I have been thinking a great deal about praise lately. Michael and Cindy Benefield’s wedding theme was “Praise!” I structured their ceremony around Psalm 145. I think praise can improve our prayer lives.  Scripture reveals how God uses praise to fight spiritual battles. We know that praise declares God’s goodness...

Meditating on Psalm 104 this morning, I saw three concepts that bring power to prayer: praise, perspective, and promise. This beautiful creation psalm recasts the Genesis account in poetic language. Verses 5-9 draw our attention to the creation of the earth, specifically. You set earth on a firm foundation    so that...

Anxiety. Despair. Discouragement. Disillusionment. They tend to set our emotions in motion and consume our thoughts. These descriptive words tend to worm their way into our daily lives. In a well-known passage in Philippians, Paul penned the pattern for relief. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication...

Our world is in a lamentable state. We live with evidence of things-not-right in our own private worlds. We experience difficult life situations which turn us upside down. Many of us suffer with the injustices we see around the globe. Hearts are overwhelmed when people dwell on the regrets of...

Perseverance is not a word that conjures up joy in my heart. Especially when life appears to be made up of situations designed to be Perseverance Skills Tests. Kind of like CrossFit workouts for the spiritually-minded. Life is hard. Perseverance is a word that makes me think of hard physical...