Category: victory

A Prayer to the Lord of the Harvest

Posted on by Dorci

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’”
Matthew 9:35-38

 

Dear Heavenly Father,

We praise you, Lord, that you are a God of compassion. Your compassion for the world caused you to send your Son to die on the cross for our sins. Then it was your compassion for each one of us that caused you to draw us out of the world to Yourself that we might live as your children, reflecting your bright light of love and truth to those around us.

Lord of the harvest, we ask you to send out workers into Your harvest field. As the world grows darker and evil becomes more apparent every day, we pray you would equip us with your eyes of compassion that we might see people around us as you see them: lost and in need of a Shepherd. Give us your heart of love, grace, and mercy, and let our words be the words of your Holy Spirit, filled with His power to soften hearts and open eyes to the truth so that there will be a harvest of righteousness in abundance.

Give us wisdom, discernment, and boldness as we walk in faith to whatever harvest field you call us, whether it’s to our next door neighbors, our friends, our family, across town or across the world, to share your truth in love with anyone you would have us. Prepare their hearts, Lord, and ours.

May you bind the work of the enemy, and keep us in prayer, as you open eyes, hearts, and doors for us, Lord, and give us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  

In His mighty name we pray, amen.

The Battle for Our Minds

Posted on by Dorci

 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is 
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable
-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-
think about such things.
Philippians 4:8

 

 

This is not an inspirational thought or a suggestion, this is survival. This is a weapon God gives us for the battles that wage in our minds and in our hearts. What are some of these things you think about?

Half Empty or Half Full?

Posted on by Dorci

Most of the last (almost) eleven months I’ve been in the furnace, I’ve felt the Son of God in the fire right next to me. Praise the Lord, I’ve been blessed with many people praying on my behalf, especially in the beginning and for the next several months, and that has made all the difference.

But there have been days I only feel the red hot, scorching, sweltering heat. On those days the Lord gently reminds me there’s another perspective. That I’m not in the fire to be hurt, but to be refined, to burn off the impurities so that my faith will come forth as pure gold.

There are so many good and godly perspectives to have when in the heat of a trial.

He even reminded me through a dear friend recently when she said, “Look how far you’ve come!” Oh, was she right.

The Lord continues to hold my hand, to coax me along, to encourage me on those hard, exhausting days when it’s all just so overwhelming, reminding me to lay down my flesh, my human perspective, and see through His eyes.

To punctuate that thought, He spoke to me through an amazing woman whose life I can’t even begin to imagine, but she’s living it with His grace, with His eyes, bringing Him glory.

Through Katherine Wolf’s story, the Lord reminded me that I don’t need to see my life as a cup that’s half empty or even half full, but that because of His love, “my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:5b)

I hope you’re blessed by her story.

 


Video Alert!  If you’re an email subscriber and can’t view the video in this post, please copy and paste the URL below.  Thank you and God bless!

Unclean Hands

Posted on by Dorci

I love court shows. Well, not all of them, but there are a couple I like to watch. Every once in a while one judge in particular will bring up the concept in the law of unclean hands. That is when a someone sues another person, but they themselves acted illegally, unethically or in bad faith. 

This judge will usually explain it by using an example like this: let’s say someone sold another person illegal drugs and the buyer didn’t pay the seller the amount they agreed so the seller is suing for the money. The judge will explain that the courts can’t do that. They can’t make fair or right something that’s illegal. 

We love justice. God built into us a sense of fairness, of right and wrong. That’s why people protest, why people speak out, why people love court shows. 

The problem, though, is sometimes we’re all too willing to overlook our own sin. 

There are times we stand in prayer before the Father, the ultimate Judge, with “unclean hands.”  We’ve chosen to repeatedly walk a sinful path, to hold onto some sinful attitude, like not forgiving someone for the sin they’ve committed against us when God’s forgiven us for a lifetime of sin, and then ask Him to bless us.

Yes, we ask for forgiveness, and in Christ we are forgiven and won’t face eternal punishment for our sins, but when we’ve chosen sin we can’t expect God to bless us or protect us from the consequences of that sin.  

Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
    you surround them with your favor as with a shield.
Psalm 5:12

In Christ, God’s called us to a holy life, a life different than the world, a life of death to self’s indulgence to sin, not only to glorify Him but because He desires to protect us from the consequences that sin brings – the pain and suffering, the lack of peace, sometimes even an early death. 

Our God is more gracious and merciful than any earthly judge, and for a time He may warn us to stop, but if we don’t heed His warning, He’ll give us over to sin’s consequences to teach us so we’ll stop sinning. 

Or, every day, over and over, we can choose to take up our cross, die to ourselves and follow Christ who gave up His life for us. We can choose to be transformed by the renewing of our minds by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, knowing our righteous Father will bless us with His favor – His delight and good pleasure. 

Course that doesn’t mean that by living righteously we’ll never suffer and it doesn’t mean every time there’s a trial in our lives we’ve done something wrong. It just means we live in a sin-filled world. 

Someday all sin will be judged and the new world will be perfect the way God intended it to be in the beginning.  

Until then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can choose to walk uprightly, glorifying our Heavenly Father, receive His blessings, and rest in His peace.

* * *

Heavenly Father, we ask not only for forgiveness for our sins, but from the heart we repent of them and turn from them. In your strength may we daily walk the narrow road and have eyes only for You. Thank you for the amazing grace and mercy we know we don’t deserve but that you’ve shown us over and over. May we never take it for granted nor abuse it. Out of our love for You and our gratitude, may we always choose to live righteously, giving our bodies to You as living sacrifices. In Jesus’ precious name, amen. 

 

 

Sunday Praise and a Prayer As We Look Forward

Posted on by Dorci

“{The disciples} brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’

‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’

‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!'”
Matthew 21:7-9

***

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice:

‘Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.’”
Revelation 7:9-10


Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you today and every day as we remember what you’ve done through your Son, and what you have prepared for our future. 

Christ’s triumphal entry was but a small foretaste of the victorious never-ending glory we’ll revel in while in the presence of our Savior and King. 

Thank you, Holy Father, for your immeasurable grace and mercy. Through all we must endure here, we look forward to this most joyful time, celebrating with You and one another the victory you’ve won for us. 

In Jesus’ most holy and precious name we pray, amen. 

 

Run In Such a Way

Posted on by Dorci

His name is Zach, and he loves to run. I mean he loves it. He ran cross country and track in high school. He studied runners like Usain Bolt and Zach Bitter, and started eyeing the pros. 

His philosophy wasn’t to look at the greats and think he could never do what they did.  Instead, he looked at them as human beings as he was, as having goals and simply training hard and going for it, and Zach saw no reason he couldn’t do that, too. 

So on his high school graduation day Zach announced to his mom he wanted to run a 100-miler before he turned 20. He had ten months to train.

Zach was laser-focused on his goals. He began training with a coach and ran his first 5K, then a 10K, then a 26-mile marathon, and then a 50-mile ultramarathon.

Throughout the process fellow runners embraced him, encouraged him, and supported him every step of the way. 

Finally, he was ready, heart, mind, and body. He signed up for the Coldwater Rumble ultramarathon. One hundred miles. 

The runners gathered at sunrise. At 19, Zach was the youngest. 

He ran throughout the day with only a few refueling pitstops along the way. He was tired, his body ached, and his feet were on fire, but he was determined to keep running. 

His coach ran alongside him, encouraging him, and whenever he circled back around after another 25-mile lap, his cheering section was there to help him keep going. He finished lap 3 – 75 miles. 

The trail was dark now. It was the middle of the night, but a secure headlamp lit his way. 

By sunrise, Zach was dealing with a hip flexor strain that caused him to slow to a walk for a bit, but he stayed in the race. He was determined, and soon he picked up his pace again. 

The sun was up, and while some runners had dropped out of the race, Zach neared the finish line with a smile on his face, his goal in sight, and his family and friends cheering him on. 

At 28 hours, 6 minutes, and 36 seconds, he crossed the 100-mile mark.  At 19, he was the youngest to ever finish the race.

Oh, did I mention Zach has autism?

Zach’s perceived weakness by some was in reality a strength. He’d always been very focused as a kid, and that focus helped him achieve a goal that, at his age, no one else had. 

Though I’ll never be this kind of runner, every aspect of Zach’s story inspires me to keep running in the race I’m called to in Christ. 

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:24

Run in such a way…  

We are to take our spiritual race seriously.

We may look at the so-called spiritual greats – Paul the apostle, who wrote much of the New Testament, John the apostle, who recorded words from the LORD Himself, George Müller, Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, Billy Graham, and countless others, and think we could never do what they did. But why not? They were human beings like we are, who simply had a strong faith in Jesus Christ that caused them to run their race in obedience.

Who knows what God may want to do through any of us? Any perceived or even actual weaknesses we have don’t need to limit us. If we let Him, God can use those weaknesses to be the very things that propel us forward because when we are weak, He is strong on our behalf. 

Suffering may seem to be a weakness, but it is our training ground. As we look to Christ in and through it, He’ll teach us to persevere, to trust Him, to grow stronger in ways we never would have otherwise.

At times in our race, we’ll need to sit down and rest, or we may even fall. It’s okay. We all do at one time or another. Get back up and keep walking, keep running. 

And we need to cheer one another on to victory. There are times the most discouraging thing is not the world, it’s not the fall, it’s not the suffering. Sometimes the most discouraging thing is not being supported and encouraged (or even actively discouraged) by those who should be cheering the loudest. 

In the spiritual race, we’re not running against each other. We are each running a unique race purposed just for us, but we are running together. Let’s be brothers and sisters who pick one another up, who take a hand, who pray and encourage and love as we watch one another run our races. 

And no matter what, our Coach will always be by our side. He’ll run the race with us, giving us everything we need, and we can trust Him to never leave our side.

“Therefore…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
Hebrews 12:1a-2

So, let’s put on and keep on the proper attire for our race – our spiritual armor, and our light – God’s Word, and keep running with our eyes on the prize of eternal life with Jesus Christ.

When he’d crossed the finish line, Zach said, with a smile, “I’m tired, but I’m happy. I finished the race.” 

May we, too, say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  2 Timothy 4:7

And if you’ve never signed up for this race, you’ve never known Jesus Christ personally, the Bible says this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

If you believe that Jesus is who He said He is, that He is the Messiah, the Savior who came to die on the cross as payment for our sins, and you desire to put your faith in Him, to give your life to Him and begin following Him, just talk to God and let Him know. You can pray a prayer that goes something like this: 

Dear God, please forgive me for my sins. I believe your Son Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins and I accept His payment. Please come live in my heart and lead me in this race called life. I pray in Jesus’s name, amen.

If you have any questions please let me know. God bless you!

For Him, 
Dorci

 

 

 

 

 

Who is Shaping Us?

Posted on by Dorci

I took a slow day recently and sat down to watch a movie. So-so movie. Classic good guy chases bad guy. 

The bad guy, well, let me put that more accurately – the crazed, psychopathic, sadistic killer – enjoys the chase. He’s cocky and thinks he can’t lose. 

He decides to make the game even more fun by coming straight to the door of the good guy, and hits him where it hurts most: his family. 

The good guy internalizes that pain, that grief, and lets it boil inside him until the hatred turns to bitterness in his quest to hunt down and destroy his enemy. 

In one last-ditch effort to mentally manipulate and control from his place of weakness, the bad guy spews to the other, “I…made…you.”

His last words are arrogant, demented, and maybe a little bit true. 

In his quest to fight evil, the good guy gives in to the hatred the evil guy wanted him to. He lured the good guy in until he crossed that line before he even fully realized it. Or worse, he realized it but didn’t care anymore. 

As their eyes locked and he used his last breath to try to control him and reel him in the rest of the way, speaking those domineering, pompous, mind-bending words, I thought about how the enemy of God does the same thing.

There are no new tricks up his sleeve. Oh, they may take different forms, different plots, different scenarios, but it’s always the same.

Slip in undetected in the shadows, gain our attention, come to our front doors if need be and attack us personally where he knows it’ll hurt most, and if he can time it just right, in the wake of some other trial, when we’re alone, when we’re tired, when we’re sick, when we’re stressed, maybe we’ll react in the flesh. 

And if we react long enough, he’ll try to say he made us. He made who we’ve become, from being filled with anger, to unforgiveness, to bitterness, to leaving our faith and the love of Christ behind.  

None of us is immune. Christians are his target, because Christ is his target. 

Even if he can no longer take our eternal souls, he will still try to take our joy, our witness, and as much of our reward as he can.  

But I don’t want the enemy to shape who I am.

I want to be shaped by the Christ who loved us enough to die for us and fill us with His Spirit so that He’s always with us.

I want to be shaped by the One who loves us enough to write His Word, His will, on pages for us to have, to read, to study and pray over, to hear Him speak to our hearts through.

I want every fiber of my being, every molecule, every thought, every word to be formed by the Christ who lives in me.

That can only happen when day by day, minute by minute, we hold onto Christ, giving up our lives for a life of faith hidden in Him. 

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

This is the new life we’ve been given in Christ. It is no longer our life, but Christ’s living in and through us. To some that may feel a little restrictive, but in reality it’s just the opposite. 

We are now free of that destruction, that condemnation, that guilt and shame of sin, free from having to believe the deluded lies of the enemy. We no longer have to be lured in by the thief whose desire is to steal, kill, and destroy us.

Instead, Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

That word abundant is perissos, which means “in the sense of beyond; superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality); by implication excessive; preeminence: – exceeding abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, vehemently.”

In sharp contrast to the life Christ redeemed us from, we’re now free to live a life of forgiveness, hope, love, joy. We’re free to live in and through Christ forever. 

But notice it says that we may have it more abundantly. It is our daily choice how much of that abundant life of Christ’s we want to live. Within those pages, Jesus gave us this to remember:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

Daily. 

Daily we must deny ourselves, daily we must take up our cross, and daily we must choose to follow Christ if we want to live the abundant life Jesus died to give us.

We may not have a bad guy to physically chase, but in our hearts and minds we can chase the ones who have hurt us by holding onto unforgiveness and anger and letting it turn into bitterness.

Instead, we can leave the bad guys to God and chase after Christ and His love, joy, peace, hope, and forgiveness. We can choose faith in Jesus, and let Him shape us.


Heavenly Father, we choose to forgive those who have hurt us and leave them in your wise and capable hands. Help us deny ourselves, let go of our “old man” and the world’s ways and abide in you daily so we can be transformed into the image of your beautiful Son and live the abundant life you so desire to give us. It’s in Christ we pray, amen. 

 

Resurrecting

Posted on by Dorci

 

Just before the 6:24 am sunrise in Jerusalem:

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 
but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”
Luke 24:1-3

 

 

 

 

Resurrecting 
by Elevation Worship

The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now
The Savior knelt to wash our feet
Now at His feet we bow
 
The One who wore our sin and shame
Now robed in majesty
The radiance of perfect love
Now shines for all to see
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our king
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our King
 
The fear that held us now gives way
To Him who is our peace
His final breath upon the cross
Is now alive in me
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our King
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our King
 
By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me
In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory (c’mon!)
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected king, is resurrecting me
He’s resurrecting me

Our God is good, oh
The tomb where soldiers watched in vain
Was borrowed for three days
His body there would not remain

Our God has robbed the grave
Our God has robbed the grave (yes He has, yes He has)
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ our King

Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ our King
 
By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me,
Oh yeah

Behind Enemy Lines

Posted on by Dorci

I recently watched Behind Enemy Lines again, and there were so many spiritual parallels I had to share what God showed me. 

Even though it’s a 20-year-old movie and surely the statute of limitations for spoilers must have run out by now, I’ll try not to give away anything too important in case you haven’t seen it. 

Owen Wilson plays Lt. Chris Burnett, an American naval flight officer stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic sea during the Bosnian War. 

For Lt. Burnett, being a soldier, so far, has been a lot of drills, training, exercises, and routine assignments and he resents it. It hasn’t been the thrill ride he thought it would be, so he’s handed in a letter of intent to leave the Navy to his commanding officer, Admiral Reigart, played by Gene Hackman. 

The admiral tries to make him understand the importance of his training, but Burnett’s not impressed. He’s done.

Admiral Reigart decides the lieutenant needs a little discipline, so he assigns him, along with another pilot, to a routine mission on Christmas day, but the situation soon turns into far more than anyone expected. 

The title says it all: behind enemy lines. 

When we look out at our world today we may feel like we’re behind enemy lines. There is warring all around us, fighting, hatred, violence, attacks on the Christian faith. The whole world seems out of control and we feel like we’re in a place we don’t understand and don’t belong.  

And the truth is we are behind enemy lines and we always have been. Much of the world has been experiencing it, and lately it’s become far more apparent to us than it was before. The curtain’s been drawn back a bit and we’re seeing the havoc wreaked by the enemy in the ugliness of the sin in the world on display in our own backyard. 

We’re seeing the spiritual warfare Paul talked about in his second letter to the church in Corinth.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds…” (2 Cor. 10:3-4) 

And because we’re in the midst of spiritual warfare, an object of the enemy of God, we are soldiers in that war. Paul reiterated that in 2 Timothy and in Philemon:

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Tim 2:3-4)

“…to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier…” (Philemon 1-2a)

If God has called us into faith through Christ, we are soldiers in a spiritual war that’s been going on since the Garden of Eden. 

As soldiers, God’s been training us, preparing us to be strong in the faith, to have courage to weather the battles. We grow from discipline to discipline until we are changed into the likeness of His Son, the perfect soldier, who was our example of enduring warfare.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

We’ve all read that and maybe, like Lt. Burnett, we haven’t seen how we can have joy in our training, how there could possibly be any purpose in our suffering. We haven’t fully understood that our trials are our testing, our discipline, teaching and training us to be mature in the faith, to persevere in trials, to trust God more and more to give us wisdom and understanding as we face the next hardship, and the next one, and the next… We don’t know what we’ll face, but God does, and He knows what He’s training us for. 

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” (Hebrews 12:11-12)

Whatever trials we’ve gone through or are going through right now or will go through tomorrow, don’t let them be for nothing. Let them train us. Let us humble ourselves under our Father’s mighty and wise hand to make us disciplined soldiers in His army, fighting His way with the spiritual armor God’s equipped us with. 

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:12-13

Let us then, in Christ, strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees. In other words, let us put aside our complacency, any weakness of faith, any unbelief or fear, put on our armor and be strong and courageous as we stand to face our spiritual enemy, knowing we’ve been trained and we are equipped, and in Christ we have the victory. 

The God Who Hears Us

Posted on by Dorci

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.” Luke 2:25-27a

We don’t always hear a lot about Simeon, and there’s only a small paragraph about him, but there’s a lot behind those few words. 

His name was Simeon, and names held a lot of meaning in the Hebrew culture.

The name Simeon was first used in Genesis as the name Leah gave the second son she conceived with Jacob.

“She (Leah) conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, He gave me this one too.’ So she named him Simeon.” Genesis 29:33

So, why did Leah name him Simeon?  Because in the Hebrew Simeon means “hearing.” 

The Lord heard (same root word) that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. He heard Leah’s heart grieve and groan, had mercy on her, and gave her another son. 

Jesus’ birth was the end of 400 years of silence from the God of the Israelites. 

The Israelites had largely turned away from God and His ways, and they endured much persecution, the desecration of the Holy of Holies, and the capture and recapture of Israel by multiple peoples.

God might have been silent, but He was not unseeing or unhearing. 

So “when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son…” Galatians 4:4

God had heard the grieving and groaning of His people and gave the world a Son.  

As Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to consecrate Him to the Lord, the Holy Spirit led Simeon, whose name means “to hear,” to see the Savior of the world. 

God hears. He is attentive to our cries. He is ever discerning and perceiving of the needs and concerns and trials and tribulations of one person as well as an entire people. 

We need to remember that. Deep down in our hearts we need to believe that because if we don’t we won’t pray. If we think all is lost, if we think it’s useless, that God isn’t hearing us, we’ll give up hope and we’ll stop praying.

Have hope, take courage, we have a God who hears.  

God’s Word shows us, through Leah and through Simeon, that God is a hearing, compassionate, and loving God. 

So as we start this year, let’s remember that God hears our prayers and continue to pour out our hearts to Him who hears us and will answer when the set time has fully come. 

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”  1 John 5:14-15