July 2012
July 31, 2012
“Am I supposed to pray once and leave it in God’s hands? I feel like I’m bugging him to death by asking every day all day long. Still praying for a job for my older daughter.”—Lesa
This is a prayer request that came into OurPrayer.org and after praying for Lesa and her daughter, I wanted to answer her question.
July 26, 2012
I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; I will guide you with my eye. (Psalm 32:9)
How do you know what God wants you to do? How do you find his guidance? Probably the same way you follow the signals from your loved ones.
July 24, 2012
Things, things, things. I spent a long weekend helping my mom move out of her house and, as she would say, “I never realized I had so many things!”
Those cute custard cups that have never been used, that teapot I brought back from the summer I was an exchange student in Tunisia, those vinyl records when no one in our family has a record player anymore, pictures of relatives that nobody knows anymore. Why have we saved these things for so long?
July 19, 2012
You probably already wonder what Hula-Hooping and praying could possibly have in common. What could I say beyond showing you this funny picture?
Here’s the point I want to make. A lot of things you pray for can seem impossible (would that I would become a more faithful person). You work at it, you get frustrated, you give up. Then somehow something happens, and you know it wasn’t from any work you did. What was hard came easy. You just did it.
July 17, 2012
Dear Lord, I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful for air conditioners and the God-given wisdom of the engineers who made them and keep them humming.
Norman Vincent Peale used to say that in the last century, the invention that had made the biggest difference in his 94 years was air conditioning. I can’t imagine working in an office without it. Or sitting in a movie theater or shopping at the market or driving on a noisy Interstate. Blessings on the inventiveness of your creatures.
July 12, 2012
I didn’t know Mrs. Osborn could sing, I mean really sing. And I might never have known if I hadn’t gone to her memorial last weekend.
July 10, 2012
My colleague Adam Hunter got married last week and I was trying to find the perfect piece of advice I could give him and his radiant bride, Nicole, on how to have a long, happy marriage. There would have to be something about prayer in it, but I wasn’t sure what it would be.
July 5, 2012
Wonder what to say in a prayer for someone else? Wonder if you should even tell them you’re praying for them? Here are seven examples of prayers that the apostle Paul sent in his letters. Most of them are to groups of people, small Christian congregations scattered throughout the Roman Empire, but the last is to one person, Philemon.
July 3, 2012
Ever noticed how many kind, generous people there are?
I was sitting outside, finishing my cup of lentil soup, enjoying the sun and the brief respite from sweltering summer temperatures. I stood up to walk back to the office.
“Sir, sir,” someone called after me. I turned around. A twentysomething girl, carrying her own lunch in one hand, leaned down to the sidewalk and picked up my money clip with her free hand. “You must have dropped this.”
Rick Hamlin is the executive editor of Guideposts magazine and the author of 10 Prayers You Can't Live Without. To learn more about the book and explore your own prayer journey, watch this video.
