Dr Paul Allen

Have you ever been shocked to life by the words of a friend? Recently, I was working out with a friend when I shared that my prayer life was dry, time alone with God was sparse, and my soul felt withered. After listening kindly to my half-hearted excuses, he paused our workout, turned to me and said, “Bro, I love you, but that’s unacceptable. People look to you. You need to be looking to Christ — it’s not optional.” Unacceptable. After the initial assault on my pride, a wave of gratitude and relief washed over me. Finally, the truth I had been evading — the God I had been evading — caught me. God used a friend’s honesty to awaken me from spiritual slumber. Wounds of a Friend When we think of friends, we often think of the people who we naturally like, who like us, and who like the same things we like. We hope for friends who will encourage us, comfort us, and support us — but what about praying for friends who are willing to wound us? Faithful are  the wounds of a

Image via Wikipedia Are you brokenhearted? Has something happened in your life - a calamity or catastrophe, a relational earthquake, an astonishing loss? Psalm 147:3 has a word for you: "The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds ." Isn't that encouraging? Isn't it encouraging to know that your heavenly father personally intervenes to bring healing and help to you in the middle of your struggle? Well, if that's encouraging, v 4 should make it even more so: "He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names." How is this  more  encouraging, you ask? Because it's the verse right after v 3! It's as if the psalmist is saying, "As powerful as the Lord is to name and number the stars , so powerful is he to heal your brokenheartedness and bind up your wounds." It's the ever-famous "how much more than" argument ! If your heavenly father is powerful enough to name and number the stars,