Believers everywhere wonder, “Are we in the very last years of human history?” Any thoughts on this subject are mere speculation. One thing is sure, however: World events are accelerating.
You’ve just lifted your head and slowly opened your eyes from a time of prayer. So what happens now? What is the effect of what you’ve just done? What will be the impact? What’s your expectation?
Often, we forget our prayers as soon as we offer them. Some of us approach prayer as duty, something we do before we start our day or at the day’s end. To some, prayer is a gesture done on behalf of someone in need or to make a request of one’s own. In every case, what difference do we honestly think our prayers make?
I want to share with you two verses from Helen Spurrell’s translation of the original Hebrew text: “When designing pursuers approached me, who are far from thy law; then thou, O Jehovah, wast near, with all thy faithful commandments” (Psalm 119:150-151).
Embedded in this passage is a glorious truth that can change your life, bringing you peace and giving you rest beyond anything you have yet experienced. Once you understand the fact that God loves you and is continually near you, all fear and anxiety must go.
I can still remember how deeply affected I was by a song that came out several years ago. It’s called “Clear the Stage” by the musician Jimmy Needham.
The song speaks of how a great number of churches—including the last one I pastored—can make a big impression through smoke machines, giant video screens and massive racks of lights. Jimmy’s message was how easily we become dependent on outer trappings like these and end up missing Jesus.
Who told you that you’re unworthy, no good, useless, unusable to God? Who keeps reminding you that you’re weak, helpless, a total failure? Who told you that you’ll never measure up to God’s standard?
We all know where this voice comes from. It’s the devil himself. You hear his lies all day long, a voice that tells you God is continually angry with you. That voice comes straight from the pits of hell.
Every Christian has known mountaintop peaks and deep, dark valleys in their walk with Jesus. In my experience, it’s the valleys—the low places, trials and difficult times—that teach us how to be people of prayer, hope and courageous service.
“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12, NKJV). In this verse, Paul tells the Christians in Philippi not to worry about all the things they’d heard had befallen him. All those “things” he refers to included great afflictions and infirmities.
Many Christians experience a turn in their lives they never see coming. When it arrives, it causes an ongoing trial they couldn’t imagine in their worst nightmares. Their life was on a blessed course, maybe one of ambition and achievement, desire and fulfillment, pursuing the things they feel God made them for. Life itself seemed like a straight line forward with a promising outlook and every good thing ahead. Then their lot in life took a crooked turn.
How do you move forward when your circumstances say, “No way”? What do you do when your family is falling apart, you’re struggling financially, you’re discouraged and your heart overflows with pain? Is there a way forward when you can’t see a way?
Mark 2 shows us there is. When things seem impossible and we lose all hope of going on, Jesus faithfully makes a way where there is no way.
In Jeremiah 32, the prophet describes a dire scene. Jerusalem was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army. Outside the city, the enemy was building large mounts to send their troops over the walls. Any Israelite who looked down on this scene was surely filled with a sense of doom.
Jeremiah was one of them. As the terrible scene unfolded, the prophet had to watch from a prison cell.
