Blessed
Are you blessed? Do you feel blessed? Those are two separate questions, but we often confuse them. We substitute our feelings for the facts. Here's what I mean. God's Word…
Athanasius on Praying the Psalms
"The Book of Psalms teaches us the emotions of the soul,...it teaches us not only to disregard [runaway] passions, but also how one must heal passion through speaking and acting."…
Making Prayer Easier When Life is a Struggle (Psalm 143)
Life is a struggle sometimes. Prayer can be a struggle. It doesn’t have to be. When prayer seems hard I turn to the Psalms. I’ve done that for nearly 30 years since I was a young single man living far from home in a foreign land and the Psalms have led me closer to God. Through centuries and millenia God’s people have used the Psalms to express their cries to him. I shared the following psalm (143) last Sunday with my family a day after my oldest son left home and landed on the other side of the world and now I’m sharing it with you.
1 Yahweh hear my prayer. Give ear to my requests. In your faithfulness and your righteousness answer me!
2 Do not enter into judgment of your servant, for no one living can be upright before you.
3 For the enemy pursues me and crushes me to the ground. He makes me dwell in darkness like those who are long dead.
4 So my spirit is overwhelmed inside me and my heart is desolate within.
(more…)Prayer for the New Year – Psalm 120
The first day and first month of the new year, January '20 - 1/20, gives us an opportunity to pray God's word in a fresh way using Psalm 120. Psalm…