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Mary’s Example: When Calling Feels Impossible
Are you ever unsure whether you’re truly qualified to do what God has called you to do? Do you feel confident when you step out to serve Christ—whether it’s a one-time task or part of your daily calling? As I was studying Behold the Savior, a LifeWay Women Advent study, I was reminded of how Mary must have felt when the angel Gabriel announced her assignment: to give birth to the Savior of the world. We know she found peace in God’s presence, yet I can’t imagine she instantly felt “qualified.” In this day’s lesson, author Alena Pitts Franklin shared a quote that resonated deeply with me: I venture to…
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The Challenge of a Complaint-Free Life
Complaining is the absolute worst possible thing you could do for your health. The worst!… For the next 7 days, I challenge you not to complain at all. Every time I read that quote from T. Harv Eker, I feel a pang of conviction. I wish I’d never read it! He challenges us to go seven days without a single complaint. It sounds so simple, yet why is it so incredibly hard? The Apostle Paul gives us a powerful reminder in Philippians 2. Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among…
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Two Responses: Our Choice
When you’re faced with a decision, what guides your response? Do you act based on emotion in the moment, or do you pause, pray, and thoughtfully consider your options? And when you sin—what’s your first reaction? Do you blame, ignore, make excuses, or repent? In 2 Samuel and 1 Kings, we read about two kings, David and his son Solomon, each with different responses to sin. After his impulsive and grievous sins of adultery and murder in 2 Samuel, David was confronted by the prophet Nathan. Instead of hiding or excusing his actions, he humbly confessed. In 2 Samuel 12:13, David said, “I have sinned against the LORD.” His repentance…
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5 Women with a Connection…Part 4
If you could come up with one sin you have committed that disqualifies you from being used by God, what would it be? I’d have to sort through more than one myself. But the truth is, for a follower of Christ, there is not one sin the Lord would call out to us. The fourth woman in this series is Bathsheba. Her story is found in 2 Samuel 11. Men ruled in the ancient world. Women were not in the marketplace and didn’t have a strong voice in a marriage. And the kings had supreme power over their kingdoms and its inhabitants. In 2 Samuel 11:1-5, we see the “man…
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When It Just Won’t End!
What else? How long? Have you asked that once or twice in the last couple of years, the last couple of weeks, as I have? Jut about the time things seem to be healing or changing, a variant COVID pops up. Then world events just take our breath away. Add to that personal crises, several friends who are in a health fight for their lives, on and on. Seriously? What’s next?…I guess the same thing that I wrote about so recently in He Speaks, before the last couple of “issues” mentioned above popped up. So this is how that morning a couple of days ago played out as I did…
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Humility and God’s Hand
Having recently read the book of Ezra again, I was struck especially by two things. How God’s hand was on Ezra as He taught truth and Ezra’s humble prayer for the Israelites and himself. Since I am a teacher at heart, Ezra 7:10 has always been special to me: “Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.“ Ezra was returning with the second wave of Israelites, who had been given permission by Persian King Cyrus, to go back to their city, Jerusalem. The temple had been rebuilt but the worship was still not right.…
