Ready to Act

If you’re going to have the audacity to ask God for something, you’d better be ready to act. Audacious prayer must be tethered to practical obedience. Or else it’s not faith. It’s just wishful thinking and positive mental energy. No wonder so many of our prayers aren’t answered. We pray for a miracle, but we fail to make a move.

And most of the time, if you don’t move, God won’t move. That’s just the way he designed faith to work.

Excerpted from Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick

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Daily Reflection:
Which personal prayer do you need to be ready to act on? How can you prepare yourself to do that?

God’s Hand

Have you ever shown up somewhere at “just the right time”? When you think back on your life, can you remember a person who briefly entered your life, saying something or doing something that impacted your life out of proportion to what they actually said or did? What were the circumstances that brought you together with your spouse or the detailed circumstances of other such notable events in your life? Have you ever been randomly thinking of someone who then unexpectedly shows up or contacts you? Has something ever happened that left you thinking “That’s weird”? Consider whether these are sets of “coincidences” or whether they might be orchestrated events; evidence of God’s hand in our lives.

Excerpted from To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal, MD

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Daily Reflection:
When have you been most aware of God’s [ … ]

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WaterBrook Multnomah Church Resources: Multi-Packs

Whether you’re looking for a gift to give church visitors, new members, youth, or others, these multi-packs are a great way to provide answers, inspiration, challenge or direction at an affordable price. These pocket-sized books by bestselling and respected Christian authors are approximately 4″ x 6″ and come in packs of 6 or 10. Each 10-pack book is 64 pages long and each 6-pack book is 96 pages long. You’ll also find a place in the back of each book where you can attach a label with your church or ministry’s contact information and/or service times.

 

Orders of $200 and more (11 multi-packs) receive 30% off and free shipping! If you’re thinking of ordering 5,000 booklets or more, please contact us for pricing on having any of these [ … ]

The Someday Syndrome

Someday. One day. When. If. Then it’s over. When are we going to wake up
and realize this is life?

This is your life, right here, right now. Wherever you’re reading this page, feeling whatever you’re feeling, facing whatever you’re experiencing, Someday is right now. We’ll always be tempted to resort to the Someday Syndrome, but this mind-set robs us. Someday, when whatever we’re looking for happens, then we’ll start living. When everything settles down someday, then we can savor life. But things won’t settle down. Once we attain what we think we want—more money, a less hectic schedule, the right job—we’ll soon realize that it doesn’t fulfill us, and we’ll begin looking for the next big thing.

God did not design us simply to stand by and watch life pass as we wonder why we aren’t more fulfilled. [ … ]

The God of Change

In the everyday circumstances of life, the best choice so often seems to be the new thing—new career, new job, new wife, new car, new home, new city, new start. But our concept of newness goes about as deep as that new car smell—persuasive and delightful, but how long does it last? Invariably, when we want new, we play around with the outside while the inside stays the same.

Yet the outside isn’t the problem.

God doesn’t make all things new by changing the outside. He wants to remake the substance of our lives. When God summons a soul, it’s not a one-time event; He calls us to something new every day. We get all excited about self-improvement, but God doesn’t really seem to be in the improvement business. He prefers to get to the core of the problem. He [ … ]

Not Alone

You’re not alone. In fact, you’ve got Somebody on your side who’s taking more than His fair share of the load.

Look for a moment in the ninth chapter of John. Jesus is having a conversation with not only His disciples but also a man who had been blind from birth. “We must do the work of Him who sent Me.” Whom was Jesus talking to in verse 4? I can’t be sure, but I have a strong feeling He was looking directly at that disabled man.

I choose to think Jesus was reminding that blind man that he was not alone. He was not alone in his disability. He was not alone in his despair. The works of God were about to be displayed through him. The Lord wanted this man to know that God Himself was standing by [ … ]

The Root of Love

Some may argue, “But love is a feeling and you cannot command a feeling. I just don’t feel anything for him/her anymore.” But agape love is not primarily a feeling. God would not command a feeling. Love is primarily an action. Love is the giving of oneself to another. It’s a skill one can develop in the strength of God’s Spirit. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). In other words, love insists we do something. Feelings for enemies are not developed by sitting in a dark room thinking, but by doing. Feelings follow action. Feelings are the fruit, not the root, of love.

Excerpted from The Joy of Encouragement by Dr. David Jeremiah

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READING GUIDE: The Girl’s Still Got It by Liz Curtis Higgs

Think of it as time travel without gimmicks, gizmos, or a DeLorean: a novel approach to Bible study that leaps from past to present, gleaning timeless truths that will draw you nearer to the One who knows you fully, loves you completely, and holds you close to his heart.

Download the reading guide now

Learn more about The Girl’s Still Got It

The Way Things Ought To Be

The bottom line is that the Christian has a calling and a responsibility to think, work, and live in terms of how the world ought to be in contrast to reacting to how it really is. Christians who engage the world—like the many stories I’ve shared and the many more I could have—are consumed by this “way things ought to be” mind-set. They eat, drink, and breathe restoration. They see injustice and fight it. When confronted with evil they turn it for good. They are motivated to bring the love of Christ into every broken system they encounter. Instead of being cynical and hopeless, they bring optimism and expectation. For them, the entire world has been flipped on its head. Their focus has moved from self to others; from problems to solutions; from failure to redemption; from brokenness to restoration. [ … ]