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Beginning the Year With Open Hands
Like so many others, the beginning of a new year brings a time of assessment and renewed focus—especially in my walk with Christ. During this season, I find myself particularly sensitive to how the Holy Spirit speaks and gently reveals areas I need to consider and address. Sometimes that prompting comes through a worship song, a passage of Scripture, or a message preached. On the last Sunday of December, a guest preacher taught from Colossians 2. Paul was encouraging the church in Colossae to be unified in love and to grow in wisdom and understanding of God. He also warned them not to be deceived by the false teachings that…
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Simply Praying
Last week, on January 1, I found myself reflecting on the past year. I remembered sweet moments and hard seasons, times of questioning and wondering, and times of being settled and still. There were moments of lament and joy, anger and comfort—all woven together through the days of 2025. I imagine you experienced many of these emotions too. Several friends of mine are currently walking through extremely difficult seasons. Many of them live far away, so I can’t physically sit with them. But they are never far from my heart, and certainly never far from my prayers. I’ve committed to praying continually for them during these challenging days. My heart…
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Is Spiritual Growth Individual or Corporate?
Last summer we enjoyed Olympic sports, my favorite being gymnastics. As I watched the trials earlier, I began to think about both team and independent competition in the Olympics. Both were opportunities to excel and represent their countries. Olympic competitors want to do well for themselves individually, and for their teams, all under the flag of their represented countries. I see a correlation of this line of thought to our spiritual growth as you can see by the title of this post. And, the answer is yes and yes! We must grow spiritual individually, time alone with the Lord is one way we will hear from Him as we study…
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Do You Need Courage?
Who knew, when Jennifer Rothschild began writing her Bible study Take Courage, on the Old Testament book of Haggai, how desperately we would need the messages of encouragement for tough times that Haggai preached! No one knew we’d be in the middle of a global pandemic, or that we would have such turmoil in our nation! But God certainly did. Perhaps you have faced difficulty, opposition and discouragement that causes you to question your purpose, especially as you reflect the 12 months we have just lived through. Maybe situations have not turned out like you thought they would, or how you wanted them to. Maybe you are desperately needing encouragement…
