Today’s Walk in the Word

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.                         —Proverbs 3:5 Trust isn’t tested in the pew; it’s tested in battle. It’s tested when the night is dark, and cold, and lonely. It’s tested when loss is devastating and answers are elusive. Jesus knows […]

We put our hope in the Lord.                 —Psalm 33:20 Last night I turned the final page of an on-the-edge-of-your-seat novel. Laying it aside, I thought, “I don’t know why I didn’t see that coming.” That’s the way of a good novel—it holds you in suspense until the […]

The troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.             —2 Corinthians 4:18 We’re living in the first chapter as we navigate the challenges of this life, all the while anticipating the last chapter: “the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God […]

Hope is our anchor, firm and secure.                       —Hebrews 6:19 Christianity entered the world at a time of terrible turmoil, but Christians found hope of victory over circumstances, as we do today. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking or rah-rah optimism. When Paul and Timothy […]

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.     —Romans 15:13 When Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus started recording the history of the first century AD, he wrote, “I am entering upon the history of a period rich in disaster, gloomy with wars, rent with seditions.” He went on to […]

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.                                 —John 3:17 In a commencement address at Stanford University, Steve Jobs said, “No one wants to die. Even people who want […]

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.                            —James 1:9 There is vast socioeconomic disparity. But in the church, distinctions of worth are verboten. All members are of equal importance. James wanted those “in humble circumstances”—the poor and […]

Though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him.             —Psalm 37:24 You have failed. The first time you tried to walk, you fell. The first time you tried to swim, you sank. The first time you swung a bat, you connected with—air. But you’ve had a […]

A cheerful heart is good medicine.                 —Proverbs 17:22 Here are some paraproskokians left over from yesterday. When I was a kid my parents moved a lot—but I always found them. My husband can’t stand to see garbage lying around the house—he can’t stand the competition. I always […]

A time to weep and a time to laugh.                   —Ecclesiastes 3:4 My friend Allen Isbell introduced me to a word I’d never seen: paraproskokian. “A paraproskokian,” Allen explained, “is a figure of speech in which the latter part of the sentence or phrase is surprising or […]