Throughout my years of being a Christian, prayer has become a lifeline. I love praying, and I love the power it has in aligning my heart, mind, and soul with both God’s heart and the hearts of His people. It is one of the beauties of the local church.
Can we be patient and trusting enough to allow the Lord to do His work away from the rush? When the chaos of culture all around us tells us to react in one way or another, can we resist, remain steadfast, and allow God to grab hold of our weary souls?
In God’s Kingdom, we live well by loving well. This is how God’s economy works. Where our lives in the big picture might be short, the legacies we leave are not. Legacies have a long tail that can stretch generations,
It was just a couple of years ago that I had the privilege of traveling overseas to Czech Republic with a group of high school students and a couple of other leaders, when I found myself face-to-face with a divided heart. Here was this great opportunity to go serve God’s Kingdom in ways I had never imagined before, but I was struggling
Our faith is not just belief; it is about living in response to that which we believe. It is about our response to the profound reality that whereas we were once “dead” in our “trespasses and sins,” we are now “made alive in Christ” (Ephesians 2:1-7). We are new creations with a new purpose, growing in our passion for the lost and love for others that led Jesus to the cross. If we have faith in the saving action of Jesus on the cross, we then live toward that conviction! This is how our faith becomes complete. This is what God desires for us.
How often do you take the time to get to know someone different from yourself? It can be uncomfortable to do, but it just may be what we are being called to. If we disregard a person because of our assumptions, or the choices they have made, or even the ways they annoy us, could it be that we are missing out on bringing God’s love to the world? There is something incredible about seeing others through God’s eyes. People can be messy, and that makes it very difficult to open our hearts to them, but God has a big, big heart for people, and with every passing day we walk with Him, He enlarges our hearts too.
As we work our way through James, the title of our new series indicates what we are looking for: “wisdom for wholeness.” In fact, I would go as far as to say there is expectation that, for those of us who are Christians, we are to ultimately live as whole beings, able to withstand challenges regarding our faith because of who we serve.
