Instead of just praying for healing, pray for faith, hope, and strength to overcome illness. Instead of simply praying for the welfare of friends and family, pray for God’s overflowing love and generosity that you can give them. Instead of just praying for success and prosperity, pray for wisdom and self-discipline to guide you as you work for the glory of the Lord.

Don’t just pray for the obvious “for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Mat. 6:8)

We oftentimes pray that God would change our difficult situation, but what God really wants is to change something in us and give us the strength to overcome that situation.

Caleb's Shoes (or sandals for that matter)

He didn’t do anything wrong. He should be at the promised land by now. He should be eating those huge grapes and drinking all the milk he wants, but he’s not.

"It pleases God to walk with you, sometimes dance with you, and often times carry you. :)"

now what?

i’ve been reading exodus lately, the part where God gives specific instructions about how to build the altars and temples, and i was thinking, why can’t He be as specific about my life? I mean, sometimes i just wish He could tell me exactly what to do, like audibly give me instructions or write it in the sky or something. Like the way He did with Moses, giving Him very specific instructions about what color to do, what materials to use, and so on.

But i realized that first of all, God is, in fact, very specific and detailed with our lives. He even knows the number of our hair (Mat. 10:30). God loves me, and i am important to Him that’s why i know that He’s got everything planned for me, every detail, every person i meet, and every experience i go through.

And as much as i would like to have a blueprint of my life and detailed instructions for everything i do, that’s just not how God operates with lives. God doesn’t want us to live our lives like a series of steps to accomplish. He doesn’t just want us to have a to-do list to check off. He doesn’t want us to just complete this task called life… He wants us to learn and grow to becoming better people. He wants to build our character. He wants us to enjoy each moment and treasure those experiences that are worth treasuring. And most importantly, God wants our relationship with Him to grow… He wants us to learn to trust Him and for us to grow in our faith.

So even when we can’t see the blueprints of our lives, we can trust our Architect.

"sometimes, it’s not a matter of holding on to God but a matter of trusting that God is holding you."

"If you don’t have enough fear of God to keep you from sinning, then you won’t have enough faith to believe God for great things during tough times."
– from Pstr. Joey Bonifacio’s preaching this morning. Those aren’t his exact words, but that’s the idea.

"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."
– Walt Disney (via lisapark) (via quote-book)