Sometimes that help comes from scripture we have memorised, sometimes it comes from a friend who is sent by the Lord, sometimes God Himself will speak into our hearts. Adam and Eve have been placed in a beautiful garden, where they walk with God, enjoy His fellowship, and each other’s.

The idea of compassion fatigue was coined by a nurse in 1992 to describe the feeling of burnout that comes to those in the caring profession. We can be at one with the psalmist when he talks of God being near, watching over and caring for us. to rid the world of Jesus when he was born, but now, he changed tack and tried to stop the work of God through temptation. Solomon’s reflections in Ecclesiastes cause him to reflect on many areas that seem to be fulfilling.He was deeded some land in Canaan that Joseph’s descendants would take possession of some 400 years later.

An astonishing revival comes about such that God does not bring on the people the judgment He had promised. The likes of Gideon, Samson and Deborah are well known but some, like Othniel, have just a few verses devoted to them. He appears before Israel’s leader and shares not only the promises of His relationship with His people but also the requirements. When the prophet Isaiah shared a story about a vineyard, God’s people would have been familiar with the effort required to plant a fruitful one – the need to choose the location, to clear the stones and stack them into protective walls, to plant the prized vines. This was a real encounter with a living, spiritual being, who tried to destroy Jesus’ ministry before it had even begun.You may have heard the idea of ‘marginal gains’, often used when it comes to sporting endeavour, where a 1% improvement over a competitor can bring success. God has just used you to see a lame man healed and you have had opportunity to preach the good news to non-believers. Selwyn Hughes was a Welsh Christian minister best known for writing the daily devotional Every Day with Jesus.

We have all thought we knew better than God only to discover that God knows what God is talking about! The understanding that Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings and not a series of laws is especially important when we come to interpreting today’s verse. We may declare God is everywhere present, but the question remains, is God present with us in the here and now? But instead, He could see the value in talking with the woman about their faith in Him and the situation. The ‘company of prophets’ are the group of prophets who accompanied Elijah and Elisha and who lived by their own means while supporting these men.The narrator tells us of the craftiness of the serpent (3:1), as if to suggest that the succeeding narrative may not be all that it seems, and so begins the journey for Eve and Adam to eat the prohibited fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Watching demands paying attention to what’s happening around us, together with the influences at play within.

A great theme of Paul’s is leaving the old self behind as we daily embrace the new, as we see in this section of Colossians. Bartimaeus is well known for being the blind man who was given his sight by Jesus: and he’s persistent.We might distinguish between those who’ve asked Jesus to save them from their sins and those who have made Him Lord of their lives. At the start of chapter 9, Jesus gives the disciples power and authority to drive out demons, to cure diseases and to proclaim the kingdom of God. Some non-Christian religions claim that God is the Author of their sacred writings as well as of the Bible, but the god they talk about is not the God who has revealed Himself in the Person of His Son. Anyone who doesn’t genuinely care won’t stick around; but if it’s the Shepherd’s own flock, then He will protect them.