A Goldilocks Life

Praying with Paul

Hoopla is one of my favorite inventions. Since I spend a lot of time in the car or cleaning and cooking, I keep up with reading using audio books. Yes, I am a fan of multitasking—aren’t most people, especially women?

If you’re unfamiliar, Hoopla is an app available for library card holders in our town and other cities, too. Libby is a similar app but is not linked to a library. You may borrow Ebooks, Audiobooks, Movies, Music, etc. A few months back I finished my latest Hoopla read, and under the row of my recent reads I noticed some enticing books on Recommended For You. Among the titles was Praying with Paul by D. A. Carson. Since I knew of the author and am interested in praying, I borrowed the audio version.

I only remember reading one other book twice in a row. The first time was when I was sixteen years old and had just finished Gone with the Wind. Tears were streaming down my face as Scarlett and Rhett split up. No!!! And the very next day, I began reading again from page one. Surely Margaret Mitchell couldn’t have let Rhett get away! Alas, the book’s ending didn’t change by the end. I’m a perennial fan of GWTW.

All that to say that after finishing listening to Praying with Paul, I turned right around and started at the beginning. In it, Carson does a deep dive on the subject of the prayers of the Apostle Paul as recorded in the New Testament. Obviously, it changed my approach on prayer, even though I have prayed with diligence ever since my “prayer night” thirty years ago. I digress—that’s a story for another time.

I highly recommend D. A. Carson’s fine book, Praying with Paul, in whatever format works best for you. I believe it will change anyone’s prayer life for the better.

Double Blessing

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

Looking out the picture window into the dark early morning, I wondered if it was raining. Leashing Lexi and pulling the hood over my head, we felt misty rain as we walked around the pond. Looks like a gloomy day ahead, I thought.

Later, driving home with a friend after her doctor’s appointment, we began to see blue sky and light-colored clouds instead of solid grey. We smiled and kept up our conversation. Sun ultimately won the day.

Though some folks thrive on cloudy weather, sunshine cheers me up. Like conversation with a friend, it gives me encouragement and brightens my outlook as well as the surroundings.

Deep Diving

During the COVID pandemic, while our church didn’t meet for several months, I decided to read through the Bible in a year. It may have been something our pastor encouraged us to do. I don’t remember what got me started.

This wasn’t my first time taking on this challenge, but it had been a while since I’d attempted to meet that goal. I finished whatever part of the Bible I was currently studying and began reading methodically through God’s word using a chronological Bible we had on our bookshelf. As I did, I jotted down passages on a large bookmark that I wanted to do a deep dive into after the year was through or my goal of finishing the Bible was met, whichever came first.

I may have been a month or so behind by the time I finished the whole Bible, but I ended up with a long list of passages or subjects I didn’t understand or just plain found intriguing.

I’ve been on this deep dive journey for a while, and I’ve grown in my understanding of passages such as Ezekiel 37 and the dry bones, the vision of Daniel in chapter 7, and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7. I’ve learned more than only Bible truths. I realized that larger sections such as the Sermon on the Mount were a bit too lengthy for a deep dive since it covers many topics. It was very enriching but overwhelming and took at least a year.

When you come across a Bible passage you don’t understand or find interesting, I suggest you jot it down for later study. You’ll be rewarded as I have been now that I’ve finished Matthew 5-7 and begun a deep dive into the prologue portion of John chapter 1.

May our Lord Christ bless you as you seek to know Him better by diving into His word.