Resource Library

It’s shallow to think God is at our beck and call, eager to give us everything and anything we ask for. Prayer doesn’t work this way—Jesus isn’t a genie. The purpose of prayer is to glorify God.

Rest assured in the midst of your trouble, no matter what it is, God’s sovereign hand is at work. It will literally revolutionize your whole mental attitude toward life.

Since heaven will be our ultimate destination, we need to spend less time complaining about our struggles and trials on earth, where we temporarily live, and more time learning as much as possible about heaven, where we will live forever.

So far, Jesus has served up sombre topics of death, trials, and Peter’s denials. To calm troubled hearts, He taught His disciples about personal faith, preparation for heaven, God’s sovereign hand, and answered prayer.

Jesus urged His disciples, who were still shaken by His talk of death, to overcome their fear by depending on the Holy Spirit, claiming Christ’s peace, accepting God’s plan for the future, and following His pattern of obedience to the Father.

From John 14:1–6, Pastor Chuck Swindoll shares Jesus’ promise to restore the fallen, to prepare a place for His followers, to immediately send the Holy Spirit, and eventually return Himself.

We have come to the fourth and final mental picture—a productive vine—another vivid analogy preserved for us in the Word of God. In fact, this one comes to us from the lips of Jesus as He left His disciples words of encouragement just before He was crucified. They have been recorded for us in the 15th chapter of John, a chapter that centres attention on three vital relationships the Christian must maintain.

When you accept Christ as your Saviour you have someone who is always your advocate; always in your corner. And when you forgive those who hurt you, you model Christ. And you become a little more like Him.

We live in a world where the majority is heading the wrong way. As Christians we swim upstream, against the flow who are moving away from God.

Acceptance means you don’t make people jump through hoops—you take them as they are.