Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

We're so capable.  We like doing things ourselves.   But this is no longer a good thing when we elbow out God from the equation. We can only do so much.  God can do anything!  Even the impossible! In Matthew chapter 14, Jesus feeds thousands upon thousands of people from only five loaves of bread and two fish.  It was a true miracle!   His disciples saw things as they supposedly were - their measly amount of food was not enough to even feed themselves, let alone thousands.  So they wanted Jesus to send the people away - let them go get their own food! Jesus saw otherwise. Jesus always sees more than we do (understatement of all time).  He not only sees possibilities but how to do the impossible where there are seemingly no possibilities.   I have no idea how He did it, but He did it!  He took the five loaves and two fish and multiplied them - so much so that not only did He feed the 5,000 (but it was really more, counting women and children - more like 20,000), but there were lefto

Jesus is not Santa Claus.  This may seem an obvious statement.  Yet how often do we request things of God and expect Him to deliver what we want, when we want, in the same way that a child expects of Santa Claus? Is your faith more grown up than that?  Are you sure? What happens when we pray to the Lord asking Him to provide a healing, or deliverance, or provision but our answer does not arrive by "December 25th?" Or we think because we've been "nice" girls and boys that God owes us.  C'mon.  You know you've done this.  We place deadlines on God! We could have all the faith in the world, but when God does not  provide when and how we want, our faith is deflated.   Now don't get me wrong.  Jesus loves when we come to Him with our requests - it shows our faith and childlike trust in Him.  But when we choose date markers of our own, well that is not what faith is about. Why would a loving Father have us wait?  And wait and wait to give us what we think

What does it mean to wait well?  And how long does the Lord expect us to wait on Him? I have been waiting on fhe Lord for almost 30 years for one of my prayers to be answered.  Another, over 10 years. The fact that these particular prayers haven't been answered yet doesn't mean that God doesn't hear me or care.   So what's the hold-up?  Is it me?  Doesn't God see how His answering these prayers would make life better for me?  Because in my mind, they would exponentially improve my life. But then my mind is limited.  God's mind is unlimited. God is always at work in our lives.  Doing what?  Yes, answering our prayers is one way.  But it is not the only way He is working for us.   What happenes to our faith when our prayers go unanswered for a very long time?  Does it strengthen as we persist in believing God no matter what?  Or does it lessen because we don't see the answers come to fruition yet? Whether our faith gets stronger or fades is up to us.  Faith is

We all do it.  Some may do it less than others, but we still do it nonetheless.  We worship our problems. Is this too strong a language?   If we focus on, meditate on, spend time thinking about, and magnify our problems, then yes, we are worshiping them! As Christians, we know that worshiping anything or anyone else other than Christ only leads to disillusion and heartache.  Worse yet, it is a huge sin. So how do we make idols of our problems? We cling to them.  We think about them day and night.  We are consumed by them. Now this is not 24/7 (hopefully!) and it is not every day. But it happenes enough to deform our character in those moments.  That is because whatever we behold, we become. Like most every other sin, at the root of it is lack of trust in God. If we don't believe that God will help, rescue, deliver, heal, or remove whatever is "getting our goat," then we simply do not trust Him. Is there any problem too big for God to handle?   Is your problem financial?