Solomon prayed for wisdom, and God gave it to him. Unfortunately, however, he eventually failed to use it in every area of his life.

Whatever your age and your position in work, in church, or in the community, I pray you will listen and accept instruction so you and I can continue to gain wisdom for the future.

God doesn’t need us to loan him anything. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. What God does expect is that our transformation by the power of the gospel will include a change in how we see and use all of the resources we have.

Some talk about our service as our “for such a time as this” moment. Maybe it would be wiser simply to think of each moment as a one God can use to accomplish his purpose through us.

The list of things I cannot do would be very long. That’s probably true for you, too. But we can relax with the good news of what God tells every one of us can do.

I was 28 or 29 when I first memorized and prayed these verses. And through many seasons of suffering since then, I have come back to them again and again.

Owners can bet on their own horses. Athletes can feel confident about their own strength. Leaders can assume past successes guarantee future fortune. Solomon has a warning for all of them.

Paul said of his readers that because of their faith in Jesus, the gospel was being proclaimed throughout the world. I know this is true of my readers, too.

When we think of how we typically introduce ourselves, we’re struck by how Paul described himself to those he was writing.

The transformation of our lives is a long, slow arc of change, and we must be diligent to allow God’s work of transformation to continue. We want to end our lives like the transformed Paul.

Eddie walked into a place God had prepared for him. And he was reunited with many he loved and thousands more he never knew he had influenced for good and for God.

We can learn many things from David. Three practical, helpful lessons are all together in Psalm 3.

Eddie knew the Lord, and as a man of faith who spent his whole career in Christian higher education, he no doubt had read and prayed this passage many times in seasons of difficulty.

He wept and repented when he realized he and his people had been ignoring God’s Word. It’s an example for us as we consider the copies of Scripture we own.

The apostle Paul gives us a profound picture of a life transformed. Even a brief look provides a challenging example for every believer.

We get to choose whom we will listen to and from whom we receive advice and counsel for our lives. But Psalm 1 narrows our choices into two options.

“Gracious words are like honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”

“With my voice I cry out to the Lord. . . . With my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. . . . I pour out my complaint before him.”

Maybe it’s time for each of us to assess our willingness to understand that our freedom in Christ should not result in constant expressions of everything we dislike or disagree with.

The psalmist tells us God was preserving his life even as he walked through troubles. And he shows us how we can do the same.