Yours, God, is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever… It is much easier to say than it is to truly live out.

Jesus’ prayer acknowledges that the testing we face is not as simple as picking the best choice in a vacuum but that we need God’s help to resist competing messages and follow God’s lead.

Forgiveness is at the heart of Christianity, and yet our understanding of it is often a bit blurry. Forgiveness is simultaneously far simpler and far more complex than we may realize.

Requesting daily bread – something so simple and generally plentiful for many of us. But as we have learned by now, the elements of the Lord’s Prayer may be simple, but they are packed with meaning.

The part of the Lord’s Prayer about God’s Kingdom coming and God’s will being done just might challenge us to rethink everything we think we know about heaven, earth, and the storyline of the Bible itself.

Prayer is one of the central disciplines to the Christian faith, and yet many people struggle with it. Perhaps that struggle begins with a central question: to whom are we praying?

Mary displays incredible resolve when she accepts the calling to carry Jesus, but it took more than courage. It took a deep sense of peace, and Advent invites us to experience that same peace in our lives.

As we continue through the season of Advent, we can ask ourselves: where are we struggling to wait for God to move in our life, and how might we anticipate the joy that comes when God’s promises are fulfilled?

In both Elizabeth and John the Baptist, we see a humble, self-giving love that supported Mary and Jesus. During the season of Advent, we are invited to keep our eyes open for the people in our lives who need our love and support.

Advent does not simply invite us to look back to when Jesus came, but it invites us to look forward in hope to when Jesus will return and make all things new. As we enter Advent, may we do so with our eyes focused on the hope we have in Jesus.

We all have lenses through which we see and interpret the world around us. One of the ways we can become aware of the lenses we and others are looking through is to examine the questions we ask.

The dinner table is where we come to share about our days, be surrounded by our loved ones, and of course eat. It can also be a place where family tensions linger. As Thanksgiving approaches and we prepare our homes and hearts for time with our families, we’ll look to Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth for wisdom.