A Prayer to be UnshakableBy Meg Bucher "Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire." – Hebrews 12:28-29 NLT Unshakeable strength, gratitude, grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and all other human capabilities remain impossible for us to uphold. The truth is we need God to be strong, grateful, gracious, forgiving, accepting, and all other human capacities. In order to live in the way He designed us, we need to lean on Him. "There is a big difference between the flame of a candle and the roaring blast of a forest fire," the NLT Life Application Bible notes, "We cannot even stand near an intense fire. Even with sophisticated firefighting equipment, a devouring fire often rages beyond human control. We cannot control God either. We cannot force him to do anything for us through our prayers. He cannot be contained. Yet he shows us compassion. He saves us from sin, and he will save us from death. But everything temporal, worthless, sinful, imperfect, or destructive will be devoured by the fire of his wrath. Only what is good, true, sacred, and righteous will remain. What a catastrophe for anyone considering turning away from God!" Only God is unshakeable. But the good news is, in Christ, we are righteous. The miracle of our salvation is the grace and forgiveness. Honestly, who God is should spark gratefulness in us that cannot be squelched by any raging firestorm this world throws at us. Let's pray:  Father,You are a devouring fire. We worship You with holy fear and awe. Develop in us a proper countenance and understanding of what it means to live in holy fear and true humility. Give us the gift of understanding who You are, a little more each day. God, we are grateful for Your strength. You promise to strengthen us. Thank You! You promise to work all things for our good. Thank You! Your promises are rock solid, God, unlike the fleeting hopes and wishes we often entertain in this world. Your Word is a lamp to guide our feet and a light for our paths. Thank You! Without Your wisdom, we would be shaken by every opportunity the world has to pierce our armor and shake our faith. Help us to understand what it means to be grateful, God. Give us an unshakeable faith in Christ Jesus as we seek Your will in our lives. There are so many promises we are grateful for, God. Thank You for hearing our prayers and answering them. God, You promise, if we care about it ...You care about it! The prophet Isaiah wrote:"I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!" – Isaiah 65:24 NLT Thank You, God, for providing for our daily needs. You know the number of our days, God, and You are faithful to uphold us through each and every one. Because of this truth, we can be thankful in all circumstances! The worries of the world have no power over us, who are in Christ Jesus. We pause to pray for all those who deal with the very real diseases of the mind that cause anxiety and worry to have a leg up on their lives. We pray for their total healing, God. And for those of us who struggle with the sin of worrying too much, which is different from the disease of anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses, help us to know You better so that we can trust You more. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer" (1 Timothy 4:4-5 NLT). God, because You work everything for our good, the blessings You rain onto our lives are endless. Blessings we don't always recognize as blessings at the time. Blessings which are literal miracles. Blessing of provision, talents, community, friends, and family ...God, there is no limit to Your hand of blessing on our lives. 1 Chronicles 17:34 reads: "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever" (NLT). Father, help us pray in a way that allows our hearts to express our needs because Your Word says to tell You what we need. Give us the gift of praising You, God, genuinely. Psalm 7:17 sings, "I will thank the LORD because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High" (NLT). We pray for so many moments when our hearts sing, "Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!" (2 Corinthians 9:15 NLT) Father, connect us to the people You have so purposefully placed in our lives. Small groups, Bible studies, and a place to serve in our local church. Friends, family, and our communities. But we especially thank You for the fellow believers in our lives, who help us to grow in our faith, and walk alongside us in the trials a life following Jesus brings. You promise it will not be easy. There is pain in this fallen sinful world we cannot escape. Help us to face the harsh reality of sin in the world, God, and cling to the people You have given us to soldier through it alongside. Father, we pray for Christ-centered friendships, because we know they provide relief and encouragement to inspire us on days when raging fires threaten to steal our attention from the goodness of God and the precious love of Jesus. Father, we don't understand how people make it through the fires of life without Jesus. Help us to stay centered in gratefulness, God, for all You have done and promise to do in our lives. We love You.In Jesus' Name. Amen. Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/kieferpix Meg writes about everyday life within the love of Christ at megbucher.com. She is the author of "Friends with Everyone, Friendship within the Love of Christ," "Surface, Unlocking the Gift of Sensitivity," "Glory Up, The Everyday Pursuit of Praise," "Home, Finding Our Identity in Christ," and “Sent, Faith in Motion.” Meg earned a Marketing/PR degree from Ashland University but stepped out of the business world to stay home and raise her two daughters ...which led her to pursue her writing passion. A contributing writer for Salem Web Network since 2016, Meg is now thrilled to be a part of the editorial team at Salem Web Network. Meg loves being involved in her community and local church, leads Bible study, and serves as a youth leader for teen girls. Related Resource: Remember God’s Enduring Love for You in this Guided Meditation on Psalm 100! This guided Christian meditation from Psalm 100 will help you experience and praise God for his unending love for you. Become aware of God's presence with you, and praise God for his loyal and enduring love from the beginning of time and into the future. Listen to every episode of the So Much More Podcast on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode! Now that you’ve prayed, are you in need of someone to pray for YOU? Click the button below! Visit iBelieve.com for more inspiring prayer content. The post A Prayer to Be Unshakeable – Your Daily Prayer – July 20 appeared first on GodUpdates.

A Prayer to be UnshakableBy Meg Bucher "Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire." – Hebrews 12:28-29 NLT Unshakeable strength, gratitude, grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and all other human capabilities remain impossible for us to uphold. The truth is we need God to be strong, grateful, gracious, forgiving, accepting, and all other human capacities. In order to live in the way He designed us, we need to lean on Him. "There is a big difference between the flame of a candle and the roaring blast of a forest fire," the NLT Life Application Bible notes, "We cannot even stand near an intense fire. Even with sophisticated firefighting equipment, a devouring fire often rages beyond human control. We cannot control God either. We cannot force him to do anything for us through our prayers. He cannot be contained. Yet he shows us compassion. He saves us from sin, and he will save us from death. But everything temporal, worthless, sinful, imperfect, or destructive will be devoured by the fire of his wrath. Only what is good, true, sacred, and righteous will remain. What a catastrophe for anyone considering turning away from God!" Only God is unshakeable. But the good news is, in Christ, we are righteous. The miracle of our salvation is the grace and forgiveness. Honestly, who God is should spark gratefulness in us that cannot be squelched by any raging firestorm this world throws at us. Let's pray:  Father,You are a devouring fire. We worship You with holy fear and awe. Develop in us a proper countenance and understanding of what it means to live in holy fear and true humility. Give us the gift of understanding who You are, a little more each day. God, we are grateful for Your strength. You promise to strengthen us. Thank You! You promise to work all things for our good. Thank You! Your promises are rock solid, God, unlike the fleeting hopes and wishes we often entertain in this world. Your Word is a lamp to guide our feet and a light for our paths. Thank You! Without Your wisdom, we would be shaken by every opportunity the world has to pierce our armor and shake our faith. Help us to understand what it means to be grateful, God. Give us an unshakeable faith in Christ Jesus as we seek Your will in our lives. There are so many promises we are grateful for, God. Thank You for hearing our prayers and answering them. God, You promise, if we care about it ...You care about it! The prophet Isaiah wrote:"I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!" – Isaiah 65:24 NLT Thank You, God, for providing for our daily needs. You know the number of our days, God, and You are faithful to uphold us through each and every one. Because of this truth, we can be thankful in all circumstances! The worries of the world have no power over us, who are in Christ Jesus. We pause to pray for all those who deal with the very real diseases of the mind that cause anxiety and worry to have a leg up on their lives. We pray for their total healing, God. And for those of us who struggle with the sin of worrying too much, which is different from the disease of anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses, help us to know You better so that we can trust You more. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer" (1 Timothy 4:4-5 NLT). God, because You work everything for our good, the blessings You rain onto our lives are endless. Blessings we don't always recognize as blessings at the time. Blessings which are literal miracles. Blessing of provision, talents, community, friends, and family ...God, there is no limit to Your hand of blessing on our lives. 1 Chronicles 17:34 reads: "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever" (NLT). Father, help us pray in a way that allows our hearts to express our needs because Your Word says to tell You what we need. Give us the gift of praising You, God, genuinely. Psalm 7:17 sings, "I will thank the LORD because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High" (NLT). We pray for so many moments when our hearts sing, "Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!" (2 Corinthians 9:15 NLT) Father, connect us to the people You have so purposefully placed in our lives. Small groups, Bible studies, and a place to serve in our local church. Friends, family, and our communities. But we especially thank You for the fellow believers in our lives, who help us to grow in our faith, and walk alongside us in the trials a life following Jesus brings. You promise it will not be easy. There is pain in this fallen sinful world we cannot escape. Help us to face the harsh reality of sin in the world, God, and cling to the people You have given us to soldier through it alongside. Father, we pray for Christ-centered friendships, because we know they provide relief and encouragement to inspire us on days when raging fires threaten to steal our attention from the goodness of God and the precious love of Jesus. Father, we don't understand how people make it through the fires of life without Jesus. Help us to stay centered in gratefulness, God, for all You have done and promise to do in our lives. We love You.In Jesus' Name. Amen. Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/kieferpix Meg writes about everyday life within the love of Christ at megbucher.com. She is the author of "Friends with Everyone, Friendship within the Love of Christ," "Surface, Unlocking the Gift of Sensitivity," "Glory Up, The Everyday Pursuit of Praise," "Home, Finding Our Identity in Christ," and “Sent, Faith in Motion.” Meg earned a Marketing/PR degree from Ashland University but stepped out of the business world to stay home and raise her two daughters ...which led her to pursue her writing passion. A contributing writer for Salem Web Network since 2016, Meg is now thrilled to be a part of the editorial team at Salem Web Network. Meg loves being involved in her community and local church, leads Bible study, and serves as a youth leader for teen girls. Related Resource: Remember God’s Enduring Love for You in this Guided Meditation on Psalm 100! This guided Christian meditation from Psalm 100 will help you experience and praise God for his unending love for you. Become aware of God's presence with you, and praise God for his loyal and enduring love from the beginning of time and into the future. Listen to every episode of the So Much More Podcast on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode! Now that you’ve prayed, are you in need of someone to pray for YOU? Click the button below! Visit iBelieve.com for more inspiring prayer content. The post A Prayer to Be Unshakeable – Your Daily Prayer – July 20 appeared first on GodUpdates.

1864 - Battle at Stephenson's Depot, Virginia: 200 killed or injured 1869 - Children's Hospital Boston is founded by Dr. Francis Henry Brown and other Harvard Medical School graduates, as a 20-bed facility in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts 1901 - Morocco signs an agreement with France fixing Morocco's frontier with Algeria, a French colony 1917 - WW I draft lottery held; #258 is 1st drawn 1925 - Beirut sultan Pasja al-Atrasj calls Druzen for holy war against France 1948 - US Communist Party chairman William Forster arrested 1956 - Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford ties AL record of 6 straight strike-outs 1961 - Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley's musical "Stop The World - I Want To Get Off" premieres at Queen's Theater in London's West End 1984 - Vanessa Williams is asked to resign as Miss America due to publication of nude photos of her 2018 - American director James Gunn fired as director of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" by Disney after past offensive tweets surface More Historical Events »

Historical Events 1619 - Gerardus Vossius resigns as Dutch regent States college leader 1943 - US Joint Chiefs of Staff question Admiral Chester Nimitz over the landing on Gilbert Island 1953 - The United Nations Economic and Social Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency 1956 - US performs atmospheric nuclear Test at Bikini Island 1976 - Hank Aaron hits 755th and last home run off Angels Dick Drago 2023 - India bans export of non-basmati rice, raising prospect of global price rises (more than half of rice imports for 42 countries come from India) More Historical Events » Famous Birthdays 1754 - Antoine Destutt de Tracy, French Enlightenment philosopher, born in Paris (d. 1836) 1822 - Gregor Mendel, Austrian monk and geneticist (discoverer of laws of heredity), born in Heinzendorf, Austria (d. 1884) 1893 - Richard Billinger, Austrian poet and writer (From Where I Came), born in Sankt Marienkirchen, Austria (d. 1965) 1956 - Charlie Magri, Tunisian British world champ flyweight boxer (1983), born in Tunis, Tunisia 1978 - Tamsyn Lewis, Australian athlete 1980 - Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian supermodel (Victoria's Secret), born in Horizontina, Brazil More Famous Birthdays » Famous Deaths 1573 - Lancelot van Brederode, Dutch general of the "water beggars" rebellion, beheaded by the Spanish 1898 - Yuri Karlovich Arnold, Russian composer, dies at 86 1962 - George MacAulay Trevelyan, English royal historian, dies at 86 1985 - Bruno de Finetti, Italian probabilist statistician and actuary, dies at 79 1989 - Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, French commander of the French resistance, dies at 79 2004 - Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fiji chieftainess, wife of Kamisese Mara (b. 1931) More Famous Deaths »

The beginning and ending of a life are the most sacred moments in existence. They’re mysterious miracles. God’s domain. A soul is born out of a void of nothingness and begins a story of being. And at the moment of death, a life’s physical reality ends, yet the soul doesn’t return to nothingness—it continues to exist in another place. Life’s origin and ending are so sacred, so powerful, so profound that fallen humans can’t help but be tempted to control them. One of the great—and oldest—temptations of our flesh is to “play God” by assuming for ourselves what is the Creator’s prerogative. Our Insatiable Desire for Control Our high-tech modern world amplifies the ancient human impulse to achieve Godlike control over uncontrollable circumstances (especially those we perceive as threatening, harmful, or inconvenient). This impulse isn’t all bad. We can’t control inclement weather, but we can minimize its harm through creative interventions like durable shelters, insulation, indoor heating and air conditioning, and weather-appropriate garments. Likewise, we can’t control myriad viruses, sicknesses, and ailments that affect our bodies, but we can reduce pain and preserve life through the wonders of modern medicine. There are good, God-honoring ways to employ technological tools as part of our “subduing the earth” obedience to the cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28). But as William Edgar points out, the word for subduing (kabash) isn’t meant to be violent but gentle. When we gently intervene to bring order to some chaos in the world, we honor our calling. But when we violently, recklessly, or unnecessarily intervene—especially in ways that might help us but harm others—we fail in our task. Modern technology conditions us to bypass gentle subduing in favor of reckless, convenience-first control. From smartphones and “app for that” culture, to one-day Amazon shipping, to the instant answers of Google searches and AI prompts, we’re becoming trained to believe we can get what we want when we want it. While none of these things may be problematic on its own, the cumulative effect is that we start to think everything can be optimized and efficient, that all vestiges of inconvenience, discomfort, and uncontrollability can be eradicated from our lives. Playing God at Life’s Beginning and End This expectation of control leads us to use technological interventions to “play god” with the beginning of life and end of life. We start to believe a new life can be created on demand in a laboratory or ended on demand via abortion. We start to believe that the circumstances of death can be planned and controlled via euthanasia, that dead loved ones can be brought “back to life” via AI seances or other “digital resurrection” technology, or that death itself can be defeated with enough data monitoring, supplements, and algorithmic tweaking. But this is folly. Modern technology conditions us to bypass gentle subduing in favor of reckless, convenience-first control. In his short book The Uncontrollability of the World, Hartmut Rosa argues the modernity is structurally driven “toward making the world calculable, manageable, predictable, and controllable in every possible respect.” On birth, for example, Rosa argues that even though “there is still something palpably uncontrollable about the emergence of new life,” modern reproductive technologies (including IVF and surrogate motherhood) have “made children more ‘accessible’” as well as more “engineerable” (e.g., embryo screenings and other tests that “allow us to determine, even before birth, whether a child meets our expectations”). Yet he wisely asks, “If whether or not I have children, and what kind, lies entirely within my own power and that of my doctors—does this not change my relationship to life overall?” On death, Rosa says it “remains fundamentally, categorically, and existentially beyond our control,” with the when, how, and what of death frighteningly out of our hands. Naturally, we try hard to overcome this ominous uncontrollability. Rosa observes how suicide and assisted dying reflect “the modern rejection of the idea that there is anything beyond the control of the subject, that there is any limit to our control beyond what is technically possible.” These practices turn death into “a task to be mastered.” Mastering Death in Tuesday and Hit Man I thought about all this recently as I watched two new-release movies: Tuesday (available to rent) and Hit Man (on Netflix). Both films show vividly, and disturbingly, how our fear of death tempts us to desire control over it. Directed by Daina O. Pusić, Tuesday is a modern fairy tale that follows a mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her teenage daughter (Lola Petticrew), who is dying of a terminal disease. “Death” in the film takes the form of a talking bird (yes, it’s weird) who visits the dying at their appointed times, ending their lives with a swoop of its wing. Tuesday powerfully critiques our modern fear of death’s uncontrollability and our pitiful determination to overcome it by any means necessary. Yet the film also ends up perpetuating this posture by positioning death as a benevolent end to suffering—something we need not fear. Death (as a quirky parrot voiced by Arinzé Kene) is characterized not as an enemy but as a friend—one who dances with you to rap music and gets high with you in the lead-up to your death. One mortally wounded man tells Death, “You are doing God’s work. Thank you.” These scenes essentially function as PR for euthanasia: portraying a compassionate agent playing God by hastening death in the name of mercy. Euthanasia is one way we exert control over death, softening its terror by scheduling it on our terms. Another, less socially acceptable, way humans play God in matters of death is by killing someone whose life represents inconvenience to them. The new Netflix comedy Hit Man, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Glen Powell, humorously (but in the end quite disturbingly) shows the temptation to resort to murder-for-hire to eliminate someone whose life is a source of angst for you. At first, Hit Man seems like a morally clear condemnation of this practice. Powell plays Gary Johnson, a psychology professor who moonlights as an undercover hit man in police-organized sting operations, wearing a wire to record confessions in murder-for-hire schemes. [Spoilers follow.] But when Gary falls in love with Madison (Adria Arjona), who tries to pay him to kill her abusive husband, he starts to actually become the hit man he previously pretended to be. In the film’s disturbing final moments, we see Gary and Madison living “happily ever after” as a suburban married couple with two kids. They’ve achieved this idyllic happiness, however, only after killing two individuals who stood in their way. To avoid the pain of prison and maximize their pleasure as a couple, Gary and Madison had to play God by ending others’ lives. Linklater isn’t necessarily commending their actions. He seems to want to make a statement about malleable identity and the risks (or freedoms) posed by the fact that we can change who we are. But what I took from the film’s ending is a representative example of the lengths to which we’ll violently intervene in matters of life and death to avoid pain and maximize pleasure. What Gary and Madison do is just a more extreme, clearly illegal version of what others do to “seize the identity they want for themselves” (to quote Gary’s advice to his students at the end of the film). The film’s ending is a representative example of the lengths to which we’ll violently intervene in matters of life and death to avoid pain and maximize pleasure. As we watch Hit Man’s final images—Gary and Madison, two dogs, two kids, at the dinner table eating pie in a gorgeous plantation-style house—we hear Gary say, “Life is short. You gotta live on your own terms.” We can’t help but think of the two bodies left in the wake of this couple’s path to pleasure. But I also thought of the countless bodies of children—aborted in the womb, or discarded frozen embryos from IVF procedures—that also represent collateral damage in our attempts to control the hows, whens, and whats of the “identity we want for ourselves.” ‘Live on Your Terms’ Gary’s “You gotta live on your terms” is the perfect mantra of our control-obsessed age. In some ways, it’s a mantra as old as Eden. Eating the forbidden fruit was nothing if not Adam and Eve’s attempt to live on their terms rather than God’s. Technology is making it ever easier for us to live with this “on my terms” posture. Optimize-everything tech fuels our delusions of the world’s controllability, tempting us to eliminate all threats and inconveniences. Other technologies tempt us to violently subdue nature—life, death, even our own gender—when it doesn’t suit the whims of our pleasure. But there’s beauty (Rosa calls it “resonance”) in the world’s uncontrollability. There are lessons in not getting what we want. There’s wisdom in limitation. God is God and we are not. Accepting these statements—not only in theory but in practice—will be costly and countercultural. But these are the true terms of our happiness.

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