Category Archives: Faith & Hope

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March 19, 2026

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Attitudes & Behavior, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, Holidays & Holy Days, Prayer, Trusting God

THE LORICA

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. [Psalm 5:11 (NIV)]

armorA Latin word, lorica originally meant armor or breastplate. Because of an ancient practice of inscribing a prayer on the armor or shields of knights who then recited the prayer before combat, lorica came to mean a prayer of protection.

Although there are many such prayers, the most famous is the Lorica of St. Patrick (also known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate). Legend has it that around 433 AD, St. Patrick wrote this prayer for protection. As the story goes, on Easter morning, Patrick led his fellow missionaries in a procession to the court of the pagan King Laoghhaire. Suspecting that they would be ambushed by the army of his pagan adversary, Patrick took his men through the woods while chanting this prayer/lorica. Rather than seeing the missionaries amid the trees, their enemies saw a mother deer followed by twenty fawns and let them pass. Having been brought safely through the ambush by God, Patrick and his companions marched into the king’s presence while chanting: “Let them that will, trust in chariots and horses, but we walk in the name of the Lord.”

Whether the story is fact, legend or, as I suspect, somewhere in-between, this beautiful hymn (also known as The Deer’s Cry) appears to be the first one ever written in Gaelic and quite likely by the beloved Patrick. In 1889, Cecil Alexander produced a metrical version of the prayer from an earlier English translation and the resulting hymn was set to traditional Irish tunes. Called “I Bind Unto Myself Today,” this beautiful old lorica can be found in the hymnals of many denominations and heard on You Tube.

Prayers for protection and deliverance are found throughout Scripture. Moses, David, Ezra, and Nehemiah all prayed for protection for themselves and others and Jesus prayed for the protection of His followers. We may not be facing Druids in the woods, but we enter into battle against evil every day. While we don’t wear armor or carry shields, we can proceed as did Patrick and his men: by wearing the armor of God, binding ourselves to Him in prayer, and walking in the name of the Lord.

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three. …
I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard. …
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
[St. Patrick’s Breastplate (Attributed to St. Patrick)] 

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. [Ephesians 6:13-15 (NIV)]

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February 26, 2026

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Faith & Hope, Knowing Him, Prayer

APPROACHING OUR KING

I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. … The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them.[Psalm 145:1-2,17-19 (NLT)]

lion

After Esther fasted and prayed about approaching the king, she had both courage and a strategy. From the way Xerxes was so easily manipulated by his Persian noble friends and Haman, it’s clear that he was a temperamental, weak, and foolish man; Esther used that knowledge to her advantage. When she dressed in her finest robes and approached the king, I imagine she made sure he was in good spirits and that she looked irresistible. Welcoming Esther and offering her half his kingdom, Xerxes invited his queen to ask for anything, but she knew better than to take the royal offer literally. Graciously, she only asked for his and Haman’s presence at a banquet that evening. Esther’s delay didn’t mean she’d lost her courage. Persian etiquette for making a request typically began with a small unrelated favor, which is what Esther did. After a pleasant evening, she beguiled Xerxes simply by inviting him to dinner again. Gaining one small concession at a time, she eventually worked her way up to the real issue at hand. By waiting to make her appeal, Esther aroused the king’s curiosity.

A banquet was the perfect setting for Esther’s request. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Persians typically decided important matters when they were drunk; once they’d sobered up, their decisions would be confirmed. That certainly was the case when the drunken Xerxes banished Queen Vashti. On the other hand, any decisions made while sober were suspect and were to be reevaluated when the parties were intoxicated (which may explain why Xerxes and Haman sat down to drink after their apparently sober decision to eliminate the Jews)! Esther understood the importance of alcohol in the king’s decision making and, after two nights of banquets, she finally made her request while they were drinking wine. When Esther asked the king to save her life and the lives of her people, she prudently put the blame for the wicked plot entirely on Haman rather than her easily manipulated husband.

By necessity, Esther made her plea to the king in a calculated and roundabout way. Fortunately, we don’t have to strategize or scheme when we approach our Heavenly King! Because we are His beloved children and know that He loves us, we don’t have to worry that God’s interest in us has waned. There’s no need to dress in our finest attire to entice Him nor must we wait until He extends his golden scepter before approaching His throne. God is far more interested in our hearts than our appearance and our imperfect selves can approach Him any time. We don’t have to pique God’s curiosity or manipulate Him into asking us what we want because God knows what we need even before we do! We don’t have to carefully phrase our words out of fear that He will banish us from His presence if we displease Him. We certainly don’t have to ply God with vintage wine, start with little favors before working up to our big request, or wait until He’s in a good mood before offering our prayers. God is the same today as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow. If we have no words, the Holy Spirit will speak for us.

Let us never approach God with subterfuge and apprehension as Esther did Xerxes. We should come to Him as candidly as did David and the other psalmists. With our Heavenly King, we can honestly sob in sorrow, shout in anger, plead in distress, stammer in confusion, whisper in fear, weep in regret, confess in repentance, shout in praise, sing in thanksgiving, and even dance in joy—all without fear of banishment from His presence!

O Lord, hear me as I pray; pay attention to my groaning. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I pray to no one but you. Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. [Psalm 5:1-3 (NLT)]

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February 23, 2026

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Faith & Hope, Prayer, Trusting God

FINDING COURAGE

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. [Daniel 9:3 (NLT)]

So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer. [Ezra 8:23 (NLT)]

When writing about Esther last week, I thought how terrified she must have been when Mordecai asked her to step out of her comfort zone to save the Jews. Even though she was queen, her access to Xerxes was severely limited. Living secluded in a private chamber in the women’s quarters, she didn’t regularly dine with the king. Powerless, she was the one to be summoned rather than the one who did the summoning and she hadn’t been summoned by Xerxes for a month. She was just one of many beautiful women in the king’s harem and perhaps someone else had caught his eye. The previous queen was banished when she defied the king; Esther could expect nothing less if her presence wasn’t welcomed. The young queen had a simple choice: comfort or courage. She chose courage and saved a nation!

Where did Esther get the courage to defy the law and approach the king? She got it from God! That may seem a strange answer since God isn’t mentioned anywhere in her story. Nevertheless, after asking Mordecai to gather together all the Jews in Susa and fast for three days, Esther promised that she and her maids would do the same. The beautiful queen wasn’t fasting so that she’d fit into her sexiest gown! She was fasting in prayer.

For a Jew, fasting and prayer went hand in hand and, while prayer is not specifically mentioned, it certainly is implied. Fasting combined with prayer was a customary practice in times of grief, distress, or repentance. It was a way to seek God’s favor and demonstrate the sincerity of one’s prayers. Although fasting was only demanded on the Day of Atonement, Scripture tells us that the Israelites and people like Ezra, David, Nehemiah, Jehoshaphat, and Daniel all combined fasting with prayer. When Esther and the people of Susa fasted, I have no doubt their fast was accompanied by their heartfelt prayers. Only then did Esther have both a plan to save her people and courage enough to step out of her comfort zone to do it.

Unlike Esther, we may not be asked to save a nation. Nevertheless, God has a mission for each of us. Because He is far more interested in our growth and obedience than our comfort, God’s mission for us, like Esther’s, usually begins at the end of our comfort zone. How do we move from comfort to courage and from fear to faith?

Like Esther, we could choose to fast. The purpose of fasting is never to change God; its purpose is to change us. A fast helps us take our eyes off the world and focus them on God. While Esther probably fasted from food, a fast also can be from things like gaming, social media, alcohol, television, or anything else that takes our mind off God.

Although Scripture tells us that Jesus and the early church fasted, it does not demand that Christians fast. The spiritual practice of fasting is a personal choice for a Christian; prayer, however, is not. Prayer is an act of obedience to God and the way we demonstrate our faith. When faced with the choice of comfort or courage, whether or not we choose to fast, we must choose to pray. Prayer is what will enable us to step out of our comfort zone and courageously do God’s work.

Courage is faith that has said its prayers. [AA slogan]

I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces. In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he saved me from all my troubles. [Psalm 34:4-6 (NLT)]

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January 8, 2026

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Prayer

HE’S ALWAYS READY

Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord; hear my urgent cry. I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble, and you will answer me. [Psalm 86:6-7 (NLT)]

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. [Psalm 46:1 (NLT)]

Once upon a time, a little boy was busy digging in the sand at the beach. Like other youngsters through the years, he thought he even might be able to dig all the way to China. His steadfast excavations got so deep that he encountered a large rock. With great determination, he dug and dug with his plastic shovel in an attempt to free it from the ground. Unfortunately, the little boy and his small shovel were no match for the rock. When the shovel broke in two, the boy let out a howl and burst into tears. Hearing the child’s cries, his father immediately went to comfort him. Through his sobs, the boy told how he’d tried and tried to free the rock but was too weak, his arm was too short, and he’d broken his only shovel. His father gently asked why he hadn’t used all of his strength. “But I did, Daddy, I really did!” exclaimed the boy. “No, son, you didn’t,” explained the man as he reached into the hole, grabbed the rock with his large hands, and pulled it from the ground. “You should have called me!”

While the circumstances and challenges are different, we’re really not much different than that little boy. Determined to be self-sufficient and strong, we often fail to call on our Heavenly Father to help with the heavy lifting. I’ve never sobbed at the beach while holding a broken shovel but I’ve sat in despair, hopelessness, and tears in plenty of other places because I thought I was at the end of all my resources. It’s usually after complaining to God with a variety of whys—why this, why now, why here, and (my personal favorite) why me—that I finally resort to asking Him for help! Perhaps our trials exist to drive us to God—to trust in Him and call on Him in faith. While God rarely offers an answer to the whys, He does respond and, if it’s something He wants done, He helps me find a way to get it done.

True confessions here! When I was away over the holidays, I had a glitch in my website. While two devotions were posted on the site, they failed to be sent out to my subscribers. Upon returning home, after spending over two hours with the site’s AI assistant, I was no further along in finding the cause or solution. After AI finally conceded defeat, I was turned over to a real person for a live chat. The site’s “Happiness Engineer” was stumped but promised to get back to me later in the day. It was not until I was awaiting the response that I finally used all the strength available by going to the true “Happiness Engineer” in Heaven. Shortly after praying, I received the very simple solution to my problem! Why did I wait and when will I learn?

Famine in Israel, an agricultural society, was a grave matter. After Israel suffered from a three-year famine, David prayed to God about it. Why did he wait? What was David doing during the three years of food scarcity before he finally fell to his knees and consulted God? Why didn’t he pray at the first sign of trouble rather than waiting until the people were starving? Could pride have made David think that he and his advisors could solve a food crisis on their own? If so, that pride caused his people to suffer for three years simply because he didn’t use all the strength available to him by calling on his Father! It was only after his prayer that the Lord told David the famine’s cause and David did what needed to be done to end it. [2 Samuel 21]

Ours is not a God of Last Resort! He is not where we go when all else fails: when the shovel breaks or the grain bins are empty. Rather than a back-up plan, God is our first and best option! Ours is a first-responder God! He’s the first call we should make when the rock seems immovable, we discover insects infesting our fields, a drought threatens the harvest, the website isn’t working, or we see challenges looming on the horizon. With His power, we can do things we could never accomplish by ourselves. Let us be strong in the Lord!

We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don’t want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of ‘good time’ is seldom in sync with ours. [Oswald Chambers]

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. [Ephesians 6:10 (NLT)]

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. … Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. [Isaiah 40:29,31 (NLT)]

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November 10, 2025

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Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, Salvation: A New You, Sharing Our Faith, Wisdom & Guidance

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. [1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (NIV)]

I came across an article questioning whether we have to believe certain things to be a Christian or is it enough just to trust God. The author believed that Christians don’t have to “assent intellectually” to the facts of traditional Christian teaching or agree with the Christian creeds. “Faith” to the author is simply placing one’s confidence in “Spirit” (not the Holy Spirit) and following Jesus’ teaching is more important than believing certain things about Him. Having nothing to do with dogma or creeds, Christianity was seen as a wisdom tradition and way of life rather than a belief. Claiming they were “man-made” and date from the 4th century and Emperor Constantine, the author believed Christianity’s creeds should be disregarded.

A creed (or confession of faith) is simply a statement of what we believe; every time we share what we believe with others, we are confessing a creed. The first creed predates Constantine by at least 1,600 years and was given to us by God. The Hebrew Shema, found in Deuteronomy, declares the fundamental belief of Judaism: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” [6:4] To be recited every morning and night, this declaration of belief remains the cornerstone of the Jewish faith. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, we find worshippers recalling the Lord’s faithfulness with confessions of faith like that in 1 Kings 18:39 that, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!” The belief that, “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” is a cornerstone of Christianity, as well!

In the New Testament, we also find confessions of faith or creeds. Christianity’s fundamental belief was confessed by Peter when he stated that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” [Mat 16:16] and again when Nathaneal acknowledged Jesus as “the Son of God…the King of Israel!” [John 1:49] When other followers deserted Jesus, the Lord asked the twelve if they would leave. Peter responded, “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” [John 7:68-69] Although short, these confessions of faith were creeds.

The earliest creeds of the church can be found in the epistles of Paul. His words in today’s verse from 1 Corinthians 15 appear to be an early creed. That he “received it,” means Paul wasn’t the original author and, since he’s reminding them, it predates Paul’s first trip to Corinth (49-50 AD)! In his first letter to Timothy, Paul emphasized the importance of preserving and proclaiming the truth and includes what historians believe to be an early hymn summarizing the theology of the incarnation.[3:16] In Philippians 2:5-11, we find another early hymn explaining the dual nature of Jesus. It’s believed that Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all,” were an early creed that was recited by new converts when they were baptized. If we believe Scripture is God-breathed, those words of belief aren’t man’s—they’re God’s!

The article’s author contends that belief and faith are two different things and that belief is not essential for faith. I think the Apostle Paul would disagree. Belief is intellectual acceptance that something is true and faith is trusting in the promise of that belief and they seem to be two sides of the same coin. If I believe the boat is sea-worthy, it’s my faith in it that gets me to sail it out to sea. On the other hand, if I don’t believe it’s sea-worthy, I wouldn’t have faith enough to take it sailing. Faith involves trust, commitment, and action and, without knowing and believing the promises of God, how will we have faith enough to trust them? Our creeds are the foundation of Christianity and help us know exactly what it is in which we have faith! It’s that knowledge that keeps us from falling for the false “feel-good-anything-goes” theology we find in the world today!

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. [Timothy 3:16  (ESV)]

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September 15, 2025

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Bible Stories, Faith & Hope, God's Promises, Patience & Perseverance

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND

Then the Lord said to Moses, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have now allowed you to see it with your own eyes, but you will not enter the land.” So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, just as the Lord had said. [Deuteronomy 34:4-5 (NLT)]

Zion Nat'l Park

We all know the story of Moses. When his mother can keep him hidden no longer, she puts him in a waterproof basket and lays him in the reeds of the Nile. He’s found by Pharaoh’s daughter who, taking pity on the crying infant, adopts him. Moses’ sister appears and offers to find a wet nurse for the infant. Moses and his birth mother are reunited but, once he’s weaned (around two or three), the boy returns to Pharaoh’s daughter who raises him as her own. Unfortunately, with only eleven verses of Scripture about Moses’ childhood, there’s no way of knowing how much contact he had with his birth family after that or what he knew of his Hebrew heritage. Nevertheless, Moses must have been torn by the knowledge that he was living a privileged life in the palace of the man who was mercilessly oppressing his people. Did he ever feel he belonged in the palace? As a Hebrew boy being raised as an Egyptian prince, I suspect he never was fully accepted by those in Pharaoh’s court. Even though he was raised as a prince, was he too much of a Hebrew to be considered an Egyptian by the people around him?

When he was grown, Moses went out “to visit his own people” but we don’t know why. Was he visiting his birth family, supervising some labor, or merely curious? Scripture only tells us that when Moses saw an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew slave, the outraged man killed the Egyptian and hid the body. The next day, when Moses returned to his people, he happened upon two Hebrews fighting. When he tried to intervene, he was sarcastically rebuffed: “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?” Apparently, Moses was too much of an Egyptian to be considered a Hebrew by his own people!

To escape Pharaoh’s wrath over the homicide, Moses fled to Midian. The man who belonged to both the overlords and the slaves became a foreigner in a strange land. Reflecting this sense of not belonging, he even named his son Gershom, meaning “foreigner” or “stranger.”

While the years spent as a prince in Egypt and as a shepherd in Midian were the perfect preparation for the man who would deliver Israel, Moses didn’t know that. It’s easy to understand why he was so reluctant when God told him that he’d be the one to lead the Hebrews to freedom. What did Moses know of his people and God’s covenant with Israel? He hadn’t even circumcised his son!

Part of me finds the story of Moses incredibly sad. He spent a third of his life as an outsider in Pharaoh’s palace, a third as an exile in Midian, and a third as a nomad in the wilderness. A man who always lived as a stranger, he never really had a place to call home. Although Moses was the one who led his people to their home in Canaan, he never stepped into that Promised Land. After viewing it from a distance, he died and was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Moab.

Yet, isn’t this what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he gave his examples of faith in Hebrews 11? He wrote of faithful people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who, like Moses, only viewed God’s Promised Land from a distance. True faith, however, allows us to see beyond what is right in front of us. We’re all strangers in a strange land because this world is not our home. The Promised Land is not a piece of soil; it is the Kingdom of God and a piece of eternity.

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. … But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. [Hebrews 11:13,16 (NLT)]

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