Here are some of the good reads found this week:

I Feel an Imprecatory Prayer Comin’ On. “Growing up, I never heard anyone mention imprecatory prayers, which are mostly found in the Psalms. What are they? Imprecatory prayers are prayers in which you ask God to send calamity or hardship upon someone else.”

What Does the Bible Teach About Demons and Spiritual Warfare? HT to Challies. “I haven’t done this, but I suspect that polling our youth groups about whether or not the devil and demons are real would have troubling results. Perhaps a poll among youth pastors would fare similarly. It’s simply something we don’t talk about. And I get it. But it’s also a very important topic, and is far too dangerous to overlook.”

Why We Do What We Do. What the Bible teaches about our desires and the way they can change after we become believers.

“I’d Never Do That!” I haven’t read the book mentioned, but I appreciate the application about offering help with humility.

Praying for Dreams to Come True, HT to Challies. “Dreams and desires are like butterflies in our hands. We cannot hold onto them too tightly or we will crush them. But if we hold them with open hands, at the right time, God will breathe the breath of his Spirit and they may launch and fly.”

How Marriage Vows Work, HT to Challies. “This distinction matters because marriage is sustained by more than warm feelings. When a couple faces challenges—as every couple will—they need the foundation of clear, mutual commitments rather than memories of how they once felt.”

How to Respect the Dignity of Loved Ones with Dementia, HT to Challies. “Contrary to what we might think, the gift of presence is perhaps most significant in the advanced stages of dementia. It is not infrequent at that time for loved ones to feel that their visits do not count for anything. They assume that they won’t be recognized or their visit remembered, which may be precisely the wrong conclusion.”

The Etiquette of Speech, HT to Challies. “There are three grave errors I think we can fall into when it comes to speech etiquette, and we should be wary of each of them.”

Wounds That Cannot Wholly Be Cured. “I’ve never known grief as strong or wounds as deep as I have been through this year. In January, my youngest brother died unexpectedly. It has been a season of loss and heartache that far surpasses anything that I have yet experienced.”

The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God