A few days ago, we noted the amazing truth that the very Spirit of God prays for us (vv. 26-27). Today we add to our amazement. In Romans 8:34, we see not only...
Groaning is a thread woven through the middle of Romans 8. As we saw in last week’s reflections, creation groans as it awaits the new creation yet to come. We join the natural...
Three times within ten verses, Romans 8 uses the unusual language of groaning. In today’s reflection, will focus on the first of these instances. Future reflections will examine the other two.In...
In yesterday’s reflection I talked about how the idea of God as father is difficult for many people because of their painful...
Jesus spoke to God as his Father, using the Aramaic term abba. This expressed shocking intimacy with God, something virtually unknown among...
Because we have been adopted into God’s family, we are privileged to call him “Abba, Father.”
This verse reflects an image from the Old Testament. In Exodus, the Lord delivered the children of God from Egypt, and then led them through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud during...
I can't read Psalm 8:4 without remembering how it sounds in the older translations: "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" (KJV). And I can’t hear the classic translation of this...
If you were reading Psalm 6 in the original Hebrew, you might be shocked by the opening imperative of verse 4 (which happens to be verse 5 in Hebrew). The verb “to return”...
The prophet yearns for the salvation of Jerusalem. Thus he cannot stop praying for her “until her righteousness shines like the dawn.” A few verses later, he urges his fellow Israelites to “give...
Do you ever feel like the “restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt”? I do, though...
Ever study birds on a power line? Dozens . . . hundreds . . . side-by-side, chirping away—oblivious to the power surge right under their feet.We Christians can be equally clueless. The Holy Spirit...
The prophecies of Isaiah testify to the “deep waters” and “fires” of Israel’s experience. Because of her persistent rejection of the Lord...
I can still hear echoes of my Sunday School teacher quoting Isaiah 26:3 in the classic language of the King James Version: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee:...
We pray, not only for ourselves, our families, and our churches, but also for the whole world, including the nations.
When I was young I was taught that one ought to have a "quiet time," as it was sometimes called, a time of prayer and solitude.
As Jesus suffered on the cross, he cried out to his Heavenly Father with familiar words: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” This question is the opening line from Psalm...
I hate it when God says no. And that day, He said "No" with an exclamation point. The winter sun shone through the clouds like a dirty tennis ball and glinted off the...
The New Living Translation of Matthew 7:7 adds "keep on" to the more common trio of imperatives (ask, seek, knock). This is not a creative paraphrase, however. If anything, it is a literal...
Have you ever had an experience like that of Jacob? I'm not thinking so much of his dream as I am of his surprised recognition that "the Lord is in this place, and...
