Category: Prayers

“Give them something to eat yourselves.” –Matthew 14:16 Jesus has placed His disciples in a fantastic position. On one side is the human race, which continually grows hungry and has a daily need for food. On the other side is the Lord, Who has a continual desire to feed, nourish, and even satisfy hungry humanity (see Ps 81:11, 17; Mt 14:20). God has placed us, as His disciples, between Him and the rest of mankind, charging us with feeding His people (Mt 14:16; Jn 21:15ff). We are God’s middlemen, His ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20), charged with bringing the two parties...

“You must no longer live as the pagans do.” —Ephesians 4:17 Paul started the Ephesian church by leading twelve men to Christ and to new life in the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:5-7). A few years later, Paul observed that the Ephesians had lost their early love for Christ (cf Rv 2:4). Paul likely could tell this because the lifestyle of the Ephesian Christians had become merely modified paganism. Paul maintained that when the Ephesians “learned Christ” (Eph 4:20), they should have learned a new lifestyle by laying aside their former way of life (Eph 4:22) and acquiring “a fresh, spiritual...

“Then on Herod’s birthday Herodias’ daughter performed a dance before the court which delighted Herod so much that he swore…” –Matthew 14:6-7 If you had asked Herod whether his birthday party was for God or for Satan, he would likely have answered that it wasn’t fanatically religious or demonically possessed. He would maintain that the party was not that pious and not that evil, just “good clean fun,” morally neutral. Most people think much of what they do is morally neutral because they mistakenly think they can be neutral. However, there is no such thing as neutrality. The devil is...

“They were filled with amazement.” –Matthew 13:54 We want God to help us, bless us, and be there when we need Him. However, He wants us to help Him, bless Him, and be there when He needs us. We want to tell God what to do, but He wants to tell us what to do and take over our lives. That’s much more than we had in mind. Like the people of Nazareth, we find Jesus “altogether too much” for us (Mt 13:57). If only Jesus would stay in His place, come when He’s called, speak only when spoken to,...