The Father's purpose is to make us Christ-like, abounding in godly love. God is able to turn horrendous and gruesome circumstances into ultimate blessings.

If God is manipulating everything in His sovereignty, why pray? What does prayer teach us? Here is why God commands us to come before Him in prayer.

Throughout Christ's life, the relationship between Him and His Father exemplified perfect, reciprocal, unconditional love, providing a perfect template.

Because of God's outworking, we may consider isolation a vital key, causing our spiritual vision and understanding to become sharper through fewer distractions.

Honoring our free choice and understanding our weaknesses, God alters time and chance for us, using our mistakes as tools to enhance our godly character.

God established permanent patterns, electing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as all of those He has called. This election should be our obsession.

Like Moses, we have to develop conviction, a product of a relationship of God, established by being faithful day by day in the little things of life.

Paul was chosen, but Ananias was also chosen. Ananias's role was like a Jew living in Nazi Germany, ordered by God to minister to a repentant SS officer.

God is absolutely faithful to His promises. We attain salvation is entirely by grace; God owes us absolutely nothing.

As we count the 50 days toward Pentecost, we should consider the events of our lives, coming to understand that they reveal God's on-going maintenance.

The two principal robbers of peace are pride and the drive to have complete control of our lives. Discontent and imagined victimization led Adam and Eve into sin.

Unlike people who, because of their natural carnal nature, feel disappointment with God, God's people should never experience any disappointment with Him.

The Feast of Tabernacles is far more than a yearly vacation. It is a time set apart for both rejoicing before God and learning to fear Him.

When we yield to God's Spirit, we receive the power to do the things God has prepared His firstfruits to accomplish, adding to the capabilities of the spirit in man.

Solomon reveals that God is solidly in control of time. Knowing that God is sovereign over time should fill us with faith in God's workmanship.

God has given time to mankind as a gift, manipulating its use for us. The bad as well as the pleasant aspects of life are fashioned for our ultimate good.

God desires far more for us than mere satisfaction: He wants to give us real contentment, a state that comes only through a relationship with Him.

We have a much bigger reason for developing godly character than merely make it into the Kingdom. We are rehearsing our roles as a royal priesthood.

Even though we have the free moral agency to run counter to God's purposes, we court disaster if we presumptuously plan against these purposes.

God emphasizes Ecclesiastes during the Feast of Tabernacles to show the result of doing whatever our human heart leads us to do. The physical cannot satisfy.

If God delays in answering a sincere prayer, His purpose is to increase faith, as in the case of His delay in providing Abraham with a son through Sarah.

God's called-ones have been given the ability to decipher the scattered concepts, revealing the purpose of their destiny throughout the Scriptures.

We are being trained to become leaders, but before we can lead, we must be able to carry out responsibilities, conforming to God's leadership and covenants.

The discipline of waiting is on the same level as the other spiritual disciplines, requiring substantial admixtures of faith and hope, building endurance.

A Christian worldview includes the importance of our calling and the reality of God and His laws. Our worldview determines how we spend our time.

Joy is more than happiness. God gives a superior kind of joy through the action of His Spirit in us that far exceeds mere human cheer and well-being.

God manipulates events to occur at precisely the right time. The timing God uses for us are just as precisely planned and scripted as they were for Christ.

In both the basket carrying Moses and the ark carrying Noah's family for over a year, God was in control, and guided both arks to safety.

Strategies for cultivating joy include developing contentment and gratitude, giving rather than getting, finding pleasure in work, and valuing God's law.

The offerings have a great deal to do with our relationship with God. How closely do we identify with Christ? Are we being transformed into His image?

Even though we often must wait for a response, God listens closely to our prayers from the heart and is looking out for our best interests.