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I have an old blue hoodie that should have been thrown away years ago. It has, in fact, seen better days. I bought it because I liked the color. That's it. There wasn't some deep, emotional connection. I wasn't trying to make a fashion statement. I simply saw the color, thought, "Yep, that'll work," and took it home. What I didn't know was that it would become one of the most comfortable pieces of clothing I've worn. Apparently, somewhere during the manufacturing process, angels, grandmothers, and clouds all signed off on the fabric.
When we suffer, it can be hard to look around at the blessings that some Christians enjoy and wonder what happened with our lives. Social media does not help, as it gives us front-row seats to the blessings of hundreds of people we know (and millions of people we don't know). While even the average person in relatively pleasant circumstances can struggle in this way, the experience is greatly compounded for those enduring comprehensive and/or chronic suffering. It's one thing to envy the prosperity of the wicked. Asaph describes his own experience of that in Psalm 73, and the psalm is instructive for believers who envy the blessings of unbelievers.
One of the greatest misunderstandings in the Christian life is the assumption that God's promises depend entirely upon our effort. Yet God consistently reveals a different pattern. The Father gives, His children receive, and together they establish His purposes in the earth. Jesus declared, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." That single statement reveals the entire dynamic of Kingdom living. Grace gives. Faith possesses. Partnership governs. Everything begins with the goodness of God. The Kingdom is not earned. It is not purchased by perfect behavior or exceptional spirituality. It is an inheritance.
You were handpicked and handcrafted as a beautiful reflection of your Creator. Do you know what you call something like that? A masterpiece. That's what God calls it, too. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 We all know what a masterpiece is. It's a creator's prized piece, his or her most valuable work. Artists are blessed if they have a single masterpiece. Few throughout history are fortunate enough to have had more. Beethoven is one of them. So is Vincent van Gogh. So is Michelangelo.
We can tell so much about a woman's faith by the way she handles pain. Not when life is easy or when everything is going her way, but in those moments when her heart is aching, when disappointment has settled in, and when life feels unfair and unkind. It is in those sacred and stretching seasons that our faith is truly revealed. In 1 Samuel 1, we are introduced to a woman named Hannah. Her story is both tender and deeply relatable. Hannah longed for a child, yet year after year her womb remained empty. This was not a quiet or private sorrow, but one that was magnified by the presence of another in her life who continually provoked her and reminded her of what she did not have.
When you think about prayer what comes to mind? Has prayer been a struggle for you or are you eager to pray each day? Do you wonder if your prayers really matter or do you believe that God uses your prayers to accomplish His plans and purposes? Are you eager to grow in your prayer life or are you content to remain where you are? Prayer is a gift from God. Therefore, believers should delight in talking to God the Father through the Son by the power of the Spirit. It's good, then, that the Bible teaches us how to pray. Some chapters in the Bible record for us the prayers of God's people. Daniel 9 is one of them. Through Daniel's prayer we especially learn that God is merciful to those who confess their sins and seek Him.
The phrase, "The Dark Night of the Soul," has been around for over 500 years. It represents a deep season of suffering and confusion when we feel abandoned by God, but the ultimate purpose of the 'dark night' is to deepen our spiritual union with Him. Theologian R.C. Sproul, in an article, wrote that this darkness is something that "the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, 'The Weeping Prophet'." He clarifies, "This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him."
There is a kind of safety most of us have been chasing our entire lives without ever naming it. It is the safety of the arranged world. The safety of a healthy bank account, a stable relationship, a secure job, a locked front door, a clear diagnosis, and a peaceful country. The safety that comes when the circumstances around you finally line up in a way that lets your nervous system exhale. We spend decades trying to build this kind of safety. We work hard. We plan carefully. We mitigate risk. We accumulate enough of the right things so that the outside world will finally give us permission to feel okay inside.
God loves it when we ask for His help. Did you know that God is interested in every single detail of your life and that He loves to hear from you? For years, I felt like I was bothering God with my prayers or, when I did pray, I was certain I wasn't doing it the right way. However, God never meant for prayer to be complicated. God desires for us to view prayer as a simple conversation with Him. It's asking Him to meet our needs or someone else's. It's praising Him and thanking Him. It's talking to Him about everything and anything that matters to us.
The dark night of the soul. This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, "The Weeping Prophet." It was the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him.
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