Tag: perseverance

Who, Me? Truth for When You Feel Inadequate

Published by Leslie Newman Equipping the Believer 12 comments
Have you ever felt the Lord call you to a task but feel inadequate for the calling? Find one truth here that will help you move forward.

Have you ever felt called by God to do something, but it seems an impossible thing for you to do?

•Perhaps you feel inadequate or that you lack the necessary knowledge.
•Maybe you are asking yourself this question, “Who, Me?” (The calling is way out of your comfort zone.)
•You may feel that you lack abilities or talents to do what you know Lord is calling you to do.
•Perhaps you have a physical limitation or an illness that makes it difficult to follow through.
•You know of others that would do a much better job and be more suited to the work.
•You fear you don’t know the Bible well enough.
•You think you will make mistakes.
•In a nutshell, you are afraid.

These concerns and fears are so common that I imagine each one of us reading here today can relate to at least a few if not all of them. If you are experiencing this kind of fear in your life or you are trying to discern what the Lord wants you to do, there’s something special for you in the following verse.

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How to Trust God When Life is Painful

Published by Leslie Newman Suffering 24 comments
When life is hard and we don't understand our circumstances, we may feel that we can't put our confidence in God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Click through for encouragement and help from God's word.

When life is difficult, it can be hard to trust God with our circumstances. Pain, no matter what form it is can last a lot longer than we’d like. Waiting for a resolution, trying to understand our situation – all this can take its toll and start to wear us thin spiritually speaking. We wonder if we should place our confidence in God when we can’t seem to find the answers.

If you find yourself in that place, here are some thoughts and verses that may help.

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What Can God Do With Suffering?

Published by Leslie Newman Suffering 16 comments
God keeps track of all our sorrows and is always working even in our suffering. Click through to learn more about what God can do.

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:5 NASB)

The sufferings of Christ are ours. On the surface, this truth from 2 Corinthians 1:5 doesn’t bring favorable feelings, does it? When we think about suffering, all sorts of thoughts about the awful things we see in the world today may come to mind. Or perhaps we might think of long-drawn-out painful situations we’ve experienced or watched others walk through. Suffering, on the surface, really seems to have no benefits.

But if we are walking in faith, something surprising happens – suffering becomes a powerful catalyst for growth. And incredibly, in His kindness and grace, God sends Jesus to walk beside us and comfort us in as we walk through adversity. Even when we can’t see the changes as they happen, even when we have no answers to the “whys” we may be asking, one thing is sure – the abundance of suffering we see around us or face ourselves today is always balanced by the abundant comfort we have through Christ.

Click through to read more! FREE PRINTABLE! A Prayer for Adversity

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Finding Answers in the Midst of Suffering

Published by Leslie Newman Suffering 21 comments
Suffering is part of life that all of us would like to skip right over, but leaving out the messy middle would change the ending of the story. Click through to read more!

I held the book in my hands, one that I had read hundreds of times it seemed. I was exhausted. I could hardly keep my own eyes open, and her big brown ones had, much to my relief, finally closed. I was ready to be done and go to bed myself, but I knew it was a delicate matter with a toddler who was so in love with books. I was careful and kept reading even after her eyes had closed. Then I did it. I flipped ahead, but I kept on right on going just like nothing had happened. Quick as a flash, those big brown eyes opened right back up and said, “Mommy you missed the middle!” She was not about to let me leave out part of her favorite bedtime story, so I gave in and turned back to read the parts I’d missed. And the long night-time ritual continued.

It’s a lot like that in life. We live in the middle, and sometimes it’s messy and complicated. The thing is, if we skip any part of what God has designed for us, our story just won’t be the same. Arriving at the end without experiencing the middle would change everything, especially the ending, which is so connected to what happens in the in-between.

Click below to read more and find encouragement in the pages of God’s Word.

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How to Find Hope That Will Not Disappoint You

Published by Leslie Newman Hope 18 comments
Hope can be hard to find in difficult times, but there is one kind of hope that will not disappoint. Find out more here!

What do you think of when you think of the word hope? A dream, A wish? Me too, until recently.  My definition of hope has changed. Yesterday, hope used to mean that something good would happen and my current difficult situation would go away or get resolved. Yesterday, hope was something that I “hoped” would happen and just kept waiting for. It was a wish for better times. This kind of hoping led to disappointment. But today hope means something different. It’s trust – trust in a God who never changes and who does what He says He will do.

Click below to find five things that will help you discover hope that does not disappoint.

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7 Verses for When You Need Hope

Published by Leslie Newman Hope 22 comments
When life is difficult, hold on to these seven verses full of hope for you!

Times are hard, and life can be beyond difficult. Sometimes it can leave us feeling overwhelmed, perhaps even feeling hopeless. But no matter what circumstances you woke up to this morning, there is a promise of hope. Click below to read more and find seven Bible verses you can hold on to when hope seems far away!

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Three Ways to Fight Spiritual Attacks on Your Marriage

Published by Leslie Newman Relationships 7 comments
Facing spiritual attack in your marriage? Click through to find out three ways to fight back!

This week I’m so happy to be guest posting at my friend, Beth Stephaniak’s blog, Messy Marriage. Beth is doing a series on spiritual warfare in marriage and this post is part of that series. You’ll find a sneak peek of the article below. You can click through at the end to go to Beth’s blog to read more. While you are there, take a look at all her marriage helps and her subscriber’s library. You’ll find much encouragement there! 

Here’s a peek at the article where you can find three ways to fight back when the enemy attacks!

Marriage is under attack today in so many ways. One avenue of attack that is easy to overlook happens within the spiritual realm. Without a doubt, Satan wants to weaken and destroy marriage, and this means we will face spiritual attacks in our marriages at one point or another. Fortunately, we have a God who is infinitely more powerful than the enemy who fights against us. We have a God who protects us (Proverbs 18:10), and gives wisdom (Proverbs 2:6-7), strength (Psalm 73:26), and guidance (Psalm 32:8).

The three areas below may be places to go for insight and discernment to help you fight spiritual battles within marriage. In each area below, there is a verse from the Bible that you can pray or repeat out loud to help bring the truth and power of God’s Word into your life and marriage.

Click below to read more or head on over to Beth’s blog at www.messymarriage.com!

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Something to Believe In: 5 Anchors for Every Writer

Published by Leslie Newman Writing Life 4 comments
Are you struggling through a something difficult? Click through to discover 5 anchors that will help you persevere through a hard task.

Are you struggling through a difficult task? Is it hard to persevere? This is a common thread for many of us as we walk through a calling, a difficult situation, or a particular season in life.

My post today was written for other writers like myself who are facing the massive task of persevering through something hard. Even if you are not a writer, I think you could take the points made in this article and apply them to places in your life that seem difficult for you right now.

As writers, we sometimes share our numbers and statistics, but real success isn’t in the numbers. True success is marked by what happens inside of the journey. The 5 anchors that are mentioned in this article are things I learned because the writing journey was difficult for me. It’s these inner changes and these kinds of qualities that God highlights in each of us as we walk through life that are marks of a successful journey. And to me, this means every journey, even the most difficult ones, are successful because they change us from the inside out.

As we learn to persevere through the hard things, we learn to look in the right places. If we keep our eyes focused, we know God will make a way.

Today’s post can be found at my friend, Frank McKinley’s website. He’s an author, writer, and encourager. I’ve found his articles (at www.frankmckinleyauthor.com) very helpful as I embark on my own writing journey and I count Frank as one of my writing mentors.

To read a sneak peek of the article, click below!

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A Pivotal Step to Get Past Your Fear of Writing

Published by Leslie Newman Writing Life 6 comments
Have you ever had trouble finding the courage to call yourself a writer? Do you feel the calling, but have no idea how to proceed? Click here to learn about a pivotal step you can take to get past the fear!

Have you ever been afraid to do something you felt you should do? Do you feel called but not qualified? Are you afraid of failure or rejection when you think about that next big step you need to take? I have been in those places so many times I couldn’t even begin to count them.

Sometimes, our next step feels huge, sometimes small. No matter the size, we can’t make it through life with facing a hurdle that needs to be crossed. Often the things we are afraid to do are not only meant to make us braver, but they are intended to help and encourage others along the way. In God’s big picture nothing is really about us at all. It’s all about reaching out and taking the hand of the ones behind us so we can walk together through life’s difficulties.

So today we are going to do a little fear fighting with a blog “extra.” One of my biggest fears has been the fear of writing, especially sharing my writing in public for others to see. This guest post at www.goinswriter.com tells my story of a pivotal step I needed to take to get past this fear of writing.

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What to Expect from God When Life Sends You the Unexpected

Published by Leslie Newman Powerful Bible Verses 28 comments
Have you been taken by surprise by the unexpected? Click through to read more about what you can expect from God at a time like this.

Sometimes life sends you the unexpected. Something you didn’t want and didn’t ask for will hit you right out of the blue. Perhaps it’s a physical problem, illness, or the death of someone you love very much. Perhaps it’s a heart issue between you and a friend or a spouse who abandons you. The list could go on and on, could it not?

It just seems like too much, doesn’t it?

When these things happen, there’s often no real answers in sight to explain the whys and the what ifs. It can be so painful and agonizing.

But one thing we do have is the truth. And the truth tells us that we have a God who is with us, who cares deeply and who walks alongside us in the most difficult of circumstances.

When you are walking that long and lonely road through the unexpected, here’s something you can rely on.

Click below to read more and find encouragement in the midst of the unexpected.

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