by Marie | Nov 29, 2025 | Archives, Inspiration
WHEN ASKED, ‘How do you grow old so gracefully?’ Alexandre Dumas replied, ‘Because I give all my time to it.’ If you’re over fifty, let your age be measured by your spiritual progress instead of a date on the calendar. How would you like to have these words engraved on your headstone? ‘Enoch lived…365 years. Enoch walked …with God; then he was no more, because God took him away’ (Genesis 5:23-24 NIV). Picture this: Enoch goes for a walk with God and when they reach a certain point, God says, ‘It’s closer to My house than yours, so just come home with Me.’ Like an old oak tree, a mature Christian’s roots have weathered life’s storms. But don’t take your wisdom to the grave with you; share it with people who’ll listen. And those who are wise will listen, because they recognise the foolishness of paying twice for the same information. Don’t retire—refocus. Victor Hugo once said, ‘Forty is old age to youth, fifty is youth to old age.’ With God, availability, not age, is what counts. The Bible says: ‘There was…a prophetess, Anna…she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them (Mary and Joseph with the Christ child) at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and
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by Marie | Nov 28, 2025 | Archives, Inspiration
One of the greatest breakthroughs in modern psychology is the Law of Reversibility. It works like this: when you feel a certain way, you act accordingly. And when you don’t feel like doing something, but you do it anyway, that same dynamic creates the feeling consistent with your actions. Dallas Willard put it like this: ‘You can live opposite of what you profess, but you can’t live opposite of what you believe. Invariably what you believe is revealed by what you do.’ Because fear is a learned response, it can be unlearned. There are two kinds of courage. The first kind calls for action. President Andrew Jackson said, ‘Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. One man with courage makes a majority.’ The second kind calls for patience: the tenacity to keep persevering after you’ve done your best and before you’ve seen results. Often the difference between a hero and a coward is that a hero hangs in there five minutes longer! When you run from intimidating situations, fear multiplies until eventually it controls your life. But when you tackle your problems head-on, ‘not in human wisdom but in the power of God’, your confidence rises until you reach a point where you’re no longer controlled by fear. Meditation: ‘Not in
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by Marie | Nov 27, 2025 | Archives, Inspiration
There are different kinds of fear. There’s the kind that warns you to stay away from fire. There’s the kind that cultivates respect for God (Psalms 2:11). Oswald Chambers said, ‘When you fear God, you don’t have to fear anything else.’ There’s fear that makes you feel helpless; sometimes it’s rooted in parental criticism or a bully’s threats, and although it’s groundless, it still haunts you. There’s the fear of failing, which, if left unchallenged, becomes the father of failure. Job said, ‘What I feared has come upon me’ (Job 3:25 NIV). There’s fear of the unknown, where your imagination runs amok. What if you never meet the ‘right person’, or you lose your job, or the biopsy confirms the worst? Over and over in His Word, God says, ‘Don’t be afraid…I am with you.’ Paul Tournier notes: ‘Life and faith always insist on moving on—and I cannot move forward without leaving something behind. The trapeze artist must let go of one trapeze at precisely the right moment and hover in the void before grabbing the other. Faith calls us out of our comfort zone…to learn new skills and minister in different ways.’ But we get uptight. We think, ‘What if God asks me to do something I can’t do?’ or ‘I don’t have the strength, wisdom, or faith.’ If
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by Marie | Nov 26, 2025 | Archives, Inspiration
Standing on a specially-built platform within Jerusalem’s newly-built walls, Ezra, the scribe, read God’s Word to the people for six hours. As he read it, they wept, worshipped, and went home rejoicing. Think: God’s Word is so powerful that all you have to do is expose people to it, and their lives are changed. Notice the words, ‘Ezra…stood on a platform…they had made for the purpose.’ When the printing press was invented, one of the first books produced was the Bible. It gave birth to the Reformation, influenced the Industrial Revolution, and changed the world. Now fast-forward to the age of the Internet. Today we have a ‘platform’ capable of reaching every level of society, all the way to the most remote corners of the earth. Instead of complaining about the garbage on the Internet, become an Internet evangelist, teacher, counsellor, or encourager. Don’t let the enemy monopolise it! ‘Those who turn many to righteousness [will shine] like the stars forever and ever’ (Daniel 12:3 NKJV). A geologist-turned-missionary was asked by a large oil company to go to work for them in the country where he ministered. His annual salary would be more than he’d earn in his entire lifetime as a missionary. But he said, ‘No.’ When they asked, ‘Isn’t the salary high enough?’ he replied, ‘The salary’s high
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by Marie | Nov 25, 2025 | Archives, Inspiration
To honour her students, a teacher gave each a ribbon that stated, ‘Who I am makes a difference,’ and asked them to pass it along to someone who’d made a difference in their lives. One kid gave his to a young executive who helped him plan his career. He in turn gave it to his boss, who was hard to get along with. He told him how much he’d been influenced by his creativity, and asked him to give the ribbon to somebody he admired. That night the boss told his fourteen-year-old son, ‘I’ve thought about who I want to honour—and it’s you. My days are hectic, and I’m always complaining about your grades and your messy bedroom. Tonight I want to let you know the difference you’ve made in my life. Besides your mother, you’re the most important person I know, and I love you.’ Fighting back tears, the boy replied, ‘Earlier today I wrote a letter explaining why I’d taken my life, and asking you to forgive me. I was going to do it when everybody was asleep. I didn’t think you’d care. I guess I won’t need the letter now.’ Upstairs in his son’s room the father found the anguish-filled note beside a loaded gun. God can help you to ‘…speak a word in season to him
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