHOVEL TIME! I encourage you - as you have time - to actually open each of these scriptures in your Bib

A Return to Scripture, Reality, and Reverent Unknowing As I put together these blog pieces, you all know I love including lots of images. It's one of my really fun things about doing this; images not only convey information, but they break up the monotony of print, and they can also be soothing. What I have found really perplexing, however, is some of the many images I see where people try to depict what God looks like. Take this one, for example: "I wish I was twenty year

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” — James 1:17 Today is the day after Christmas, December 26 , Boxing Day in the UK (woohoo!) and a day I like to enjoy quietly, nestled in with family and my gifts, trying them out, reading them, shutting out the normal events of routine life. I think that’s fairly typical for lots of us on this day “after Christmas!” T

Krista filmed me playing this a couple of weeks ago... recording is below... Nearly twenty years ago I found myself at my piano late one night, overwhelmed by the realization that we often speak of Jesus in fragments. We celebrate the baby. We revere the Savior. We proclaim the King. But we rarely hold them all at once. Out of that quiet moment came a piece I have simply called “Christmas Medley.” It weaves together three melodies that, for me, represent the fullness of Ch