He was driving home one evening, on a two lane country road. Work in this
small Midwestern community, was almost as slow as his beat up Pontiac, but
he never quit looking. Ever since the factory closed, he’d been unemployed,
and with winter raging on, the chill had finally hit home.

If you can show love
and not retaliate
on your beloved
who continues to
manipulate and control.

God’s love through Jesus Christ
Is the rock of my Salvation,
I do not have to be afraid
Even though my enemies are all around me,

They say I’m poor,
They say I’m nothing.
They say I’m poor and they say I’m nothing because I’ve got nothing to offer to any living soul.

Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting.

God is truly in control.
If God is God, then nothing happens apart from His knowledge and permission. While it is difficult to imagine why God allows some painful things to happen, His character, revealed in the Bible and through the testing of generations, leads us to the conclusion that He is willing and able to sustain you during the worst of times.

Make me too brave to lie or be unkind.
Make me too understanding, too, to mind
The little hurts companions give, and friends,
The careless hurts that no one quite intends.

God gave us the seasons —
each with its own beauty and reason,
each meant to bring us a blessing,
a joy, and a feeling of love

When everything seems to go wrong, just push
when the job gets you down, just push
when people don’t react the way you think they should, just push

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.