I am so glad that God gave us girlfriends who will struggle with us in prayer. Paul wasn’t a girlfriend in God, but he certainly understood struggling together in prayer. He wrote: “Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me” (Romans 15:30 NLT). The New Testament was originally written in Greek and sometimes looking at the original definitions of the words can give us great insight.
“Blondin” was the stage name for Frenchman Jean-Francois Gravelet. He was a young man who migrated to the United States with a troupe of acrobats employed by Master Showman P.T. Barnum. In 1858, the thirty-five-year-old Blondin visited Niagara Falls as a tourist and there conceived the preposterous idea of walking across it. In his mind’s eye, he saw himself walking between the two countries, the United States and Canada over the great gorge on nothing more than a rope pathway taut between the two.
It is so easy to fall into the trap of worrying about world events, particularly wars and rumors of war we are hearing about in the news right now. The media shows us horrific details of bombed-out buildings and burned-out homes. People fleeing and parents weeping. But there is hope!
I remember as a little girl, hiding under the covers of my bed, trying to shut out my parents’ yelling and screaming in the next room. I heard bad words. I didn’t know what some of them meant, but I did know how they made me feel. Dirty. The next morning, I awoke to the aftermath of the night’s tirade—Mom’s black eye, Dad’s crying remorse, furniture tossed and broken—and those bad words bouncing around my little-girl head.
I sat on the floor playing a card game with my young son. It was shaping up to be one of the best summers ever. Steven was savoring every minute of the long hot days, our Golden Retriever, Ginger, had delivered seven adorable puppies, and after years of negative pregnancy tests and doctor visits, I had a new life growing in my womb.
Have you ever felt like you just wanted to quit this thing called the “great race” of life? That’s your spiritual legs ache and you would much rather sit on the side of the road and have a good pity party than take one more step. I certainly have. And then I think of my nephew Stu and his mom, Pat.
Be on the lookout. Who is God putting in your path? Be ready to stop. Don’t miss the opportunity. You could be someone’s miracle today.
There are a lot of behaviors and customs that the world says are acceptable but the Word says are not. Our culture celebrates sin and condemns constraint. But there is a better way!
I’m not good enough? That’s not true. Because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His Spirit in me, I am deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, and totally accepted by God. I am empowered and equipped by the Holy Spirit to do all God has called me to do.
Let’s face it. People let us down. They disappoint us. And sometimes it seems God does too. Often our experiences fall short of our expectations for God to meet all our needs the way we think He should, and like a lover who has been wronged, we tend to guard our hearts against future disappointment by lowering our expectations and trust. But make no mistake about it, God sees. God understands. He is not aloof.
