Lord God, even when it seems that You have shut out our prayers (Lamentations 3:8), may we remember Your great faithfulness and daily 'new' mercies (3:22-23), and may we hold on to the hope (3:21) that will never disappoint us (Romans 5:5), for Your loyal love, Your steadfast love (3:22) pursues us to the end (Psalm 23:6)! What an awesome God we serve!...  Read More

If you’re following along with the reading plan in the MCN Connections app, you likely did not get a prompt for Lamentations 1 yesterday and today’s screen was blank. This is due to a typo in the coding for the plan. I will try to adjust the code file and get things fixed, but for now, the reading for today is Lamentations 2-4 (and 1 if you missed it yesterday) and Psalm 72. Apologies again!...  Read More

O Lord, our God, there is no denying that You truly are gracious and forgiving, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness (Psalm 103:8). Knowing human nature, there is an awful tendency to take this for granted and live as we please. Thank You for the lessons from Your Word! May we never be like King Zedekiah and his cohorts. What a horrific judgment they earned for their blatant evil: "...and...  Read More

Save us, O God, from imposters, posers, and frauds. They have become very shrewd in their approach to deceiving Your own, but they cannot succeed when we live in Your presence through the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. So we acknowledge that You alone are the LORD God Almighty and that we are Yours, our allegiance is to You alone. Thank You that in Christ we are overcomers and in the Spirit...  Read More

Father, while we read of judgment, the consequence of habitual, defiant sin and total disregard for Your holiness, and that causes us to fear for the world in which we live, thank You that we are reminded of grace. Yes, You judge and discipline, yet You also revive, restore and rebuild as You return Your people to their Home in You. Grace upon grace! Thank You, Father! May our hearts always be tur...  Read More

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens." (Psalm 68:19, NIV)You have invited us to cast all our cares, our burdens, our anxieties on You, for You care deeply and intimately for us (1 Peter 5:7). Why, then, after we have bowed at an altar of surrender and left our burdens 'palms down' in Your strong hands and mighty arms, in Your gracious and loving care, do we pick t...  Read More