Topic > Christian Beliefs > God > God's Care >
When her world of financial security and what she thought was happiness came crashing down, Jennifer Stoll questioned her identity. She turned to the Bible and to prayer for help.…
WatchTwo Portraits
Clutching two framed photographs, the proud grandmother showed them to friends in the church foyer. The first picture was of her daughter back in her homeland of Burundi. The second was of her grandson, born recently to that daughter. But the daughter wasn’t holding her newborn. She had died giving birth to him.
A friend approached and looked at the pictures. Reflexively, she reached up and held that dear grandmother’s face in her hands. All she could say through her own tears was, “I know. I know.”
And she did know. Two months earlier she had buried a son.
There’s something special about…
What Peace Is Not
I buried my head in my pillow. My tears had run dry over the past two days of sobbing over a break-up. I had gone through the various stages of heartbreak, denial, anger and finally acceptance.
Taking the Initiative Against Despair
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples went to sleep when they should have stayed awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, “Well, it’s all over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.” If we think this kind of despair is an exception, we are mistaken. It is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair. But Jesus comes and lovingly says to us, in essence, “Sleep on now.
Understanding what’s happening now . . . later
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show or read a book that didn’t seem to make sense until you got to the end? Sometimes we only understand what’s happening now . . . later. Today on Discover the Word, the group will show us how God’s plan for “The Miraculous Life of Elisha” made […]
Being a part of God’s “upside down” kingdom
The Bible tells us that often God’s ways are not our ways. And maybe nowhere is that clearer than in “The Miraculous Life of Elisha.” Join us today on Discover the Word as we’ll be unpacking what it means to be a part of God’s “upside down” kingdom. Challenge your assumptions today, right here on Discover […]
I See You
“I see you,” a friend said in an online writers’ group where we support and encourage each other. Having felt stressed and anxious, I experienced a sense of peace and well-being with her words. She “saw” me—my hopes, fears, struggles, and dreams—and loved me.
When I heard my friend’s simple but powerful encouragement, I thought of Hagar, a slave in Abram’s household. After many years of Sarai and Abram still longing for an heir, Sarai followed the custom of the culture and told her husband to conceive through Hagar. But when Hagar became pregnant, she treated Sarai with contempt. When Sarai…
How A Hot Cup of Cocoa Pointed Me to God
The morning breeze mercilessly blew above the walls and enveloped any brave soul standing in its path on a frigid, December morning at dawn’s break.
Is God concerned with the small things?
How concerned is God with the small, everyday things in our lives? Well, today on Discover the Word as we look back at “The Miraculous Life of Elisha,” we see how concerned God was with the loss of a borrowed tool. The miracle of the floating ax head—discover what that’s all about when you listen […]
Always in His Care
On the day our youngest daughter was flying from Munich to Barcelona, I visited my favorite flight tracking website to follow her progress. After I entered her flight number, my computer screen showed that her flight had crossed Austria and was skirting the northern part of Italy. From there the plane would fly over the Mediterranean south of the French Riviera toward Spain and was scheduled to arrive on time. It seemed that the only thing I didn’t know was what the flight attendants were serving for lunch!
Why did I care about my daughter’s location and circumstances? Because I love…
Thunder and Lightning
Many years ago a friend and I were fishing a series of beaver ponds when it started to rain. We took cover under a nearby grove of quaking aspen, but the rain continued to fall. So we decided to call it a day and run for the truck. I had just opened the door when lightning struck the aspen grove with a thunderous fireball that stripped leaves and bark off the trees, leaving a few limbs smoldering. And then there was silence.
We were shaken and awed.
Lightning flashes and thunder rolls across our Idaho valley. I love it—despite my close call.…
God’s Face
Much of my career as a writer has revolved around the problem of pain. I return again and again to the same questions, as if fingering an old wound that never quite heals. I hear from readers of my books, and their anguished stories give human faces to my doubts. I remember a youth pastor calling me after he had learned that his wife and baby daughter were dying of AIDS because of a tainted blood transfusion. “How can I talk to my youth group about a loving God?” he asked.
I have learned to not even attempt an answer to…
Even when God is silent he is up to something good
Prayer is such a powerful thing! Even when it seems like God is silent, He’s always up to something good. That’s the lesson Habakkuk learned, and it’s what we’ll see today on Discover the Word. Listen as our team concludes our discussion titled, “Major Prayers from a Minor Prophet” . . . today on Discover the […]
