Pathways Press.com

Written by Laura Murray, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from her work “Holding Hope.”

When we encounter those who are waiting in hope or even for hope we often long to make it right, ease the pain, and carry their burdens with them. There are practical help and resources we can provide and give them access to. It is up to them to receive them. Even as we offer practical helps, many times we cannot make it right. We have no power to alleviate the pain, to change the system they are in, or lift their burdens. We can always listen, entering their story where they are with compassion and care. Parker Palmer says, “One of the hardest things we must do sometimes is to be present to another person’s pain without trying to “fix” it, to simply stand respectfully at the edge of that person’s mystery and misery. Standing there, we feel useless and powerless. In an effort to avoid those feelings, I give advice, which sets me, not you, free.” We can choose to hope for others, when they cannot hope for themselves and to meet them where they are. As we practice compassion and care we remain rooted in reality, with a care that listens, and with hope in God.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. [Psalm 42:11]

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This is an excerpt from “The Bible in a Year: A 52-Week Journey Through God’s Word,” written by the Spiral Bible team.

Our identity in Christ defines who we are based on God’s truth rather than the world’s standards. It transforms how we view ourselves and others, leading to freedom from false identities and worldly expectations. Paul’s declaration that “if anyone is in Christ, a new creation has come”…announces a radical transformation of identity. This isn’t mere self-improvement but a complete re-creation. Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, our new identity in Christ represents a fundamental transformation, not just a superficial change…The assurance that “in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” eliminates the social barriers that typically define identity. Race, social status, and gender don’t determine our primary identity; our relationship with Christ does…The Spirit’s presence in our lives isn’t just proof of our salvation but confirmation of our status as God’s children. This identity carries with it an inheritance—we’re not just servants in God’s house but heirs who share in Christ’s inheritance…Our identity in Christ isn’t based on our performance but on God’s sovereign choice and loving purpose. Before we did anything to deserve it, God chose to make us His own.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! [2 Corinthians 5:17]

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Written by the Lead Like Jesus team, an organization founded by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges that promotes a transformational leadership model based on following Jesus.

God, I surrender myself to You. Change my heart, change my values, and show me what changes I need to make to align my behavior with what you value. Let love of You and love for others be the hallmark of my life. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. [Psalm 51:10]

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Written by John Mark Comer, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his course on Practicing the Way.

It’s a great tragedy that the word justice has been caught up in the culture wars and the polarizing vitriol between Left and Right. For some, justice is the ultimate good; for others, a pariah. Of course, justice means different things to different people. (Think of how it’s used in Isaiah, versus on Twitter, versus in a Clint Eastwood western.) But this is not a word we can let secularism define (to my friends on the Left), nor is it a practice we can abandon (to my friends on the Right). Because it’s central to the heart of God… Dr. Gerry Breshears said, “Practicing justice is an act of joining God in seeing that the created order (people and everything else) receives what it is due.” And doing this no matter the pain to yourself. It means disadvantaging yourself for the advantage of the “other,” the one in need of care… Every person we meet is a God opportunity—to love and to serve. Every day is full of possible miracles. Every moment is pregnant with possibility, if only we open our eyes.

Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. [Isaiah 1:17]

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Written by Ken Boa, a contemporary author and founder of Reflections Ministry.

There is a natural human tendency to suppose that we can or must earn God’s approval, acceptance, love, or forgiveness through our own effort and achievement. It is not uncommon, even for those who understand that salvation is a gift of God’s grace through faith in Christ Jesus, to slip into the error of thinking that spiritual growth is primarily a matter of human effort and merit. Galatians corrects this error by stressing that the same principle that brings about our justification (grace through faith) also brings about our sanctification. When we walk by the Spirit, we are empowered to bear the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. [Galatians 5:5]

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Written by N. T. Wright, a contemporary theologian, author.  This is an excerpt from his book “For All God’s Worth.”

We need Christian people to work as healers: as healing judges and prison staff, as healing teachers and administrators, as healing shopkeepers and bankers, as healing musicians and artists, as healing writers and scientists, as healing diplomats and politicians. We need people who will hold on to Christ firmly with one hand and reach out with the other, with wit and skill and cheerfulness, with compassion and sorrow and tenderness, to the places where our world is in pain. We need people who will use all their God-given skills… to analyze where things have gone wrong, to come to the place of pain, and to hold over the wound the only medicine which will really heal, which is the love of Christ made incarnate once more, the strange love of God turned into your flesh and mine, your smile and mine, your tears and mine, your patient analysis and mine, your frustration and mine, your joy and mine.

Lead the life that the Lord has assigned to you, to which God has called you. [1 Corinthians 7:17]

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Written by the staff at Theodyssey, an organization that helps people encounter God and be radically changed by the truth of His love. This is an excerpt from their study “When We Pray.”

Anxiety thrives when we live in imagined futures. Trust emerges when we live in the present. Jesus’ invitation to ask for daily bread is an invitation to be here – not five years ahead. When our hearts trust God as a loving Father, we know He will be with us through whatever happens. He doesn’t promise safety, comfort, and endless answered prayers. He promises to be enough for us. That allows us to slowly release anxiety and look for what’s in front of us. We see God at work and join Him. We notice a need and respond. We fully listen in a conversation and encourage. There is wisdom in stewardship and planning, yet we can be consumed by security. What would it look like to hold everything with open hands? To use every resource we have to participate in the Kingdom? That spare bedroom might be repurposed. The guests at our dining room table might look more diverse. Our calendar might have more margin to be available to our neighbors. Each conversation may feel more sacred. The invitation is for us to pursue the heart of dependence regardless of our circumstances. We become more present, available to step in where we see God at work – bringing the Kingdom into reality. We become more like Jesus for the sake of others.

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. [Matthew 6:31-34]

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Written by Francois Fenelon (1651-1715), a French archbishop, theologian, poet, and writer.

Let’s live in today. Let’s receive humbly whatever comes our way, not always wondering what more we could have, and not trying to hide the truth of smallness, of how selfish and afraid we are. Just let God be God. God is at work; let him work. Abandon yourself fully to God, in this moment, in each day. Don’t hold anything back. Don’t worry about what will or won’t be. Just be present, as though this very moment encompassed the whole of eternity.

This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. [Psalm 118:24]

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Written by Doug Webster, a contemporary pastor, teacher,  and author. This is an excerpt from his work “The Lost Kingdom.”

Into the breathlessness Jesus speaks. You have found rest for your soul in me as your sufficient and good Shepherd. I have the genius wisdom and the grace-full way for you to know a good life without sacrificing your character, but rather strengthening who you are becoming as you seek in life what really matters. To your labored and ladened life, my easy and light yoke is filled with goodness and mercy to lead and guide you in my gentle and humble manner as you experience the love of the Father and of me, with me in the Yoke. It is the love and life without want in the Yoke that sheds light on your sinful, selfish, suffocating ways. When you are unburdened by the weight of being your own royalty, your self-deification to breathe, survive, live, conquer, you discover how broken you really are. In the ease of my yoke comes the awareness of the heaviness of the slavery to what and to whom you have been captive. It is here most clearly, at some point for the very first time, that you have eyes to see, ears to hear, understanding to turn and find healing in me. You hear my voice again with an invitation, “Come,” as I welcome you deeper into life with me — “Come and surrender.” For I am not only the good Shepherd to restore you, I am the sacrificial Lamb to save you, rescue you, deliver you from the dark, shadowed valley in a far away land in the pleasure pit of prostitutes and pigs, or next door in the prideful field of contempt and criticism. In surrender, you will find that all the Father has is yours, and we will always be with you.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. [Proverbs 3:5-6]

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Written by Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), a Dutch priest, professor, writer, and theologian. 

Prayer is leading every sorrow to the source of all healing: it is letting the warmth of Jesus’ love melt the cold anger of resentment; it is opening a space where joy replaces sadness, mercy supplants bitterness, love displaces fear, gentleness and care overcome hatred and indifference. But, most of all, prayer is the way to become and remain part of Jesus’ mission to draw all peoples to the intimacy of God’s love.

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. [Micah 7:18]

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