You know something – that old saying that blood is thicker than water, it’s true. There’s a special bond between members of a family. Our family really does matter.  And that ... that’s why it’s time to start looking at what it means to build a godly family.

Peace is one of those things – well, who doesn’t want peace in their lives. Freedom from conflict. But imagine, imagine what a blessing it must be, to have peace at home.  A family that thrives on peace instead of being lost in conflict.

Of course, families are and always were, God’s idea. Yet so often these days, families seem to be, well, let’s be honest, just a tad dysfunctional. And as we each grapple with the realities of family life, all too often, we look around at all those apparently normal, balanced, near-perfect families out there and wonder to ourselves – what’s wrong with my family? What’s going on here?

Sometimes, when we’ve been walking with God for a while and the going gets a bit tough, there’s a temptation to think to ourselves, “Well, God, you owe me. Time for you to show up.”

Have you ever chased after something in your life – some project or promotion or relationship … and then after a while, discovered that is was just a mirage out there in the desert?

Sometimes when we’re travelling through the wilderness, hungry, hurting, lonely, it’s the obvious thing to do to, do whatever it takes to end the pain. Logical really, or is it?

It’s easy to think that God is all about blessing us … and sure, He is. But sometimes that path to blessing takes us on a journey through the wilderness … a bit like Jesus.

Stress is affecting so many people, in fact, it's a global pandemic and what we've all discovered is that the shallow, band aid solutions that the world offers us simply don't work. What we need to alleviate stress is power, power to deal with the stress in our lives once and for all.

There are all sorts of things in this world that cause stress. I’ve heard so many ridiculous ways of relieving stress: have a cup of tea, take a hot shower. OK so they might relieve the symptoms for a short while but what we need are some powerful solutions to the root causes of our stress.

Sometimes stress is triggered by other people, or circumstances … things "out there" … many of which we don’t have any control over. Other times, it's something we bring on ourselves. Whichever of those two it is, we need to know how to handle stress.