Prayer and Purpose

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” -Matthew 15:7-9 As I was listening to this chapter of Matthew while driving, this particular prophecy recounted by Jesus stuck out to me. I thought to myself, do I do this? Of course, I’m sure I do, but do I simply not see in what ways I am being hypocritical and talking the talk, yet not walking the walk? I’ve written posts in the past about looking back on your day and asking yourself if people would be able to recognize that you are Christian, but today I had a thought that may make this type of self-reflection easier for some, or at least more productive for recognizing areas that need growth – a list. Maybe it’s a girl thing, but I love lists. Whether it’s a wish list, a pros and cons list, or a packing list, they help a person recognize needs, wants, can...

Spiritual warfare is real. We need to be prepared and know how to handle ourselves in the midst of a battle. The strongest attacks rarely come along when you are ready for them or at least not when you are expecting them. Some of that is because Satan is sneaky and he often attacks in such a way that you don’t realize at first that it is him. Doubt or fear creeps in and you just attribute it to your situation or your own reasoning, but it may not be. No matter where you are at in your walk with God, remember to keep your eyes on Him. He can handle all your doubts, fear, pain, suffering and anything else you can throw at Him, whether it is just a result of the fallen world, or a strategized attack to fight for your soul. The enemy has been defeated And death couldn’t hold You down We’re gonna lift our voice in victory We’re gonna make Your praises loud. [1] The above lyrics from Hillsong’s “Shout unto God”, along with Newboys’ “He Reigns,” bring a smile to my face in rem...

As a Christian, there are some hard things to deal with because you feel like you shouldn’t be having issues with them at all if you truly love and trust God. Some of these things include anxiety, stress, fear, and depression. Although I can’t speak personally to long-term struggles with issues outside of fear, I have still dealt with many of them for brief periods throughout my life, and just like forgiveness, it is much easier said than done to just trust God. Today’s topic is stress. I hold most of my stress in my muscles. I clench my jaw and get tight shoulders. It also often turns to anger if I don’t do something to vent that stress that builds up like a shuddering tea kettle of water about to whistle. While I know that many say, “Just pray about it,” when it comes to basically everything (and that is true) it is sometimes hard to do. We are finite beings that understand the tangible things of the world much more than the intangible. You certainly should go to God as your co...

Earlier this year I saw an Instagram post that read, “Instead of saying ‘I don’t have time,’ try saying, ‘It’s not a priority,’ and see how that feels.” I’ve since looked up the source of that quote and found an interesting article on the Wall Street Journal by Laura Vanderkam. (see the full article here http://on.wsj.com/2ClteFj ) Vanderkam suggests, “Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice.” She also writes that you may not be spending as much time working or as little time sleeping as you have lead yourself to believe, and suggests keeping a time log. I'm over halfway through my first day of trying to keep a time log, and I have found that I don’t want to write down things like, “looked at Facebook,” or “watched TV,” and I especially don’t want that to take up as much of my time log as those things generally take up in my day. So, when Phoebe woke me up this morning at 0515 hours because she was hungry, instead of either doing nothing or looking at Facebook ...