Sometimes I think we forget the kind of God we're praying to. Do we remember that He is the one who created both the heavens and the earth?

Encouraging Words Devotional

Find Out How To Make Your Problem Look Smaller

As a child in her native Finland, Marjaana always wanted to be a missionary in Africa. At a church service, when a Kenyan nurse known as Sister Freda urged the people, "Come to Africa!" Marjaana’s heart was pounding, "I’m going! I’m going!" She was one of the first to sign up for the next trip.

How To Take The First Step to Fulfill Your Dream

The scene was the Garden of Gethsemane. A band of men from the chief priests and Pharisees had arrived to arrest Jesus. Peter, wanting to defend Jesus, drew out his sword and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. Not only did Jesus heal the man's ear but he took time to make clear to Peter that He, the very Son of God, was soon going to lay down His life willingly.   

Why Can My Sins Be Forgiven

In the apostle Peter's second letter to the early Christians, he lists five qualities that we should try to evidence in our lives: he urges us to add to our "faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance" (2 Peter 1:5, 6 NKJV).

How To Persevere When You Don’t Want To

Nik Wallenda is a member of the world-famous seven-generation Wallenda family of high wire performers. He's famous for his walks on the high wire across the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, between skyscrapers high above Times Square, New York, and a nearly 32-minute walk across the fire-y Masaya volcano in Nicaragua. Nik's book titled Facing Fear tells of his conquest not only of these perilous walks but of his conquest of fear, especially after the collapse of an eight-person high wire pyramid in Sarasota, Florida that nearly killed all eight of them. After the accident, Nik had to conquer his fears or he would never walk the high wire again.

How To Walk Into The Unknown With Peace

Bernadette longed for a child. If you've ever been in her shoes, you totally understand what she was experiencing. Eventually she became pregnant but, sadly, at the same time, her husband was battling what turned out to be terminal cancer.  The good part to her story is that before her husband passed away, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. 

This Is Why You Should Put Your Trust In God

Police chaplain Dick Johnson recalls a night when he was doing his regular radio show on a station in Okinawa, Japan. He was playing Christian music and speaking words of encouragement, when the phone rang and a listener shared, "My life is being drained with difficult experiences, and my strength is gone. The comments you made and the music that followed led me to call and ask for help."

Where You Can Find Strength For Today's Demands

Gail's aunt Georgia, a widow who taught handicapped children, knew what it was to experience tragedy. She had married Walter Dickens, a railroad train conductor, and after several months she became pregnant. But their baby died soon after birth. While she was still in the hospital recovering from the delivery, she was notified that Walter had been killed in a train accident.

How To Find Joy In Your Grief

With our world being in the state it is in these days, heaven looks more and more attractive. Sometimes I can hardly wait to go there. Who doesn't like to the read the Bible's description of streets of pure gold, and of gates each made of a single pearl!  Even more, I like to read that in heaven "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:4 KJV).

The Only Way To Heaven

Professor and author C. S. Lewis said most human beings sell themselves short in this life when they could have so much more. Wrote Lewis, We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.[1]    [1] C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1629232-the-weight-of-glory,  accessed February 21, 2021.  

How Do I Find Satisfaction In God?

Are you at a crossroads in your life right now?  You're faced with a decision regarding your future? Perhaps you've been laid off your job and don't know where to go from here. Or perhaps you're thinking of getting married but you're not entirely sure if you've truly met Mr. or Miss Right-for-you.  God has promised in Psalm 23 that He leads us "in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." But just how do you find that path that God wants you to take?

Why Should I Wait On God?

What is the difference between faith and hope?  Both words are used in the Bible quite frequently. Do you remember that 1 Corinthians 13 says, "Now abide faith, hope, love" NKJV. "The word faith is used in the sense of ' trust ', whereas the word hope is used in the sense of 'anticipation'."[1] Hope always involves waiting for something that is as yet unseen but something we can count on. Romans 8:24 says, "Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?" NKJV. Yes, hope always involves waiting, but hope means we can wait patiently and confidently, knowing that what we are anticipating will eventually be reality.  "Hope is a confident expectation that naturally stems from faith. Hope is a peaceful assurance that something that hasn't happened yet will indeed happen."[2]     [1] https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-faith-and-vs-hope/, accessed 1/26/2021.  [2] https://www.gotquestions.org/difference-faith-hope.html, accessed 1-26, 2021.  

What Does It Mean To Have Hope

My all-time favorite fruit is the Filipino mango. While mango trees can live for 300 years, how do they stay standing when typhoon-force winds blow? There's only one answer: their roots. The taproot of a mango tree can go down twenty feet deep into the soil, and, in addition, mangoes grow wide-spreading feeder roots that penetrate deeply.

How Do I Put My Roots In Jesus?

When as a parent you have young kids, it's as if you're in God's waiting room. You're anticipating the day when the "rosebuds" will mature and bloom. You nurture the plants, feed them, and care for them, but you can't make your kids "bloom."  But eventually God will--if you leave the timing to Him.

God’s Lesson About Waiting

Ever see sunflowers growing in someone's garden? Or perhaps by the side of the road? You probably noticed that they almost always face toward the sun. In the morning, young sunflowers face east, slowly turning west as they keep their faces toward the sun throughout the day. Then during the night, they reverse themselves so they are ready to do it again the next day. Why do they do this? Because they innately know that the more sunshine they get, the better they will grow. When sunflower plants are grown indoors, in a short time they stop this habit of always trying to face the sun, and consequently they grow at a slower pace.

This Is What You Can Learn From Sunflowers

A short 2-minute devotional message once a week to help you remember your worth in God.

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Encouraging Words Devotional

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