Ezekiel 37:1-5
Most of us have something we’ve quit praying about. Not on purpose. We just stopped. There was a name we used to bring up every night, and somewhere along the way we let it go quiet. We never decided it was hopeless. We just got tired of asking.
Continue reading “Too Far Gone”
Ezekiel 34:2-4
Sheep don’t thrive on good intentions. They need someone who shows up when it’s cold, who notices the one limping at the back of the flock, who goes out after dark when a lamb hasn’t come in. A shepherd who only turns up in good weather isn’t really a shepherd.
Continue reading “Who Feeds the Sheep?”
Ezekiel 30:25
There’s a question most of us have asked at some point, even if we’ve never said it out loud. Why does someone who doesn’t believe in God seem to be doing just fine, while someone who’s trying to follow him is struggling to keep their head above water?
Continue reading “Why Would God Use Babylon?”
Ezekiel 27:27
Most of us have caught ourselves believing that one more purchase, one more upgrade, one more win would finally settle something restless inside us. It never quite does. But we keep trying anyway.
Continue reading “What Goes Down with the Ship”
Lamentations 3:24–25
Most of us know the strange quiet of a waiting room. The muffled television, the magazines nobody reads, the clock that seems to move slower than it should. Somebody else has the news. All we can do is sit there and wait for it.
Continue reading “The Only Portion That Lasts”
Lamentations 2:14
Most of us know the difference between a friend who tells us what we want to hear and one who tells us the truth. One feels better in the moment. The other may hurt, but it’s the friend we need most.
Continue reading “What They Wanted to Hear”
Jeremiah 37:17
Most of us know what it is to want a word from God. Not a sign in the sky, just some quiet sense that He sees what we are facing and has something to say about it. The trouble is, that hunger usually shows up after we have spent a long time keeping His voice at arm’s length. That was Zedekiah’s problem, and he is about the last man we would expect to come looking.
Continue reading “Is There Any Word from the Lord?”
Jeremiah 35:5-6
Most of us know what it feels like to be the only person in the room saying no. Everyone else seems comfortable with the choice. Going along would be easier, and we can usually find a good reason to do it. That is when a conviction stops being an idea and becomes a decision.
Continue reading “When Convictions Are Tested”
Jeremiah 32:27
The city was surrounded. Babylon’s army had been camped outside Jerusalem’s walls for months, and everyone inside knew it was only a matter of time. That’s when God told Jeremiah to do something that must have seemed completely insane: buy a piece of land.
Not just any land. Land in the path of the very army closing in. Jeremiah paid good money for a field in Benjamin, signed the deed, sealed it in a clay jar, and handed it over. His reason was simple. God said that one day, people would buy and sell land in Israel again. Life would return. Restoration was coming. The purchase was a sign of faith in a future only God could see.
Continue reading “What a Good Father Does”