Bethany Verrett

The trials, tribulations, and temptations of living in a fallen world require perseverance, but in the end, there is eternity with the living God. Perseverance can be a difficult strength to call upon, which is why people are encouraged to ask the Holy Spirit for it, rather than relying on their own strength.

Jesus’ message conflicted with both approaches. The Pharisees and Sadducees were important figures rising to prominence in Israel after the return from exile through the first century, but Jesus’ important message of salvation highlighted the problems with their religious traditions.

The Sinner’s Pray is not a single, uniform prayer. Instead it is an outline, or series of statements, that can be put together in a prayer.

Deliverance is bringing someone from a place of destruction, negativity, or sin and taking them out of it and into a place of safety, strength, and spiritual healing. The Bible promises that if someone cries out for deliverance, God responds and restores.

The fig tree bore leaves too early in the season, but could not, or would not, bear fruit in kind. This is much like how Israel would go through periods of fruitlessness, and much like believers go through seasons of fruitlessness in their spiritual lives.

If one had to pick one moment in the Bible to describe as the climax, the best contender would be the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It is the fulfillment of promises and prophecies in the Old Testament, the ultimate shift, and the driving moment around which all following parts of the Bible are defined.

The death of the Lord Jesus was a moment that rewrote and redefined history. Understanding it helps inform why Easter is important and why the shift from the law to grace happened. By examining what the Gospels say about the moment of Jesus’ death, the significance of that sacrifice and the resurrection become clearer and more important.

Get your FREE Easter Guide here. Have encouragement delivered straight to your inbox!

Photo credit: Unsplash/Alicia Quan

It is not sinful to ask the Holy Spirit to help with something that is under its domain during prayer. It indwells each believer to sanctify, convict, and prepare Christians for eternity in Heaven, and calling on it for help in those matters through prayer is appropriate.

Teaching children about their Savior and how they can have eternal life may be the most important responsibility of a Christian parent and the believers who come into the lives of children. One of the key ways to help children grow spiritually is to help them get to know the Bible.

Reading the stories, extracting lessons, helping them memorize important verses, and helping them see the connections to Jesus and God’s love are part of “train[ing] up a child in the way he should go; [so] even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). The Bible is a big book, and it can be difficult to know where to start. Fortunately, there are many stories that are important and accessible for children.

Here are 10 of the most popular Bible stories for kids.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Tutye

“God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed. Give us Lord our daily bread. Amen.”

One of the first things small children learn to do in a Christian household is to pray before they eat. For people who have a relationship with the Lord, and even for some people who do not know what they believe, it is such an ingrained habit or family tradition that it can be easy to do it out of habit, rather than a sincere moment of gratitude for a meal.

Why do people pray before they eat anyway? Does God really command us to do so? While there is no commandment in the Bible where God says, “thou shalt pray before you eat,” there are consistent examples in the Bible, including from the Lord Jesus who Christians are to imitate, of saying a blessing and a prayer of thankfulness before a meal.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/SARINYAPINNGAM

Infidelity is another way of saying unfaithfulness. Being faithful to someone involves being truthful, consistent, and available. God is ever faithful, but humans often hurt the Lord through unfaithfulness to Him.