We know that prayer is hard work. Prayer can be discouraging. Often, we pray expecting immediate answers. It’s sort of like when we were gardening, when our children were young, and I had them come out and put the seeds in the row, and we covered them up with dirt, and we watered it. And my daughter came out the next morning and looked at the garden and said, “Dad, it didn’t work,” because she was expecting immediate fruit. Sometimes we do that with prayer. So how to pray? Remember who you are. Remember who God is. Remember what you have been given. Quote Scripture as you pray. Rest in God's presence and power. Pray for grace and then get up and continue what God has called for you to do!

In my many years of studying the Bible and counseling people, I have come to realize the significance that God places on words, and the lasting impact they have on us and on others. First, our God-given ability to communicate makes us unique in all of creation. Unlike the flora and fauna, we are designed in his image (Genesis 1:27) and can share our thoughts, desires and emotions with one another through words. Second, the first words human ears ever heard came from the mouth of God (Genesis 1:28-30). The Creator of the universe unlocked the doors of life to humanity using words as his key. To this day, there is nothing we depend on more than our ability to give and receive communication. Third, sin has radically distorted our words, resulting in much hurt, confusion and chaos. Just like Adam and Eve denied guilt, accused one another and blamed God (Genesis 3:12-13), our words often ignore God's design and are employed for selfish gain. Finally, the Bible teaches us how to get from where we are to where God wants us to be with our words. And in Christ Jesus, we find the grace that provides all we need to speak as God intended for us to speak. While those four principles about words may seem elementary, don't take them for granted. I must confess that on many occasions, I forget the weight God puts on words and am careless with how I communicate. I would encourage you to take extra time today and reflect on the questions below. Words belong to God, and he has lent them to us so that we might know him and be used by him. How seriously do you treat that blessing and calling?

This story of the Bible has one central character: God himself, specifically in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. From cover to cover, the Bible is a narrative of his wondrous works and the blessings that are yours by grace. This old, old story imparts identity, understanding, comfort, salvation, and hope. Has it become your favorite story to read everyday?

I want to give you five motivational reasons to open the Bible when you don't feel like it. 1. Identity The only way you can properly understand who you are and what you were given life and breath to do is when you look at yourself through the lens of the narrative of Scripture. It's only in this story that you will learn that you were made by God and for God, that everything you are and have comes from him, and that you were made to live for something vastly bigger than yourself. 2. Understanding You will never know all that you need to know in order to live as you were designed to live by human experience, research, and analysis. This is why God immediately spoke with Adam and Eve after he created them. In the same way, God speaks to us in his Word so that we can know and understand, and in knowing and understanding, live as we were created to live. 3. Comfort The world in which you live can be very confusing, distressing, and painful. But the biblical story comforts us with another reality - that our world is not out of control. Rather, our world is under the careful personal control of One who is the ultimate definition of everything that is good, true, wise, and loving. We can rest, not because we understand what's happening, but because we know the One who rules it all. 4. Salvation This is the ultimate reason for the Word of God. Without it, we wouldn't know that our biggest problem exists inside of us and is called sin. The biblical story chronicles the great things God has done and is doing to rescue, forgive, and deliver us from our sin. The epicenter event of the narrative is the Cross of Jesus Christ, delivering to us the one thing that we desperately need but cannot achieve on our own - new life. 5. Hope The biblical story, because it is a story, has a final chapter. One day, the sickness, sadness, and sin of this broken world will end. We will be like God and with God forever. The Author of this Book has guaranteed the end of the story by raising Jesus from the dead. No matter what happens, we have hope, because we know the final page has already been penned.

Find joy in, and be faithful to, a day-by-day and step-by-step process of insight, confession, repentance and faith.

By sovereign grace, your Lord will place you in ten thousand little moments that are designed to take you beyond your character, wisdom and grace so that you'll seek the help and hope that can only be found in him. In a lifelong process of change, he is undoing you and rebuilding you again - exactly what each one of us needs!

In the small moments of life, Jesus is delivering every redemptive promise he has made to you. In these unremarkable moments, he is working to rescue you from you and transform you into his likeness.

We must be committed to witnessing, and when we do, God graciously saves those who hear.

Jesus is named Emmanuel, not just because he came to earth once, but because he makes you the place where he dwells every day. This means he is present and active in all the mundane moments of your daily life.

The beautiful thing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that the Lord offers grace for each of these little moments. The Bible doesn't say, "His mercies are new once a year." No, "His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning." (Lamentations 3:22-23)

God knows what you need, and he will provide everything for you today, tomorrow, and every day until you meet him face to face. God's love not only applies to your past sin and your future eternity; God's love meets you where you are, right here, right now.

If God sent Christ to earth to be crushed for our eternal salvation, it makes no sense for God to turn his back on us during our present time of need. In other words, the guarantee of our eternal future also guarantees everything we need right here, right now.

We are glory thieves living in conflict with God and one another. It's a discouraging reality, isn't it? Yes, initially, but good news can't be good unless you know that there is first bad news. The Good News is that Jesus came to reclaim and restore wandering hearts and conflicted relationships.

Every miracle in Scripture preaches the gospel. The gospel of the existence of God, the gospel of his sovereign rule over his creation, the gospel of his merciful love, the gospel of the dark drama of human need, the gospel of the grace and power of divine provision.

Read these words from Isaiah 59:1 - "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear." Difficulty in your life is not a sign that God's hand is too short, nor is it a sign that his ears are too dull. No, God will bring you through difficulty to strengthen your faith and deepen your love for him!