I admit I don’t like to talk about the enemy. I’d rather hit block and and go about my day.
While I’m busy wrangling children, meeting work deadlines and coordinating the week’s schedule, I forget there’s a battle raging against me – and for me.
There’s a 24/7 battle against you, too.
It often comes as thinly-disguised lies that Satan first debuted in Genesis 3. See if you recognize any of the 5 lies the enemy wants every Christian to believe.
Maybe like me you’ve wanted a deeper and stronger prayer life. We know it’s there for us, but we struggle with consistency or with thoughts that meander despite our best intentions. Right? Double ugh.
Learning to pray scripture has broadened and deepened my prayers. It keeps my mind focused on praying and takes my Bible study even deeper as I turn what I’ve studied into a personal prayer.
Praying scripture is not new. The whole book of Psalms is a prayer book. But using the Psalms and other Bible verses as the basis for my prayers is a fresh approach for me.
Praying scripture uses the words of a Bible verse or a Bible passage to guide your prayer. It’s a powerful way to pray for several reasons.
On the good days, it’s easy to say that God is in control. We look around with a happy sigh and agree with God that He is ruling well. Life has a good hum, an easy rhythm.
God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
But then there are the other days. Days of dashed hopes and spiraling circumstances.
I remember one season when we felt much like the little boy who plugged the leak by putting his finger in the dike only to find other leaks began to spring as he ran out of fingers to plug them.
We had four children under five and we were for the first time depending only on Dan’s salary. Trying to make some extra income, we’d taken on three small rental houses.
First an air conditioner condenser needed replacing. Then a pool pump gave out. A tenant stopped paying. One of the houses flooded. It was problem after problem and it drained every bit of our energy and all of our cash reserves — and then some. [Read more…]
Yesterday was a homecoming of the best kind. We learned the news that Billy Graham had taken his last breath on earth and his first breath in heaven.
His global impact is immeasurable. Only God knows and heaven will reveal the fruit that one completely surrendered farmboy turned preacher sowed for the kingdom. He preached the gospel on every continent and in more than 184 countries reaching almost a quarter of a billion people in the crusades alone.
To celebrate the impact of the words Billy Graham spoke and wrote in his 99 years, and to honor his life, work and ministry, I’ve curated 50+ Billy Graham best quotes.
I woke in the inky darkness to the wind’s furious whipping outside my window. The power had finally gone out after flickered warnings through the evening and the house was now eerily still compared to the howling outside. At each powerful gust, I braced for limbs that cracked and crashed to the ground outside.
I stepped around my kids scattered on mattresses around the living room. How could they sleep so peacefully through this storm? It had been like a holiday for them – days off school, postponed homework and a pantry of hurricane snacks.
For a week, we’d been tracking the biggest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. We’d waited in long lines to stock up on gasoline and water. We’d studied the projected path, prepping to stay while weighing whether to evacuate.
“O, Lord! I don’t want this storm,” I had prayed, hoping it would take a sharp turn to the east and spin off into the ocean.
Despite my prayers, the storm was now here.
