“She feels pressured by her mother-in-law,” related a young wife who told me about a couple contemplating a ministry opportunity. The husband’s parents, in their eagerness to see the young couple in full-time Christian service, say “encouraging” words the wife resents.

A friend reported that the Lord called her to fast one day a week for her church. On Wednesdays she only drinks water, and, amazingly, by the end of her workday, she feels better than on the days she eats. The Lord has given her a picture in her mind of her church with flames coming out of the top of it. She believes God wants to break out in revival in her church. Her hunger to know God’s glory in their midst motivates her to fast.

When someone said something that hurt me deeply, I resisted the urge to walk out of the room. Instead, I managed to pray a quick, "Please, Lord, give me a verse that will tell me how to respond." He did, and I was helped out of the immediate situation.

Many years ago, a fellow member of our small church came over one evening and told us that trouble was brewing. At the upcoming annual business meeting, a group was planning to vote on something that we believed would hurt the church. The three of us knelt to pray with heavy hearts. We laid the matter before the Lord.

If we live with regrets because of failure, we discover our God is a God of multiple plans. In Jeremiah 29:11 the word “plans” is plural. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” God has good plans for every possible circumstance.

I was surprised to learn that the first official act of the first American Congress in 1774 was to read Psalm 35 and pray. That prayer was not a superficial one, as we would expect to hear in a public gathering today.

Evelyn Christenson shivered in her hotel room in Australia one winter Sunday evening. Chills from a sore throat, plus sitting all that day in cold buildings, left her miserable. She bit an apple, but her throat hurt too much to swallow it. And starting early the next morning, she was scheduled to speak all day!

After a college student played her flute in the Messiah, she told me what had gone through her mind during the performance. I wonder if the singers are worshiping with those words? Maybe this is just another performance for them. But then she realized she should be thinking differently. I can worship. I’m not very good at saying words of praise, but I’ll play my best. If You can hear my flute in Heaven, this is for You, God.