Psalm 137:1-3 “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps” Discouragement. It stops us in our tracks. It locks us in limbo. It deafens us to hope. Israel was well acquainted with it. After four hundred years of cruel Continue Reading…
Isaiah 55:8 “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. There are times when I just don’t get what God is doing. To paraphrase Shakespeare, my prayers seem to be “filled with sound and fury, signifying nothing.” I feel helpless in the face of injustices, Continue Reading…
Romans 5:20 “…But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” “He was a great kid, always smiling…” These words describe Martin Richard, the 8-year old boy who died in the Boston Marathon bombing. His death captured for me, perhaps more than anything, the horrific nature of the tragedy. The Continue Reading…
2 Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart….” Stress so heavy it feels as if life itself is being squeezed out. Thoughts swimming in a sea of uncertainty. Feelings of rejection, ridicule and defeat threatening on every side. Ever feel like this? Paul certainly did. Yet he sends Continue Reading…
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Do you know the most popular Old Testament scripture? According to Biblegateway, Jeremiah 29:11 reigns as the most frequently requested Continue Reading…
Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine for your light has come.” Mark—Chapter 5. One chapter that describes three of the most hopeless situations recorded in the Gospels: a man whose sanity had been stripped away by not just one, but a legion of demons; a woman who, after twelve years, had Continue Reading…
Isaiah 50:10-11 “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches Continue Reading…
Romans 4:18 “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed….” I’m thankful that hope is so stubborn. If it wasn’t, I think I’d be a goner. In spite of how many times circumstances tempt me to throw in the towel, I find that entity of hope again popping to the Continue Reading…
Psalm 42:5 “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Our lives are packed with expectations. Daniel Boorstin’s book, The Image, describes it well: “We expect anything and everything. We expect the contradictory and impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; Continue Reading…
Ephesians 6:18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” We’ve all heard the expression, “They don’t have a prayer.” I think that’s a claim that should be stricken from the Christian’s lexicon. Scripture tells us that nothing is impossible with God, and Continue Reading…