By Bill Gaultiere © 2010
Are you free – really free? Are you at peace being the person God created you to be and enjoying your life with him?
Many people we talk to are wearing a heavy yoke. They’re working all the time. Or they’re worried about money or their health or their kids. Or they’re tired of trying to please an impossible to please spouse. Or they’re depending on alcohol to relax.
Jesus shows us a life of freedom. No one has had more pressure than Jesus. No one has had more responsibility, expectations, temptations, stress, or pain than Jesus. And no one lived life more [...]
Continue reading Be Free! Live in Jesus’ Easy Yoke!
“[The Lord] raised up for his people [the Christ], the praise of… the people close to his heart” (Psalm 148:14).
“People close to his heart.” I am close to the Lord’s heart! You are close to the Lord’s heart! Doesn’t this make your heart skip with joy? If you join me in this meditation and prayer it will!
Remember John at the Last Supper? He reclined on Jesus’ chest and later he told the whole world again and again: “I am the disciple Jesus loves!” (John 13:23, 26; 20:2; 21:7; 21:20).
What a blessing it is when I’m meditating on Scripture and the Holy Spirit [...]
Continue reading Come Close to Christ
By Bill Gaultiere © 2010
You know the verse: “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” And probably you know the verse that comes later in the same Psalm: “Children are a reward from him.” But you may not know the verse that connects these two: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:1-3).
In God’s wisdom the Psalmist’s prayer is showing us that the way to build a home and a family, or anything, begins with resting in the Lord’s care. That’s why the Hebrew day [...]
Continue reading Build with Jesus
By Bill Gaultiere © 2001, 2010
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
I met Alandro on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, 2001. I was on a short-term mission trip to a small village outside of Ensenda, Mexico, with my wife and three small children and some other families. We were putting on a Vacation Bible School (VBS) and holding meetings in the neighborhood church.
It was a cold and rainy day. Alandro stood in his bare feet, shyly watching [...]
Continue reading Dulces and Jesus
By Bill Gaultiere © 2010
Could a prayer change your life? This little one could ignite your heart for Christ as it has mine…
The other day on my Sabbath I sat on a rock by a stream for hours praying the Lord’s Prayer with Martin Luther. His barber asked him how he prayed and he wrote him a letter featuring his meditations and prayers inspired by Jesus’ prayer. What a blessing it was to read and pray from his classic little devotional book: A Simple Way to Pray.
I shared this prayer in our recent Soul Shepherding Board of Directors meeting and as part of a sermon [...]
Continue reading A Pocket Lighter to Ignite your Heart
By Bill Gaultiere © 2010
What do you want Jesus to do for you? It’s the most important question of your life.
John and Andrew were introduced to Jesus by John the Baptist who said to them: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
They approached Jesus eagerly and he asked them the question: “What do you want me to do for you?”
Think of the ways that people like you and I answer Jesus’ question…
Lord, I want… Financial help… Success in my project… Wisdom to solve my problem… Healing… Help for a loved one… A new opportunity [...]
Continue reading Come and See
The way to life and freedom is to trust in the name of the Lord. The wise man says: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18:12).
But what does it mean to trust in the name of the Lord? In my personal life and in my ministry as a psychologist and spiritual mentor I have learned that we must learn to bring our reliance upon the name of the Lord into our daily life challenges and struggles.
Today I was about to hurry as I drove until I breathed the name of Jesus in prayer.
I [...]
Continue reading Jesus, in Your Name I Hope
Jesus invites us to be his apprentices!
I used to get up thinking about – or worrying about! – all the things I needed to do that day and rushing to get going on them. But I’ve learned to begin my day in quiet prayer. (Sometimes to do this I have to wrestle the anxieties off of me!)
Years ago I learned to offer the first words of the day to my Lord: “I love you Jesus!”
This has grown into “the Apprentice Prayer”: a simple but powerful prayer of devotion to Jesus.
I use The Apprentice Prayer to train my heart to [...]
Continue reading The Apprentice Prayer
Jesus may have helped build this stone theater
Much of our lives includes ordinary work and chores. We all have to do things that don’t excite us at work or around the house or in running errands. It’s easy to lapse into feeling bored, empty, or like we are trivial. Or to complain (in our thoughts if not out loud) about what we have to do.
This was my temptation beginning my Monday.
To keep from grumping along today I picked up a special prayer rock. It’s piece of the outdoor stone theater in Sephorris, Israel. Jesus may have helped to build this [...]
Continue reading Rejoicing on a Mundane Monday!
