Have you ever found yourself completely at the end of your tether. You just don't have anything left. You just don't know which way to turn or what to do. It's a desperate place, a confusing place, a fearful place and a place where God is ready and waiting to touch you, bless you and bring you peace.

We get a lot of prayer requests at our www.christianityworks.com website from people who are at the end of their tether. I'd like to share one of these with you today, anonymously of course, because my hunch is that there are so many people who are just struggling with this, who are at the end of their tethers.

This is the prayer request that we received just recently from a woman.

I just had an uncontrollable anger situation between my husband and our teenage son. My husband had come to visit and a heated argument started over our son's attitude to choices of sport, and it resulted in a hard slap across my son's face. Then he left again in one of our cars whilst he'd lost his license for drink driving. I feel so confused and sad and upset and unhappy. When is my husband going to control his anger? When is he going to control his drink?

I'm so fed up. When are our three boys going to have a controllable loving father? We've been separated so often now. I know these boys are just so desperately wanting a happy and balanced and controllable family. Will you please pray that I keep falling and picking myself up? I just don't know what's going to happen this year.

It's the anniversary of my Dad's passing away, its twelve months ago and it's been so hard. I had an accident from falling off a horse, which left me immobile for the last six months. And with all of these going on, no family, no support, barely any friends, I'm so lonely. I just don't know where I'd be without God. Please pray for us.

This woman is at the end of her tether. She's nowhere to turn except God. And things are happening over and over again, like you can never break out, like you know that movie Groundhog Day. You never escape, it'll never change. Here is this man who has a drinking problem and a problem with anger over and over again back together, separated, back together, separated. The boys have arguments … you know, it is so hard when we feel that we have problems that just keep repeating themselves and we can't break out of them.

What's life look like at the end of your tether? What are the things that keep going round and round and over and over again – kids or spouse or work or addictions or loneliness or fear or pain? So many people these days suffer from multiple alienations, not just one but two or three at the same time. And it drives them to the edge; it drives them to the end of their tether.

The Apostle Peter wrote a wonderful passage in one of his letters. If you have a Bible, you can go and look at it sometime. It's in the book First Peter Chapter 5 verse 7. It's almost right at the end of the Bible, 1 Peter 5:7. He writes this, it's beautiful:

Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you. Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you.

Now, I always kind of thought of anxiety as being a twentieth century or a twenty-first century word, you know. It seems to be a symptom of the speed we live life at, the technology, the pressure, the emails, the phone calls, the here and now. I always thought of anxiety like that. But here two thousand years ago, Peter the Apostle talks about anxiety. He talks about being at the end of your tether, about being anxious and threatened and not being able to cope and just not being able to deal with any more.

"Stop the world, I want to get off", is what Peter was talking about here two thousand years ago. I'm sure there were angry husbands. I'm sure there were drinking problems

When you see something wrong going on around you, how do you decide between speaking up and staying silent, between calling out the wrong and keeping the peace? It's a tough call, isn't it?

Let's say you work in a close-knit office where everyone gets along. One day, you overhear a senior manager mocking a younger coworker's accent behind their back.

It's wrong, clearly—but speaking up could damage team harmony, even put your own position at risk. Do you confront it and risk tension, or stay silent and preserve the peace? That's the dilemma.

Tolerance feels easier in the moment, but is silence actually complicity?

Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus went into the Temple area. He threw out all those who were selling and buying things there. He turned over the tables that belonged to those who were exchanging different kinds of money. And he turned over the benches of those who were selling doves. Jesus said to them, "The Scriptures say, 'My Temple will be called a house of prayer.' But you are changing it into a 'hiding place for thieves.'"

Now, Jesus didn't do that sort of thing too often, but He was very direct in calling out hypocrisy, bad behaviour … sin. And the people were so appreciative of that, that they had Him crucified!

Sometimes, doing what's right will cost you something. And yet, allowing wrong to go unchallenged quietly grants it permission to keep growing.

Don't forget to be bold enough to flip tables that need flipping.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

Job loss, sudden change, and closed doors can feel like failure—disruption may be part of God’s bigger story still unfolding.

Society's changed rather a lot in just the last fifty years. Things that were once considered to be wrong have now not only become right, but they're flaunted – celebrated, even. And it's being demanded of us that we toe the line, that we not merely accept but enthusiastically embrace that which, deep down, we know to be wrong.

Philosopher and social critic, Thomas Mann, was exiled from Nazi Germany as he became increasingly vocal in his criticism of Adolf Hitler. He'd seen firsthand how German intellectuals, churches, and ordinary citizens tolerated Hitler's rise, excusing his rhetoric, ignoring his brutality, hoping it'd all pass.

But that tolerance allowed evil to metastasise. As Mann warned, failing to confront wickedness for the sake of social peace isn't a virtue; it's complicity. By the time the world acted, millions had already perished. Evil unchecked doesn't fade—it devours.

Mann summed it up well when he said, "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." 

Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. (NIV)

We're not called, you and I, to remain passive observers. We're called to shine light into darkness—not through self-righteousness, but by truth and love.

When we sit idly by, tolerating or excusing evil for the sake of comfort, popularity or fear, we're participating in a dangerous moral reversal that Scripture sharply condemns.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

Poverty is a terrible thing. Physical poverty. Emotional poverty. Spiritual poverty. It eats away at you. Well, what if I told you that God wants to make you rich. No, no – I don't mean a big house, and expensive car and a personal jet. They're just trinkets. No … God has something much better planned for you.

As we look around at people that walk past us on the street, what we often see are blank faces with very little emotion, faces that hide what's really going on inside – joy, pain, boldness, fear, wealth, poverty – we just don't know, do you?

Now I used to think I knew what poverty was. And then in January 2005, I found myself standing in the middle of a squalored little village, just a few hours drive outside Hyderabad in India. It was all I could do not to weep over the depth of the poverty that screamed at all of my senses.

Sometimes a lack of money, financial poverty, strikes. It can strike the wealthy and the not so wealthy, in the developed world and the developing world.

So where's God? Today, I'd like to share with you the story of 'Harry', a young man from Zimbabwe and his friend Joseph from South Africa. It's a story of God's blessing amidst poverty.

The story begins in the middle of June 2005 at a conference in the UK at Stock-on-Trent. It was the conference of the United Christian Broadcasters, which I attended. There were Christian TV and radio stations from right around the world at this conference. In particular, I wanted to connect with the CEO of a ministry called 'Media Village' in South Africa. These are people who train young folk in television and radio and they seem to be doing some really cool stuff. But she was so busy, she was speaking at most of the conference, we just couldn't seem to connect.

The last morning of the conference at breakfast, my wife and I sat down at the table in the dining room and this young, very well dressed African man in his late 20s, by the name of Joseph sat down at our table. We got chatting and it turned out that he was the head of the radio school at the Media Village. As we talked, somehow we just seemed to click and we got excited. And we said, "Let's do something when we get back to Australia and South Africa respectively".

So over the next few months our relationship developed. Joseph was promoting our radio programs, this program and the other programs that we produce, to stations right around Africa. It's a great ministry partnership that's developing. But on the 22nd of December 2005, Joseph sent a broadcast email out to a number of people, (me included), telling us that there were nine students who had just completed a three-month course on how to produce radio programs.

They'd all done so successfully, but so many of these students were very poor. And without paying their fees, just as with any other institution, they couldn't get their graduation certificate. It's the bit of paper that said well, this is what they have done. It's the reality. They're very poor people and we were talking about US$4000 about AU$5000 for all the students. Most of them had paid some of their fees but you know there was some really poor people there. And in particular, I'd like to share with you now Harry's story. Have a listen to this because when I read Harry's story in Joseph's email, I tell you, it really got to me. He writes this:

Dear Friend,

It's been a privilege attending the school of radio broadcasting 2005, here at the Media Village in Africa and I just wanted to express my appreciation. I hope this letter finds you in good shape emotionally, and physically, and mostly spiritually. It's been a challenge being at this school, considering that when I came, I was really greatly financially disadvantaged. It took me a huge step of faith to leave Zimbabwe with only the money to get to Johannesburg and I just didn't have enough money t

Grief doesn’t arrive all at once—here’s how to ride the waves.

You and I both know, at least in theory, that every person we meet is going through something. Now, I say 'in theory' because, by and large, we go through our day pretty much focusing only on the stuff we're going through. And believe it or not, that's one of the biggest reasons that conflict begins.

I was standing outside a large apartment complex recently looking at all the windows and balconies - each a different residence, a different home, a different family, a different single-person abode. And I began to imagine all the stuff going on in each one.

This guy's salary's been delayed, with his mortgage payment coming up. In the next apartment, there's a divorced middle-aged woman who's overthinking everything. Then there's the family who just lost their beloved pet of many years. The couple whose marriage is teetering on the edge. The young woman going out on her first date. The young man caught up in a soul-destroying addiction.

The list is endless, right? Every person you meet is going through something … and that 'something' can make people - including us, let's be honest - behave badly.

So you can see how conflict arises when we butt up against one another, without softening our hearts to recognise that the other person has stuff going on too.

1 John 3:18 My children, our love should not be only words and talk. No, our love must be real. We must show our love by the things we do.

So, next time someone's behaviour is a bit off, show them some love, cut them some slack. This isn't some theory lesson; it's not just words and talk.

No, your love must be real. You must show your love by the things you do.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

Ever felt sick on the inside. Sometimes it's physical. Other times it's emotional. Sometimes it's spiritual. And sometimes, we really don't know what it is. Well, if healing is what you need, then today's message … is for you.

The reality is, that some people aren't well. We all get sick, sometimes it's just a cold, or the flu for a couple of days and we feel miserable, but other times it can be much worse. My Mother, who's seventy-five years old, just had shingles, which is an incredibly painful disorder and a bit dicey at that age. She's out of the woods now and on the mend.

I, for one, am a shocking patient. I'm so active and out there doing things, that within about half a day of getting sick, I've had enough. I just want t get back on my feet. Fortunately, I'm a pretty healthy beast so it doesn't happen too often. But when we're sick, it's easy to see the rest of the world getting on with life and we feel like we've been left behind or deserted.

At our website www.christianityworks.com, lots of people come and ask for prayer. Often, we have people ask for prayer, either for themselves or for family, or friends in times of sickness. It's a very common reason why people ask for prayer. A couple that just came in this other week; was to continue to pray for someone who was involved in a tragic motorcycle accident (just recently). And to pray for a friend who was in hospital with a critical condition of pneumonia. They asked us to pray for full recovery for him and that Jesus would give him the strength to fight this.

It happens you know, people have accidents, and it happens so quickly, a motorcycle, a car. I remember when I was younger, my young two-year old son reached up and caused me to pour boiling water over myself and over him. It was just a normal everyday morning and within a split second, it all changed, and boiling water was all over my face.

Sickness can be so unexpected. Everything is going fine, we're just drifting along and then the doctor tells you … you have cancer or your husband has a heart attack. We feel so helpless, so lost. We go into shock and when that sinks in, despair, and anger, and all sorts of different emotions. Or there's the person suffering from chronic pain, arthritis, back pain, all sorts of disorders, or mental disorders – both sufferers and carers. How can a loving God let this happen?

Come on, how can God let these sorts of things happen to people? Then we look around at all the other people and think, "Well, we used to be like that. We used to have a normal life-like that until, until this happened." And it hurts so much. People pay a bit of attention to us in the first week or so, and then they just get on with their lives. You even watch a high-profile Christian preacher on television and they're talking about how to succeed and stuff. Or you listen to some joker on the radio and you think, "Well, it's okay for you, God's with you but what about me? I'm sick?" Got the picture?

My hunch is … this is pressing a few buttons out there. God seems to be doing stuff everywhere else, except right here where I need him at the moment. That's how we tend to feel so often when we feel sick. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever had this sense of abandonment and, "Well, what's going on in my life? How long is this going to last? How long is it going to hurt? How long am I going to be disabled?"

Imagine what it must be like to be perfectly healthy and fit one minute and a quadriplegic the next, for the rest of your life? That would take an enormous amount of adjustment – take an enormous amount of courage.

So, whether we have a serious disease or whether we have the cold, or flu, or feel miserable, sometimes we get this sense we have been left alone and deserted. I'd like to shine just a little bit of light into that, with a very simple statement "Jesus, Jesus specialises in sick people". It's not the "hoi faloitin" preach

Jesus is not absent from suffering. Your pain is known, shared and taken seriously by God.