There the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. (Exodus 3:2 NLT)
Chris Quilala said, “Throughout history God has revealed Himself in many different ways, leaving those touched by Him forever changed. … God’s miraculous display is never without purpose.”
Even outside the Bible, William Wilberforce was convinced of God’s creative power by watching a spider weave her web; C.S. Lewis believed in God’s presence by watching the wind swirl some leaves; John Newton fell to his knees in surrender on board a ship as he experienced God’s awesome power in a massive storm at sea.
God is always revealing Himself—always speaking to us.
Are you open to hearing His voice in both miraculous and everyday ways?
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Prayer can unleash God’s miracles. Sometimes the most visible miracles are the changes that are seen in us—our attitude, our expectation, our focus, and our maturity.
Maturity is not stuffy and stodgy. Those folks actually become quite childish when others around them don’t “act right,” according to their standards. The most mature people are the most childlike.
Do you want proof for that last statement? The most mature Person to ever live on earth was Jesus, and He loved being around kids and having children around Him (Mark 10:13-14).
His teaching examples were frequently quite simple—farmers, birds, flowers, trees, and even going to the bathroom!. He knew their songs (Luke 7:31-32), and many of His interactions with the overly-mature religious leaders were quite playful and childlike (Mark 11:27-33).
Jesus wants us to come to our Father like children (Mark 10:15-16). “Like a little child” means childlike, which is the exact opposite of childish. Those who think they are too mature for such simplistic things are actually the ones who are childish.
Jesus uses the Father-child relationship over and over to teach us about praying to a Father who is desirous of giving us the best things (Matthew 6:7-9; Luke 12:32).
One of the Psalms of Ascent written by David strikes this childlike note (Psalm 131). Verse 1 describes the childishness he’s giving up, and verse 2 describes the childlikeness he is taking on:
“my heart is not proud”—not focused on me (v. 1a)
“my eyes are not haughty”—overly grown up (v. 1b)
“I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp” (v. 1c NLT)
instead I am stilled, quieted, trustingly at peace (v. 2)
and then David calls all of us to this same childlikeness (v. 3)
Jesus taught about persistent prayer in Luke 18:1-8 and then used a scenario from the temple to illustrate His point (Luke 18:9-17), contrasting the childish pseudo-maturity of the overly-religious man and the childlike maturity the childlike man. And then, as directed by the Holy Spirit, Luke includes the same exchange Mark used about Jesus taking up children in His arms to bless them.
Childlike is loving dependent; childish is fiercely independent.
Childlike is trusting someone wise; childish always knows best.
Childlike is imaginative; childish is realistic.
Childlike is persistent; childish is whining.
I love the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem called The Children’s Hour. As you read through this, imagine our Heavenly Father as Longfellow and yourself as his three daughters.
Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the Children’s Hour.
I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.
From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.
A whisper, and then a silence:
Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
To take me by surprise.
A sudden rush from the stairway,
A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!
They climb up into my turret
O’er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me;
They seem to be everywhere.
They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!
Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
Is not a match for you all!
I have you fast in my fortress,
And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
In the round-tower of my heart.
And there will I keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away! —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
We mature by trading childishness for childlikeness. We mature best by coming to God our Father in prayer as a child comes to his father.
Let prayer change your maturity!
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this series on how prayer changes us, you can find them all here.
When we ready the Bible and it confronts us, the first place we need to look is in the mirror. The Bible is speaking first to me about changes I need to make. It’s only after I have applied God’s Word to my own life that I can talk about it authentically to others.
“Righteousness is nothing more or less than the character of Jesus Himself, manifesting in and through us into all our relationships, roles, and responsibilities.” —T.M. Moore
“At one time in Earth’s recent past people and all animals, including crocodiles, lions, T. rex, sharks, spiders, alligators, etc., were vegetarian. It is not known exactly when the transition to carnivorous and predatory behavior occurred, but we do know it happened after Adam and Eve sinned and did not involve evolution.” A recent analysis of a pterosaur’s stomach contents shows this vegetarian diet.
Cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace explains why the different accounts of the ministry of Jesus (as recorded in the four Gospels) actually bolster the case for their accuracy and historicity.
“It is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christian’s sight, that he forgets his hope of that glorious place, that he begins to set up some idol…. Keeping the joy of heaven always before you will help you to run your race with patience. It will help you endure your short scuffles with temptation and affliction.” —William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armor
T.M. Moore wrote these sober words to the church: “The Lord sees His Church as the joy and beauty of the earth (Psalm 48:1-2), reflecting His splendor and goodness to the watching world. But when churches spend the bulk of their budgets and energies on themselves, it’s hard to see how they can be of much good in their local communities.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Sometimes when Christians get anxious about a situation, it appears that they have forgotten that God is just as loving and strong today as He was in the good ol’ days. We need to guard against this misunderstanding.
Let’s use this prayer to remember that God isn’t just the God of the good ol’ days, but He is still just as loving and powerful today as He has ever been—
“God, You have been faithful—You have rescued me. Now help me to see that You are still Sovereign over this current situation—You are doing something in the midst of this crisis.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Discussions about end times events and thoughts about the Second Coming of Jesus are sure to make some people uneasy. Even Christians can feel a little uncertain over the details of this topic.
This isn’t anything new. In the first century, the apostle Paul was already writing about this to the saints, particularly in his two letters to the church at Thessalonica. Paul wants to bring us reassurance about God’s resolute plan, and he also wants to reassure any fearful hearts.
In 2 Thessalonians, I see two little words that Paul uses to give us both certainty and security—those words are “the” and “our.” Paul especially uses these words when he mentions the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
The definite article “the” distinguishes the True and the Authentic from the deception that the antichrist will bring. The “the” tells us that there is only One that is certain.
Think of it this way: If I tell you that some supplies I brought for you are in my car, I can give you the one and only car to go to. You don’t have to check just any car in the parking lot, but you have one certain car—the car—that can supply your needs. This is what we have in our Savior Jesus.
I shared more details about this in an exclusive 5-minute video for my Patreon supporters. You can become a supporter and get access to all of my exclusive content by clicking here.
The pronoun “our” then assures us of the security we have in our relationship with God. Much like Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father” we can feel comforted in knowing the assurance the Holy Spirit gives us that the Savior has opened the way for us to come to the Father—to our Heavenly Father!
Check out both of these powerful little words in this passage—
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved bytheLord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved throughthesanctifying work oftheSpirit and through belief in thetruth. He called you to this through ourgospel, that you might share in theglory of ourLord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14)
“The” gives us certainty and “our” gives us security to know that we are lovingly held in God’s hands—held securely for all of eternity.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Two of my favorite topics—leadership and biblical studies—merge beautifully in Spiritual Leadership by Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby.
Of course, I believe the Bible is the ultimate leadership guide, but I also recognize how many leadership authors have expounded on and then applied biblical principles in their leadership lectures and books. In Spiritual Leadership, the Blackaby father-and-son team moves seamlessly from biblical examples, to contemporary leadership quotes, to the latest research, and right back to the lessons found in Scripture. I loved it!
The authors note, “People know intuitively that claiming to be a leader or holding a leadership position does not make someone a leader. People are warily looking for leaders they can trust.” I believe this trust must come from a leader’s solid foundation of morality and competency. Spiritual Leadership doesn’t claim to be the go-to resource to build this leadership foundation, but I think any thoughtful reader will see that God’s principles for leadership put that foundation in place and give leaders a filter to judge the usefulness of all other leadership books.
Speaking of other leadership books, the Blackabys have extensively footnoted all of their source materials, so whether you want to read the biblical passages that they are referencing or dive deeper into the research they share, you will have an ample catalogue right at your fingertips.
Whether you are an emerging leader or a veteran leader, you are still a leader-in-training. I would highly recommend including this book as part of your ongoing leadership development.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Heartfelt prayer is never a meaningless exercise. Without exception, something is changed with every single prayer we offer to God. Sometimes, as we have learned, some of the biggest changes take place in us.
Take a look at this picture—what do you see? If your focus is on the big, dark dot you will eventually lose sight of all that’s bright and beautiful around it. Jesus said something similar in Luke 11:34. Prayer can help us take our focus off the darkness and turn to the light.
When we experience bad things, we have three options:
We can focus on the badness and see it as inevitable and inescapable—this will leave us bitter.
We can attempt to change our circumstance—this will leave us possibly better. But what if we cannot change our circumstances? Then we’re right back to #1—we are bitter.
We can change our focus. For Christians, this will help us realize how blessed we are.
Let’s revisit part of a road trip that the apostle Paul took.
First in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-4). He was only able to spend 3 weeks in this city before the jealous Jews rounded up trouble and started a riot (vv. 5-10). Instead of focusing on that big, black dot, Paul gratefully prayed for them (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3; 2 Thessalonians 1:3, 11-12).
Before Thessalonica, he was shamefully treated in Philippi (1 Thessalonians 2:1-2; Acts 16:22-24). Another incredibly short stay before trouble came, but yet again, Paul prays with gratitude (Philippians 1:3-4).
Why could Paul be grateful? Mainly because his focus wasn’t on the big, dark dot of his shameful treatment in those cities, but on what God had done because of that treatment (Philippians 1:12-14; 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10, 3:6-10; 2 Thessalonians 1:4).
Likewise, Paul calls on us to use prayer to change our focus (Philippians 4:4-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
William Cowper was a gifted poet who battle the big, black dot of depression. One of his poems captures the light behind the big, black dot—
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning Providence,
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain. —William Cowper, Light Shining Out Of Darkness
Let’s let prayer change our focus from the darkness to the light!
Both anxiety and peace are seen in our countenance and our actions long before they are heard in our words. Christian, is your life showing that you know the Prince of Peace intimately?
This year is the 55th anniversary of the release of Corrie ten Boom’s book The Hiding Place. If you hav never read this book, you certainly should add it to your list. John Stonestreet shares some insights about thankfulness we learn from this amazing story.
“Even the tired horse, when he comes near home, mends pace: be good always, without weariness, but best at last; that the nearer thou comest to the end of thy days, the nearer thou mayest be to the end of thy hopes, the salvation of thy soul.” —Thomas Adams (youngest son of John Adams)
“I do not want a God whom I have made, but a God who has made me.” —G.K. Chesterton
“I can’t go back to yesterday—because I was a different person then.” —Lewis Carroll
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Sales is a battle! While there (hopefully) isn’t any real bullets flying, the stress and exhaustion can make it feel like there is at times. To stay in the fight and avoid defeat in these situations you need preparation and planning. This is where Greg’s new book Sales Armageddon comes in. Here is a sneak peek of a couple of chapters in this entertaining and educational book.
[0:00] Introduction
[0:22] I have a great gift idea for all sales professionals—Greg’s newest book called Sales Armageddon.
[1:00] This book has a bunch of interesting characters that are based on real people.
[2:24] Greg and I unwrap a couple of chapters in this book. First of all, the chapter entitled “Aggressively waiting for the phone to ring.”
[6:47] The subtitle of this book is: Prepare and practices sales differently, or perish!
[7:30] Greg shares some traps that can be keeping some sales professionals in a slump.
[10:10] I put Greg on the spot with something not in his book: How do sales professionals distinguish themselves when they first contact their prospects?
[15:38] Some of the added features in Sales Armageddon.
[16:02] Another chapter we discuss is “The Know-It-All.”
[21:21] Every chapter of this book stands alone, and you can learn something that will help you learn new sales skills.
[22:24] There is great value in getting a coach outside of your organization.
[22:51] Greg has some great keynote addresses that he provides for sales and leadership professionals.
I also have a new book out for ministry leaders called Amen Indeed.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
You probably know the story of Daniel in the lion’s den, but I want to highlight a couple of really important things, so let me share this story with you from the Amplified Bible.
First of, remember how Daniel distinguished himself above all of the other governmental leaders: “Then this Daniel was distinguished above the presidents and the satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm” (Daniel 6:3).
Daniel’s rivals knew that they could never discredit him because of a lack of integrity or his shoddy work ethic. So they concocted a plan that played on King Darius’ pride. They got Darius to sign a law into effect that said no one could pray to anyone except Darius for the next month. Daniel, however, continued to pray to Jehovah three times a day, every single day.
Then they said before the king, “That Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, does not regard or pay any attention to you, O king, or to the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.” Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed over what he had done and set his mind on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored until the sun went down to rescue him. (Daniel 6:13-14)
Unable to find any loopholes in the law he had signed, Darius had to subject Daniel to the punishment for breaking this law—
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, Whom you are serving continually, deliver you!” Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting, neither were instruments of music or dancing girls brought before him; and his sleep fled from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. And when he came to the den and to Daniel, he cried out in a voice of anguish.
The king said to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, Whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions?”
Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God has sent His angel and has shut the lions’ mouths so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent and blameless before Him; and also before you, O king, as you very well know I have done no harm or wrong.”(Daniel 6:16, 18-22)
Daniel’s lifestyle—not his religion—first got the attention of King Darius, which led to Daniel’s promotion in the kingdom. But over time, Darius began to realize that Daniel’s faith in God is what fashioned Daniel’s lifestyle.
Notice that the Bible doesn’t say Daniel was praying in the lion’s den, but it does say that Darius was fasting while Daniel was in the lion’s den.
Daniel’s lifestyle of prayer prompted Darius to pray!
It is quite likely that Daniel was regularly praying for all the kings of Babylon and Persia because of what God had said through Jeremiah: And seek (inquire for, require, and request) the peace and welfare of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captive; and pray to the Lord for it, for in the welfare of the city in which you live you will have welfare (Jeremiah 29:7 AMPC).
Darius’ response upon seeing Daniel’s deliverance shows a complete transformation in his attitude: He is now fully persuaded that the God who Daniel serves is the one true God.
Then King Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages in his realm that dwelt in all the earth: “May peace be multiplied to you! I make a decree that in all my royal dominion men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, enduring and steadfast forever, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed and His dominion shall be even to the end of the world. He is a Savior and Deliverer, and He works signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth—He Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.” (Daniel 6:25-27)
So Daniel didn’t need prayer, but Darius did. Daniel already knew that God would take him through, but Darius had to be convinced. It was the all-night prayer that saved the king.
Perhaps our God-centered, Christ-exalting, prayer-saturated lives may be just the catalyst that leads to the salvation of one of the most unlikely world leaders. So worship God, live with integrity, keep praying for those leaders, and wait in expectation for what God is going to do. Even if God takes you into a dark lion’s den, trust His plan that He is working out to glorify His name “to the end of the world”!
Just remember: Your prayer life may cause an unlikely leader to begin to pray too.
Craig T. Owens 