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Marriage

  Proverbs 18:22 NLT The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favour from the LORD.   I can testify to the truth of this verse. I found a wife, and I did indeed find a treasure. Apart from Christ, she is the most precious person in my life, and I do well to remind myself of that fact!   The Bible describes wives as ‘helpmates’- people who help us and who are close to us. God made the first woman out of the first man’s rib to be close to his heart. She wasn’t made from his head to be superior; or his foot to be inferior. Men and women are equally made in the image and likeness of God.   God has favoured me with my wife. She is Joy by name and a joy to me by nature. She has made me a far better person than I was before I met her.   My wife has made me more like Jesus. She spurs me on along my spiritual journey as we walk together with the Holy Spirit. I commend marriage to my readers!   ‘Heavenly Father, I want to thank You for my wife, and for the
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Mercy

  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. LUKE 6:36 (NIV)   If we want God to be merciful to us, we need to be merciful to others. We’re not to be merciful to earn God’s mercy. Because of God’s mercy to us, we should be merciful to others.   We shouldn’t just be merciful so that God is merciful to us. We should be merciful simply because God is, and we ought to want to be like Him. We are to be holy, as He is holy.   Mercy is not treating people as they deserve. Our gut reaction when someone wrongs us is to give them what we think they deserve. We should be merciful to them, however.   We’re to leave vengeance to the Lord. He’s perfectly just and righteous. We can entrust our vindication to Him.   ‘Merciful Father God, please help us to be merciful, even as You are merciful to us. We thank You, in the name of Jesus, amen’
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Mercies

The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. LAMENTATIONS 3:22-23 (NLT)   These verses are a ray of light in an overwhelmingly dark book. Lamentations was written because God’s people were torn from their homeland and exiled in Babylon. Even today, if something is lamentable, it is something very mournful.   These verses are like an obstinate insistence. Despite how desperate God’s people’s situation was, they could cling to their Lord and know His unfailing love for them.   Romans 8 powerfully echoes these words. It states that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even exile from the promised land can separate God’s people from His love.   Every day there is new hope. Maybe today, Christ will return and cause all suffering to cease for His people. We need to make our peace with Him before it’s too late!   ‘Faithful Lord, we praise You for Your unfailing love for u
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Listen!

  James 1:19 NLT Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.   In Christ, we’re all one big spiritual family. We’re all siblings, adopted by our Father God through faith in Jesus. We need to understand how we ought to function as God’s family.   Firstly, we must be quick to listen. A famous quote says that we’ve got twice as many ears as mouths, so we should listen twice as much as we speak! Most of us find it hard to listen, and if we do, we listen to respond, rather than listen to understand and appreciate where the other person’s coming from.   Secondly, we should be slow to speak. Lots of us are opinionated and like to be heard. Yet James is urging us to think twice before opening our mouths: is it necessary?   Finally, we’re to be slow to get angry. Lots of things can irritate and annoy us. We should pause before venting, maybe we just need to be philosophical about whatever’s bugging us.
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Holiness

  Leviticus 20:26 NLT You must be holy because I, the LORD, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own. This verse was originally addressed to the Israelite people. Sadly, they generally weren't holy and didn't live as God's people. So they were exiled from their promised land. The new testament echoes this verse, but applies it to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Just because we trust Jesus to save us doesn't mean to say we can do what we like. We must be holy as He is holy. First things first, we need to be set apart by God as His people. Having come to faith in Him however, we are to be distinctive from the rest of the world. If we're the same as everyone else, we betray the fact God hasnt really changed us. We don't become holy by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We become holy by being filled with God's Spirit. Then He bears His good fruit in our lives. 'Holy God, please help us to be holy as
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Belonging

  1 John 4:4 NLT But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Even the first sentence is amazing. That sinful rebels like us can belong to God is astounding. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Through faith in Jesus we become adopted children of the living God. Having believed in Him we receive the Holy Spirit of God. We have the victory over all that would assail us. The Spirit in us is the One in whom we all live and move, and have our being. He is the all powerful God. If God is for us, who can be against us? The spirit in the world is the devil, the accuser of the brethren. Thankfully, God accepts us in Christ. Satan has nothing on us that Jesus hasn't already dealt with. 'Father God, we praise You for adopting us into Your family. Please fill us with Your Spirit, in the name of Jesus we pray, amen'
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Glory

  1 Corinthians 10:31 NLT So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.   ‘You are what you eat’ is a popular quote in the world. Physically, there’s a lot of truth to that. Spiritually however, there’s more to us than just flesh and bone.   Some people are religious about vegetarianism, or how meat is killed, or teetotal. What Paul is basically saying is that there are more important things than food and drink. The most important thing is that whatever we do, we do it for the glory of God.   If we’re not sure whether to do something, a good practice would be to question whether a particular course of action is glorifying to God. If God would be glorified by us taking caffeinated drinks, then we can happily do so. If we have question marks as to whether we’re over-reliant on caffeine, maybe we should wean ourselves off.   Paul would rather we didn’t hurt our consciences than to do something that troubles us. So, caffeine might be oka
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Prayer

  Ephesians 6:18 NLT Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. At the end of a passage on spiritual warfare, Paul gives the secret to success in the battles of life. Alone, or even together, we're no match for satan and his forces. When we harness the power of God by prayer, we can have the victory. Note that we need to pray in the Spirit. It's no use praying selfishly. We need to ask according to the will of God. It's like a child asking their parent for a present, they need to manage their expectations. A child shouldn't just relate to their parent when they want something, but on every occasion. So we should be with God. 5 minutes on a morning is better than nothing, but elsewhere Paul tells us to always be praying. God's people are in a war and we need to support one another in it. We're to get into good habits of regular prayer for one another. 'Father in heave
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Grace

  Titus 2:11-12 NLT For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God.   The grace of God is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings salvation to all people. Sadly, not all people take Him up on the offer of eternal life.   Having received Christ’s salvation, we must turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We’re not simply to ‘eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die’. It’s not enough to have a form of godliness but to deny its power because we’re functional atheists.   This world is evil. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to establish that, we only need to look at the secular news. We need to walk wisely, not just intellectually, but especially in thinking about how best to live to the glory of God.   Righteousness is about us putting our wisdom into practice. Our lives are t
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Humility

  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝟮 . 𝟴 ( 𝗘𝗦𝗩 )   It’s amazing enough that God became a man. It’s even more amazing that He humbled Himself to death. That He would allow Himself to be crucified as a common criminal is astounding.   The cross is a familiar symbol to most of us. Yet it has been sanitised. We don’t think the same of an electric chair, or the gallows, but it’s a similar thing.   That God is great doesn’t require a religion to tell us. Creation shows us that. That God is humble is something the Bible reveals.   It sounds blasphemous that God should be humble. Yet humility is not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought. It’s impossible for God to think more highly of Himself than He ought.   ‘Heavenly Father, we praise You for sending Your Son to humble Himself for sinners like us. Please help us respond to His mercy. In His name, a
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