Sweet and Sour
When our toddler first bit into a lemon wedge, he wrinkled his nose, stuck out his tongue, and squeezed his eyes shut. “Sow-wah,” he said (sour).
I chuckled as I reached for the piece of fruit, intending to toss it into the trash.
“No!” Xavier scampered across the kitchen to get away from ne. “Moe-wah!” (more). His lips puckered with every juice-squirting bite. I winced when he finally handed me the rind and walked away.
My taste buds accurately reflect my partiality to the sweet moments in life. My preference for avoiding all things bitter reminds me of Job’s wife, who seems to have shared my aversion to the sourness of suffering.
Job surely didn’t delight in hardship or trouble, yet he honored God through heart-wrenching circumstances (Job 1:1–22). When painful sores afflicted Job’s body, he endured the agony (Job 2:7–8). His wife told him to give up on God (v. 9), but Job responded by trusting the Lord through suffering and afflictions (v. 10).
It’s natural to prefer avoiding the bitter bites in life. We can even be tempted to lash out at God when we’re hurting. But the Lord uses trials, teaching us how to trust Him, depend on Him, and surrender to Him as He enables us to persevere through difficult times. And like Job, we don’t have to enjoy suffering to learn to savor the unexpected sweetness of sour moments−the divine strengthening of our faith.
Prayers to Say Thank You
Where would you be without Jesus? Take a moment to really think about it. The words of Ephesians 2:12 sum it up well: “without God and without hope.” Without Jesus, we would be hopelessly, eternally lost.
We can never thank God enough and praying the “thank you prayers” of the Bible cultivates gratitude in us and opens our eyes to…
Prayers for Guidance and Direction
Scripture tells of God guiding His people through all kinds of circumstances. He went ahead of Israel through the wilderness, leading them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exod. 13:21). He sent angels to lead Lot and his family out of Sodom (Gen. 19:16) and Peter out of prison (Acts 12:7). Both…
Prayers About Everyday Needs
Sometimes I rush into heaven’s throne room with a list. Though God’s Word encourages us to “come boldly to the throne of our gracious God” (Heb. 4:16), there are moments when I wonder if I’m a little too bold. When my mind is filled with the things of this earth, I can only imagine what it looks like in heaven...…
Prayers to Confess Sin and Humble Ourselves
Of all of Jesus’ names and titles, the one I like best is the one the Pharisees gave Him: Friend of Sinners. I believe it was one of His favorites too. Jesus said that He “came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). “Friend of Sinners” captures the reason He came better than any other title. A…
Prayers to Praise and Honor God
Not far from my home is a place of local legend called Sennett’s Hole. A quarter-mile hike through the woods takes you there to a picturesque bend in the Eno River framed by granite rocks and old-growth trees.
Locals say it was the site of a mill in the 1700s and that the pioneer who built the mill lost his…
The Daily Prayer
Singer/songwriter Robert Hamlet wrote “Lady Who Prays for Me” as a tribute to his mother who made a point of praying for her boys each morning before they went to the bus stop. After a young mom heard Hamlet sing his song, she committed to praying with her own little boy. The result was heartwarming! Just before her son went out the door, his mother prayed for him. Five minutes later he returned . . . bringing kids from the bus stop with him! His mom was taken aback and asked what was going on. The boy responded, “Their moms didn’t pray with them.”
In the book of Ephesians, Paul urges us to pray “on all occasions with all kinds of prayers” (6:18). Demonstrating our daily dependence on God is essential in a family since many children first learn to trust God as they observe genuine faith in the people closest to them (2 Tim. 1:5). There is no better way to teach the utmost importance of prayer than by praying for and with our children. It is one of the ways they begin to sense a compelling need to reach out personally to God in faith.
When we “start children off” by modeling “a sincere faith” in God (Prov. 22:6; 2 Tim. 1:5), we give them a special gift, an assurance that God is an ever-present part of our lives—continually loving, guiding, and protecting us.
