It's Marriage Prayer Friday!

Today we are praying for married men and women to hear God's Word and put it into practice like wise people building their houses on a sure foundation — the Rock of their salvation.

A prayer for your own marriage—

CREATOR GOD, thank you for establishing my marriage and home on the firm foundation of You. Thank you that Your grace and power are sufficient to bring us back whenever we drift away from that foundation. Please strengthen me and my husband/wife to honor You as the builder of our family (Hebrews 3:3) and forgive us for those times when we make anything about our home (stuff, schedules, circumstances, etc.) more important than You. Most of all, Lord, please make our hearts Your home and dwell within this family. Fill the walls of our home with the sounds of laughter, joy and praise to You. AMEN

Something to pray for a friend's marriage—

CREATOR GOD, thank you for establishing the sacred union of marriage on the firm foundation of You. Thank you that Your grace and power are sufficient to bring any marriage back to Yourself even after it has drifted away from Your foundation. Please strengthen my married friends to honor You as the builder of their families (Hebrews 3:3) and forgive them for those times when they make anything about their home (stuff, schedules, circumstances, etc.) more important than You. Most of all, Lord, please make their hearts Your home and dwell within their families. Fill the walls of their homes with the sounds of laughter, joy and praise to You. AMEN

FINDING GLORY Wednesday

When we are facing a disaster like a serious medical diagnosis or job loss, the circumstances can quickly become emotionally consuming. The logistics of life can also become very complicated, at least for a season. It can seem impossible to find time, energy or ways of reaching out to others while in the midst of our own chaos yet God never excuses us from loving and serving others. We are part of a family.

Today’s scripture and discussion question challenge all of us in the area of sharing life together.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:15-17

As children of the Heavenly Father, we share in His sufferings as well as His glory. It also means that we are part of a spiritual family. In what ways might God be prompting you to reach out to your Christian brothers and sisters today or this week?

These “Finding Glory Wednesdays” posts are an online discussion series based on the books Finding Glory in the Thorns and the companion Finding Glory in the Thorns: Group Discussion Guide by Larry and Lisa Jamieson. For more information about Finding Glory Groups, visit http://www.findingglory.com/findingglorygrou.html.

True Hope in This Present Hell

I had the privilege of being invited to a fundraiser luncheon for Treehouse Ministries last week and the added privilege of bringing a friend. Treehouse is a faith-based organization offering hope and guidance to at-risk teens and their parents — a ministry we are proud to support because we share their vision and know too many hurting young people who need them.

I was able to take with me a college friend I rarely see but keep in connection with through a shared love for kids, writing and the Lord. It was an absolute delight to catch up with her and even more so given the nature of the event and the stirring keynote we heard together.

Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales, talked about hope. After welcoming 600 ladies to lunch in the voices of several God-loving vegetables we all know, he used personal testimony and examples from the scriptures to point to where true hope comes from. He applauded the value of bringing encouragement to kids who need to have a vision for their future in a career, outside of addiction or in healthy relationships but cautioned everyone that putting hope in their life’s dreams is really a false hope. The only real hope, Phil poignantly stated, “comes from an encounter with God who made you special and loves you very much.”

After the luncheon, I had 20 precious minutes in the car with my wise and ever-encouraging friend, Mary, who needed me to take her to the airport. During our brief conversation about the challenges and joys of raising kids and living life in this desperate economy, Mary said two things that will ring in my ears — sustaining me and spurring me on for the rest of this life. One of them was of a more personal nature and requires too much explanation to go into today. But the other point has a simple brilliancy of value for anyone reading this right now.

Because of our salvation in Christ, the suffering we endure in this world is the closest thing to hell we will ever have to know.

Stop. Rewind. Did you fully absorb that? When compared to what eternal separation from God would be like, your difficulties in this world will always be vastly more than pale. When you are in a personal and life-saving relationship with Jesus Christ, you will never know of hell. Whatever difficulties you experience, no matter how significant they are, that’s as bad as it will ever be for you because everything — absolutely everything — is eternal magnificence after this!

Oh, how good it is when a friend puts succinctly into words a truth that resonates so clearly and refreshingly shines the light of God’s perspective into the deepest places of our soul!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith and shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 1 PETER 1:3-6