Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer does not fit us for a greater work; it is the greater work.”  We all know the importance and power of prayer, but for some reason, it is an area of weakness for most believers.  Bearing the burden of emotional and spiritual weights can fatigue your soul, discourage your heart, and stymie your growth.  That is why the Bible instructs us to pray with, and for, one another.  We often struggle in prayer because we go at it all alone.

Rarely does a single soldier obtain victory in his own strength.  It is seldom that a …

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon poetically described the various seasons of life.  There is a time for this, and a time for that.  Life unfolds naturally…sometimes triumphantly, sometimes tragically; but always in divine order.  Our birth, life, and death all exist within the parameters of time, or as Solomon put it, the seasons of life.  Quite literally, life is a collection of seasons.  Though the fade from one to the other is gradual, it is constant and ever-moving.  It cannot be stopped.

In the diligent and fervent effort to slow the process of time, we ironically seem to speed …

If we had the luxury of interviewing the apostle Paul, and could ask him about his greatest discovery in life and ministry outside of salvation, I believe he would take us to Philippians 4:11.  Imagine his response…His face is wrinkled from years of service, his veteran eyes squint ever so slightly as to let us know he is thinking about the question; he then clears his seasoned, authoritative voice and softy proclaims, “This is my greatest discovery; I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

For Paul, the road of contentment was paved with experience, hardship, …

Sometimes life is the pits…literally.  Just ask Joseph.

He was the many-colored-coat-wearing-favorite-son of his father who stirred the bitter ashes of hatred and jealousy in the hearts of his brothers.  They hated the fact that their father blatantly and continually showed favoritism toward the younger son.  They hated that obnoxious, one-of-a-kind, “look-at-how-special-I am” jacket he paraded around in.  And they especially hated those dreams….those blessed, patronizing, arrogant dreams.  Such animosity led to murderous and unanimous contention.  Had it not been for Reuben, the eldest, they would have stripped him of that coat and left him for dead.  Instead they threw …

Isn’t it ironic that with all of our time-saving devices we are still in a hurry?  Don’t get me wrong, I like our microwave, electronic-banking, do-everything-on-the-cell-phone, pay-at-the-pump society. I appreciate convenience for convenience’s sake, but I wonder what we lose in the process of so much progress?  We certainly are not gaining any extra time. Everyone I know seems to be in a rush in spite of using modern, time-saving devices.  We go from one stop to the next without blinking an eye. We hurriedly check items off the proverbial list just so we can get to the next thing.  …