Richard Ellis Talks

Sometimes, God has to put us flat on our backs before we're looking up at Him. He allows difficulties in our lives because they cause us to run to Him and ask for His help, and He's promised to help us when we ask! When we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, our first priority should be to call out to God -- and our second priority should be to keep our eyes open so we can recognize the way in which He chooses to help us.

Discipline, when done right, is always done out of love, not anger. Parents discipline their children in order for them to grow in obedience. In the same way, our Heavenly Father disciplines us so that we can learn what it means to walk in His ways and to live the life He intends for us to live.

It's not our job to understand why God works the way He does. It's our job to trust that He's working, even when we don't always understand it. His promises to us are true and He is faithful. And when He declares His love for us throughout Scripture, we can cling to those promises, even in the midst of trials and pain.

We all know how it feels to worry. But when we're faced with a difficult circumstance, anxiety only distracts us and takes our eyes off of Jesus. When we choose to go to Him in prayer, release our worries, and rejoice in His faithfulness, we're better able to trust Him to take care of our situation!

The loss of a child brings with it immeasurable grief. But for all who put their trust in Jesus, death doesn't get the final say. Whether before birth or after, through the sin of abortion or through circumstances beyond any control, faith offers a promise of hope for every mother who follows Christ that they'll be reunited with their child in Heaven again one day.

There are entire reality TV shows dedicated to showcasing the houses of the rich and famous. But have you ever considered that the most expensive "crib" on the planet is the body of a believer? God gave us His Son all so that He could take up residence within us and transform us from the inside out. Our lives are messy -- but that's exactly why He wants us to come to Him and allow Him to do the work to make us clean and whole.

God addresses the subject of motherhood in numerous places throughout Scripture, and one of the things He acknowledges is that it's a topic that can be surrounded by pain and loss. Mother's Day brings up a lot of hurt for many women and many reasons, but the Bible reminds us time and again that the Lord is powerful enough to do the impossible -- and when we're in His family, He looks after us, His children, in all things.

We like to cherry-pick certain sins to point fingers at because it's easy to judge the things that don't affect us. But it's that very sin of judgment and prejudice that keeps us from being fully united as the Body of Christ, the way God calls His Church to be. Scripture is clear that we're to love each another the way Jesus does, regardless of our differences -- and when we do, it's like a dress rehearsal for eternity together in Heaven!

Do you know the difference between humble confidence, and fake humility? The latter gives us a big head, but the former is what comes from the assurance given to us as children of God. Because of what Christ has done for us, we are loved with an everlasting love by our Father -- and when we learn to see ourselves the way He sees us, we're better able to love others the way He first loved us.

Life's not fair. How many times have we all heard that statement? But here's what we don't often realize: it's a good thing life's not fair, because if it was, we would have no hope for God's redemption. The single most unfair act in human history happened when Jesus took our sin to the cross and paid our debt for all eternity. In this life, we may experience inequalities, disparities and injustices we can't necessarily change -- but when we look to Jesus as our example, we can learn to accept those things and then ask God how He can use them for His glory.