Our God is an amazing God. So generous, so loving, so kind. Yet, somehow, we live many times like orphans. Like we’d be left all alone in this world to get by the best we can. But that is not so. The Bible tells us so. Jesus lives in us. The Holy Spirit is always with us. So we are to live like beloved children, not like orphans. It’s time to live like an heir! How do we do that?…
Is it easy for you to accept God’s will for you? I think we all struggle with it from time to time. Even Jesus prayed hard at Gethsemane. But he knew better than insist to have his own way. So maybe also we should learn to see accepting God’s will as the ultimate best for us even when we want the very opposite. “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want…
Do you need some hope for the New Year? I think we all do. We’re starting a new year and now that we’ve reviewed all that needs to be done, the tasks seem a bit daunting. We need the courage to begin and hope to lift our spirits, right? So I was delighted to see this phrase by Päivö Parviainen on Facebook: “We never approach Jesus in vain.” How true, how encouraging, how uplifting. How so, you ask. Let me…
We have only a few days left of this year. How do you feel about it? It has been a tough year so saying goodbye is not a hardship, right? But we have no idea how the new year will turn out. So it’s a bit scary, am I right? But know nothing is scary with God. Without him, the future is scary. But the future with God is supreme. With God, I am ready for anything. You see, we…
How are you? I hope you’re doing well or, at least, you’re experiencing God’s peace. You know, it’s possible to experience peace even in the midst of the ugliest strifes. I know it’s hard to believe but once you’ve experienced God’s peace in the midst of chaos you know what I mean. God’s peace is ours if we want it. Because it’s not dependent on our outer circumstances. The Spirit of Peace is ours to be received no matter what….
Recently, I heard someone saying ‘Christians are stupid when they think prayer changes things’. He thought Christians only pray and do nothing. But that’s not the way prayer works. Praying does not mean we sit on our hands the rest of the time. It’s not an excuse to do nothing. We are to go forward in faith. First, we pray as it all depended on God, then we work as everything depended on us. Because prayer requires action. Prayer is…
Are you ready for the New Year? I am, at least, ready to say goodbye to 2020. Good riddance, right? 2020 is a year we won’t forget easily. I had such high hopes for it, yet it was nothing I had hoped for. Yet I am thankful. Because I learned a lot this year, I bet you did too. And, most of all, I am thankful because God is good all the time. The Lord is good,A strength and stronghold in the day of…
Do you know how to handle envy? Feeling jealous is not necessarily a bad thing, it can tell us what we need or want. We just need to know what to do with it. When we give our envy to God, he gets the chance to create something positive out of it. Yesterday I was envious of Moses’ friendship with God as I read about it. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. (Exodus 33:11,…
I often talk about life with God because living with God gives your life colors. Often I have struggled to convey to you how to do it in real life and then God provided a perfect teachable moment last week. My family was deeply disappointed with the canceled year in Africa as I wrote in my previous blog post. This experience allowed me to re-experience what it is to process your life with God. When your life is turned upside…
Some of you may have known that for the past year our family has prepared for a year in Ethiopia. I was called to teach at a theological seminary there. Then the pandemic happened and our year was first postponed and then canceled altogether due to financial difficulties of the Mission organization. Perhaps needless to say, our family was shocked. All our dreams for a year in Africa came crashing down. How did we take it? And how do you…
