There is so much tension in this life we live where it is obvious that we are not home yet. May we be people who commend our spirits and our lives into the hands of our heavenly Father.

The presence of someone with you, who is stronger than you, really does help you to face things that you fear. Doing it alone feels really daunting.

God sent an angel because He knew that Elijah was facing something that was beyond his own strength. God knew the limitations of Elijah’s capabilities and so sent him what he needed at just the right moment. And what did he need? He needed some carbs, a cold drink, and a good nap. Sometimes, in our flesh, that is what we really need.

David found reason to sing, where before he could just sigh. He found reason to trust, where before he only doubted. He found reason to rejoice, where before he could only lament. 

Friends, sometimes you just have to lift your eyes. The one who made the mountains is watching over you and ready and available to help you in whatever you are facing.

His job is to make sure you don’t drown. Yours is to make sure you don’t quit.

I want God to do something significant in our midst.

I want Him to interrupt our programming plans. I want Him to pour His Spirit out into our people leading to repentance, salvations, healings, life-change, humility, generosity, mercy and forgiveness the likes of which we have never seen. I really want God to stir up a reviving Spirit in our midst. We, of course, have no control over any sort of true work of God, but I have been thinking about what sorts of hearts are ripe for this sort of work.

If God began to stir in that sort of way in our midst, would we be ready? Would we be receptive? Would we stick around long enough to see it for what it really is?

I had the privilege of conducting the memorial service for my beloved father-in-law, Bill Matthews. Here is part of what I said.

As you encounter your own delays, and as you encounter your own “do not knows,” let us not be like the people of Israel who turned to the short term comfort of self-made gods. Embrace delay as an opportunity to wait on and to wait for the LORD. He always seems late, but He is always on time. Embrace limitation of knowledge as an opportunity to lean in to the wisdom of God and to trust Him that He knows what is best for you even when you can’t see it.

What Moses had in his hand was a shepherd’s staff, which made sense as shepherding was his current vocation, but forgive me for stating the obvious, God didn’t ask Moses what he had in his hand because he couldn’t see it, or recognize it for what it was. God made every tree from which every staff had ever been hewn. He knew what Moses had in his hand, but He wanted Moses to stop and to look down at the little that He could bring which could pave the way for the miraculous power that God could bring.

Moses didn’t need all the things that he didn’t already possess in order to get started in fulfilling his purpose in God’s plans in the world. He just needed what he already had his hand, and God was going to do the rest.

When I was a kid in school (which was a very long time ago) I used to worry about a lot of things. I worried about the work that I knew I should do, I worried about what I would be when I grew up and how I should go about that, I worried about my relationships and whether I was like by the people I wanted to be liked by, and I worried about my relationship with God and whether He was pleased with me.

Then I discovered that there were verses in the bible that tell us to not worry. This made me worry more.