Posts with the tag “prayer”

Most of us give our critics more attention than they deserve. We let their voice get louder in our heads than the voice of the One who gave us the assignment. But here is the thing about critics. They get louder when your comeback gets closer. The noise is not a sign that something is wrong. It is a sign that something is working. Pray and pick up the tools.  Read More

Sunday you heard about the moment Nehemiah had to open his mouth and ask. He had been carrying the burden for months. He had prayed. He had planned. And then the king looked at him and said why does your face look sad. And everything came down to what Nehemiah did in that moment. He asked. Most of us have something we need to ask for and have not asked for yet. A conversation we need to start. A door we need to knock on. Help we need to admit we cannot get along without. We are waiting for the perfect moment, the right words, the guarantee that the answer will be yes before we risk the vulnerability of asking. There is no perfect moment. There never is. Nehemiah was standing in front of the most powerful man in the world with no guarantee and no script and a prayer he sent up in about three seconds between the question and the answer. You know what you need to do. You have known for a while. The plan is not the problem. The ask is the problem. This week, make the ask. Send the message. Make the call. Walk through the door you have been standing outside of. You do not need certainty. You need the same thing Nehemiah had: a God who goes before you into rooms you cannot control. The opposition will show up when you start moving. That is actually a sign you are going the right direction. Sanballat showed up the same day Nehemiah got permission. The resistance is not a reason to stop. It is confirmation that what you are building matters. Ask. Move. Trust the One who opened the door.  Read More

Most of us have places in our lives that used to bother us. The relationship that drifted. The habit we know is costing us something. The dream we quietly filed away. We stopped seeing the ruins because seeing them hurts and not seeing them is easier. But numbness is not healing. And the comeback begins the moment you stop being okay with things being broken.  Read More

Most of us are carrying something we have not brought to Jesus because we are not sure He wants to deal with it. We have made a quiet decision that this particular brokenness is ours to manage and His to overlook. But the leper did not make himself more presentable before he came. He came as he was. And Jesus reached out and touched him before He said a word. The touch came before the healing.  Read More

Long before Revelation, the Hebrew prophets were already using the image of a woman in labor to describe the deepest kind of hope. Not the easy kind. The kind that costs something. Mary stepped into that tradition when she said yes to God before she could see how the story would unfold. No plan. No approval from her community. Just a word from God and the decision of what to do with it. She said yes. She stayed through the cross. She was in the upper room when the Spirit fell. That is what your mother has been doing for you. This one is for her. Read the full post.  Read More

From two years old to ninety plus, GracePointe showed up yesterday. A prayer team on their knees before anyone else moved. Quarters at a laundromat. A prayer walk on First Street. Two cars at a car wash. Yards cleaned for faithful senior members while their neighbors watched and wondered who these people are. That wondering is a door. And we are praying God walks through it. Grace in Action is not a Sunday. It is a posture. And the pointe of grace is always outward.  Read More