Sometimes I don’t understand Jesus. Here he has been healing people, blessing people, astonishing people—his ministry is growing. To borrow a phrase from Malcolm Gladwell, Jesus has reached his “tipping point.” It seems a strange time to go to the lake.
It is surprising. Just when things really start to get going Jesus goes on retreat.
Read More authority, leadership, confidence
Joshua has watched Moses lead for 40 years. He has been an eyewitness to how Moses would meet with God. He has been an eyewitness to how Moses would seek God and trust in God. He has seen how the Lord provides. Now it is his turn to lead the people.
These short instructions say so much.
Read More word, confidence, courageEliab’s pride is pricked by David’s questions. He, like the rest of the soldiers, “knows they are in a hopeless situation”. Having his kid brother show up, challenging the negative “group think” of the army is embarrassing to him.
But David’s curiosity, faith and honest questions are like a breath of fresh air among the demoralized troops of Israel, so much so that word of David’s positive presence reaches Saul.
Read More young people, faith, confidence‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself,’ is how Franklin D. Roosevelt put it when marshaling his nation for the hardships of the Second World War.
Roosevelt understood that the battle is not only out there in the world, but inside, in a deeper place in the individual spirit. If the battle can be won ‘in here,’ it can then be won in the trenches and skies and waters of ‘out there.’
Read More fear, authority, security, confidence
David was desperate. Few of us will ever be in the same place as David with enemies surrounding him in an effort to defeat him or even take his life, but we can identify with the feeling of being desperate when we are in the midst of tragedy, illness or emotional pain. When we know we are no longer in control, we know the feeling of being vulnerable – of not being self-sufficient.
Read More faith, servant, confidence, desperate“Confidence properly placed.” That’s a great definition of humility. In Psalm 118 David’s humility is inspiring. It is a picture of a man not bowed down to the ground like a worm, but leaping into the air, rejoicing before the altar of God. We can almost see him dancing through the streets of Jerusalem as he cries out for all of Israel to acknowledge that God’s love endures forever while he acknowledges that it was God who has given him the victory over his enemies.
Read More joy, humility, confidence
Read Reflect Does it come as a surprise that the great apostle Paul should ask the believers in Thessalonica to pray for him? I think we sometimes forget how down-to-earth Paul was in his friendships and everyday life, and how he modelled the kind of inter-dependence that there should be among all Christians everywhere. We […]
Read More inter-dependence, endurance, prayer, confidence
This proverb is a prayer to the Lord that reveals certain aspects of our human nature. The author has two prayers that are intertwined. First of all, he prays for the moral fortitude to be a man of integrity, then he requests to be preserved from the circumstances that could jeopardize that moral integrity.
Read More Riches, self-sufficiency, poverty, integrity, confidence, dependence
Read Reflect These few verses almost sound like a mix between a plea and a bargain being made between the psalmist and God – and the desperation expressed is by no means foreign to us. Most of us can identify at least one time, if not a few dozen, when we’ve felt the same need […]
Read More safety, praise, hope, confidence, bargaining with GodRead Reflect I grew up traveling with my missionary parents, studied cultural anthropology in college, and visited almost every country on earth by my 50th birthday. One thing remains – nothing ever changes. You see, we might think that wars, economics, politics, religion or technology have changed our world significantly. But the truth of the […]
Read More perspective, confidence, veil