Joe Barnett

Be strong and take heart.            —Psalm 31:24 We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit … We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going … we never give up (2 Cor. 4:8-9, 16 TLB). […]

O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.          —Psalm 30:12 Today let’s think deliverance. Deliverance from frightening times that had good endings. Your biopsy revealed malignancy. But they caught it in time. Your child was in a serious accident. But she survived. Your spouse was wheeled into the operating room

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.                          —Psalm 27:14 You have prayed … and prayed … and prayed. Urgently. Earnestly. Pleadingly. But you have seen no response. Even so, don’t quit believing and don’t stop praying.

Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely.                                                —Psalm 25:16 Here is a prayer that stirs a sympathetic vibration in the hearts of many elderly: “… in my

Show me your ways, O Lord.                    —Psalm 25:4 Jeff Patton felt like he was flying in a bottle of ink. He was certain he was in a climbing right turn, but his instruments indicated he was in a 60 degree dive. It took every ounce of

I will fear no evil, for you are with me.                                 —Psalm 23:4 Here’s a nice bouquet of fear-fighting, faith-feeding verses … The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”                                           —Psalm 14:1 On the table is a bowl. In it are ten slips of paper, numbered from 1 to 10. If you reach in

I trust in your unfailing love.                  —Psalm 13:5 Joseph, Job, and Jesus defined trust by declaring it, not when things were wonderfully good, but when things were terribly bad. Joseph: “You intended to harm me but God intended it for good” (Gen. 50:20). Job: “Though he slay

What is man that you are mindful of him?                                        —Psalm 8:4 Can you get the President’s attention? Not likely. Can you get God’s attention? You already have. Twinkling stars on a backdrop of black sky filled

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice.                                          —Psalm 5:3 Paul got into a terrible mess in Ephesus … We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. We