Hope For Today Videos

When we allow ourselves to be dominated by fear – fear of guilt, fear of embarrassment, fear of loneliness, fear of being overwhelmed – we are engaging in stinking thinking. How can we move beyond this?

Our words and actions are often the direct result of what we think and feel. If we want to speak and act well, we first need to think well.

We want to have joy but it seems to be fleeting. We have joy in how some problems work themselves out but then we are faced with lots of unfamiliar challenges that bring out our insecurities. How can we find and sustain joy no matter what?

There’s a deep longing for intimacy in human hearts - that desire for a close, familiar, protective, loving relationship between two persons. How can we best find and nurture that?

We all make mistakes and it’s what we do after the mistake that is the measure of who we are as a person.

Selfishness - self centeredness - as many have said before us, "This, we think, is the root of our troubles." Is it? How do we grow above and beyond it?

How many of us have fallen to places in life where we never thought we would have allowed ourselves to be?  Then, thankfully, in a moment of clarity, we saw what we had become and were shocked. As with so many others, it seems that only when the chaos and pain reaches an out-of-control level for us do we actually call out to the Lord. Amazingly, at those times our Loving God is willing and ready and able to respond to our cry.

How many times in a day do we struggle with the impatience?  Things are not happening as quickly as we thought they would.  Someone isn't meeting our needs in the way we thought they should.  We even think God is slow in how and when He responds to our prayers – particularly when we tell Him what we need and expect Him to respond immediately. How to deal with our impatience?

How many of us got ourselves into trouble by our lack of wisdom and understanding of life and where it would lead us if we pursued a rebellious course? We may have been hurting from unmet needs or events that happened in our past and instead of seeking help and healing we chose a defiant path of doing things our own way. Now we are attempting to turn our lives around from the chaos that resulted from such choices. God’s Word has good advice for us in that attempt today:

In the past, many of us have identified ourselves by the names people called us or by the labels they put on us.  God has good news for us today as we seek to live well and enjoy this day with Him and others. The foundation of who we truly are, and living well out of that secure place in our hearts is based on what God says about us.

Practicing a lifestyle of gratitude is of great value in experiencing today as good and truly being contented. Since the practice of gratitude is so powerful, how can we make it an intentional part of our daily living? 

We all love the "Prayer of St Francis" - let me be an instrument of your peace. But, the problem is that every line of that prayer gets put into practice in challenging circumstances. It's still worth the ask from God for having what it takes to be an instrument of peace.