teaching – Word of Prayer

Making Prayer Easier When Life is a Struggle (Psalm 143)

Post author:Ron
Post published:January 9, 2020
Post category:Podcast Praying God's Word Psalms

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.

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14. Kingdom Come

Post author:Ron
Post published:December 30, 2014
Post category:Praying God's Word Starting a Journey with Jesus (Matthew)

Starting a Journey with Jesus, Day 14 (Matthew: 4:23-25)

Today we cover a lot of ground. Put your walking shoes on, we are going to follow Jesus all over the hilly region of Galilee. There are only two cities here (Sepphoris near Nazareth and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee) and many small villages. Most of the people are farmers and fishermen living under Roman rule that is exercised through the Herodian family.

He went across all of Galilee teaching in the synagogues and preaching the good news of God’s kingdom and healing all the sickness and disease of the people. The report about what he was doing went beyond Galilee into all of Syria. People brought to him anybody who was ill with an ailment or problem, those suffering great pain, the demon-oppressed, epileptics and paralyzed, and he healed them all. Great crowds came to him from Galilee, from the “Ten Cities” across the lake, others from Jerusalem and Judea, and others from across the Jordan. (Matthew 4:23-25)

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