Soul Sister Time

              The Pope has suggested that we reword the Lord’s Prayer when it comes to temptation.  Why would the Lord’s Prayer be altered?  As a Christian I am amazed by how many people can basically quote these few phrases of a prayer.  Most cannot tell you the Ten Commandments, but the Lord’s Prayer is heard frequently enough that many can join in once it is started.  Why would Christians want to mess with that?               I heard JI Packer, an evangelical theologian, give a talk on Ephesians 6 (Christian instruction about how to defeat Satan).  As he introduced this topic, he told us that in his late 80s he has dedicated the rest of his life to training Christians to be true disciples of Christ.  He said Ephesians 6—how to defeat the evil one—is the place he would start.  I love and respect JI Packer; but I thoug...

              As you interact on social media and watch the news, do you ever grow frustrated about harsh realities that you feel powerless to address?  Do you ever feel like you don’t want to hear any more bad news?  Are you heartbroken about friends who are diagnosed with incurable illness or have to go through the painful cure of radiation and chemotherapy for cancer treatment?  The ills of this world can become too much.               When evil is most overwhelming, we have prayer.  After the Transfiguration, when Jesus took His inner circle up to the mountain to reveal his physical glory to them, the rest of the disciples were in the valley fighting evil with the tools Jesus had given.  Even after being trained by Jesus Himself, they faced an evil that was too much for them.  You can read the dramatic retelling of thi...

              Prayer is a mystery.  It is through prayer that I live most days in peace.  Without prayer, I get stuck repeatedly obsessing and emotionally reacting to the many wrongs that are a part of my daily life.  It’s the little things that take away my peace and focus on prayer.  It’s only when I have myself all worked up that I notice I have not been in touch with God about that situation. But the bigger issues in my life—the ones I know I have absolutely no control over—those I daily commit to prayer and rarely take them back after they have been fully turned over to God mainly because the prayer subject is way too much for me to devise a plan to fix.               Recently, I received an answer I did not like at all to one of these huge prayer commitments.  I mean I had done everything right.  I accepted that I was ...