I’m not sure what your daily prayers are like, but many of mine come down to asking God for things.  Typically they hover around “bless me,” “help me,” or “give me.”  In each one of those prayers, the idea is that I am lacking and that I want God to help make up my deficit.  These aren’t necessarily wrong prayers, but if they’re all that I pray, then I’m ... [Continue Reading]

Grace is a wonderful thing.  It truly is the unearned joy of the Christian life because you can never behave so badly that you lose it, nor can you behave so good that you deserve it.  Grace, by its very nature, does not demand anything from us; it is simply granted when we choose to trust in Christ’s death for the forgiveness of our sins.  When we accept ... [Continue Reading]

I’ll never forget one day I had in Brazil when utter frustration consumed me.  To be honest, I don’t remember exactly what the frustrations were, but I know I was mad about something and it was taking over my thoughts.  I was driving from our apartment to the school where we were teaching, and I was reminded of a song I learned a long time ago that was written ... [Continue Reading]

It’s ironic that I’m writing about tomorrow since yesterday I wrote about today.  The truth is that today sometimes carries with it some incredibly hard circumstances.  Sometimes in today we have to muster up our courage to bury a loved one, to have a difficult conversation, or to face our critics.  And even though the tasks of the day may be defeating or ... [Continue Reading]

There is a thirst that exists in our souls, but often our lives are too full of other things to be able to recognize it.  We keep ourselves busy and distracted with technology and entertainment so that we rarely have those moments of solitude in which our thirst becomes apparent.  We move from one thing to the next with the hopes that we will finally be ... [Continue Reading]