Quarantine Soul Care: To Be Human Is to Pray

Photo of the northern lights

Our English word prayer derives from the Latin precarious. We pray because life is precarious. We pray because life is marvelous. We pray because we find ourselves at a loss for many things, but not for the simplest words like…

Quarantine Soul Care: Resist the Edit Button

“Hannah rose” (1 Samuel 1:9, ESV). What does it mean to get up off the couch when you are still hopeless? What does it mean to wait without being passive?
The Hebrew word … quwm … means “to rise up” or “to stand up.” It can also mean…

Quarantine Soul Care: The Alchemy of Faith and Persistence

Perhaps one of the greatest reasons we don’t ask God for what we want or need is because we’re afraid that he won’t do it. We fear that he’ll say no, that he won’t answer the way we asked, or that he won’t even answer at all. Unanswered prayer is perhaps one of the most…

When Praying Is Hard

I’ve been a pastor for over twenty years, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the following: “I just don’t know how to pray.” “I didn’t grow up doing this kind of stuff.” “I’ve found it hard …

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