Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Today’s Scripture: Ezra 6:1-12
Mary is reading Ezra 6:1-12 in the WEB.
Access Pray Every Day every single day on the Pray Every Day App! Not only can you listen, but I’ve created 365 daily devotions you can read as well–all about connecting deeply with Jesus, finding healing, and experiencing His presence. Download the app here:
Or listen to Pray Every Day on your Alexa Skills device! (It’s free too!) Or subscribe here:
Pray through the Bible verse by verse with Mary DeMuth. When life overwhelms you, unburden yourself through prayer and experience God's nearness. God is listening.
September Show Sponsors:
Kerry Larson Luddy
We are so excited to also welcome Kerry Larson Luddy as a sponsor for Pray Every Day this month.
A respected Christian apologist is exposed for leading a double life and preying on women. A pastor and his family receive death threats after apologizing for giving a false prophecy about the 2020 election. A husband’s adulterous fling is arranged and publicly exposed by a media outlet. A financial secretary steals half a million dollars from her church. Christians are breaking commandments, leaving trauma, broken lives, and sorrow in their wake. How can this be?
It’s a tale as old as time: people caring more about themselves than their neighbors, wayward hearts too busy or disinterested in knowing the Bible, and a desire for power instead of transformation.
As a child, Kerry Larson Luddy remembers being confused by the Bible having “old” and “new” parts. Does this mean the old is bad? Is God better in the new version? How are these two parts even connected? The frayed edges of her understanding began to mend years later as she studied the Bible. Over time, she began to see that God’s love for his people did not begin in a manger in Bethlehem, but from creation, and then again as he created a people–his “treasured possession”–at Mount Sinai from whom would emerge the greatest gift to humanity: his own Son, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’s teachings and a deep dive into the stories of wayward hearts in the Old Testament, her own heart was changed.
In Ten Connections for the Curious: The Commandments, Our Wayward Hearts, and Christ, Kerry uses Bible explication, contemporary events, literature, film, and personal experiences (with a dash of humor) to help readers understand the importance of studying the whole of God’s Word, and how it deepens faith and transforms hearts. Within ten chapters, Kerry explains the commandments in context and connects them to Jesus’s teachings and our lives as Christ-followers. Each chapter concludes with several questions to help readers reflect on the hopeful reality that God can heal and redirect our hardened, wandering hearts. The book can be used for individual or group study.
Learn more about Kerry here, and purchase a copy of Ten Connections for the Curious here.
Jennifer Thompson
I am excited to welcome Jennifer Thompson and her book Return to Jesus as a sponsor for the Pray Every Day Show!
An inspiring invitation for women to surrender the stress, anxiety, and overwhelm and rest in the presence of Jesus.
Do you feel overwhelmed and overcommitted before even getting out of bed in the morning? Are you weary from the hustle of life and from the disquiet of your own heart? What if you could learn to rest and find peace amid a world that never stops?
In Return to Jesus, blogger Jen Thompson invites us to return to the One who gives us lungs to breathe and eyes to see all the beauty, heartache, and wonder that can be found in a single day. Using personal stories and scriptures, Jen offers guidance on how to disrupt the patterns and rhythms of life and embrace an eternal perspective that calls us out of the constant demands of our schedules, our time, our emotional capacity, and the expectations of the world pressing in.
With new ways to engage with Jesus throughout the day, along with prayers and questions for reflection, Return to Jesus helps you find a more restorative rhythm in your current season of life, no matter what that season holds.
Find out more about Jen and purchase a copy of Return to Jesus here.
Marc Alan Schelske
I am excited to invite back Marc Alan Schelske as a Pray Every Day sponsor.
Over the centuries, journaling has emerged as one of the most consistently transformative practices, recommended by leaders across spiritual traditions, therapists, coaches, and others. Why then are so many people intimidated by journaling today, while others try it only to give it up? Incorporating both ancient spiritual wisdom and current neurobiology, Journaling for Spiritual Growth teaches you how to be present to your life and hear what the Spirit is doing within you.
Journaling is not a secret technique. Therapists, spiritual directors, pastor, and coaches recommend it. It is a time-tested practice. But for journaling to result in growth, a certain approach works best. This isn’t keeping a diary, writing a memoir, or tracking habits. Journaling for Spiritual Growth is a very particular kind of journaling practice. It’s flexible and gracious. With guidance you can build a sustainable habit that will serve you for years to come.
Who is this book for?
* Those with a desire for personal and spiritual growth.
* Those looking for a spiritual practice that works with their life and temperament.
* Those who want a spiritual practice but aren’t interested in legalism or a sense of obligation.
* Those who have tried journaling in the past and haven’t been able to stick with it, but suspect they could use an experienced guide.
What will you learn?
* Why many ways to journal don’t result in transformation.
* How our own expectations undermine journaling’s effect, and what mindsets are most helpful for a sustainable practice that leads to growth.
* How the structure of journaling can be a friend in our chaotic world.
* The lessons we can learn from our bad habits.
* How to create a sustainable journaling practice that fits your life and grows with you.
To learn more about Marc and to order your copy of Journaling for Spiritual Growth, click here
The Freedom of Surrender
Find joy and freedom in surrender
Letting go is hard.
To surrender is to let go of what we tightly grip, the good and the bad. It’s a relinquishing of control, a recognition that God alone can meet our deepest needs. It’s a holy pause that entrusts each hope, each worry, and each pressing concern to the One whose love for us is beyond measure. And in this surrender, we enter into freedom. But, even so, letting go often feels easier said than done.
In The Freedom of Surrender, author Mary DeMuth invites you to journey through forty days of entrusting specific areas of your life to God—your inner struggles, your family, your expectations, your regrets, your ministry, your grief, your relationships, your job, your health, your finances, your future, and more. Every daily devotion includes Scripture, prayer, and Mary’s original art that help you cast each care on the One who cares for you.
On this forty-day journey, you’ll learn:
- How to trust that God is in control, even in moments of chaos and stress.
- True joy and freedom can happen when we release what we’re holding too tightly.
- God’s plan is to see you thrive and grow.
- Prayer opens the door to freedom and peace.
- Even in your struggles, you are never alone.
When we entrust our stresses and worries to God, we embrace the reality that’s always been true: Our “control” is an illusion. God alone can meet our needs, heal our wounds, and guide our steps. From this place of total reliance on God, we can experience deep joy and the peace that passes understanding.
What are you holding too tightly? Experience freedom as you invite Jesus to help you surrender all.
Find out more about The Freedom of Surrender and order a copy here.
Join the Movement:
Support Pray Every Day in a tangible way! Click here to become a patron of the show. Thanks to the folks below who have supported Pray Every Day for $10 more a month.
0 Comments