"Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1:4Muscle only grows one way. Weight goes on, the body stays under it until it fails, then rest...  Read More

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." - James 1:2-3Bad news rarely waits for a...  Read More

"Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ." Colossians 4:3 While under house arrest, likely expecting the worst possible outcome,...  Read More

"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18 In 1944, sisters Corrie and Betsie ten Boom were sent to Ravensbrück, a Nazi concent...  Read More

"I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13 The word Paul chose for "content" wasn't a random pick. It was the prized word of the Stoic philosophers of his day, describing ...  Read More

"I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little." Philippians 4:12 P...  Read More

"For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." Philippians 4:11 Nobody arrives on this earth already equipped with contentment. It isn't a personality trait some people get lucky enoug...  Read More

"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." — Luke 22:42This pattern didn't start with Paul, it started with Jesus. In Gethsemane, the night before the cro...  Read More

"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me... For when I am weak, then I am strong." — 2 Corinthians 12:9-10Most instincts run the opposite ...  Read More

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." — 2 Corinthians 12:9Three times Paul begged God to remove the thorn. Not a passing mention but a desperate, all-in appeal. A...  Read More

"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me." — 2 Corinthians 12:8Paul's thorn wasn't a minor annoyance. The language he used described something painful, humiliating, debilitating, a...  Read More

"Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." — 2 Corinthians 12:7Paul had just described being caught up into the thi...  Read More