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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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
Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work. ~Oswald Chambers
Friends, prayer matters. Oswald Chambers says it so well in this quote.
“We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.” -Oswald Chambers
When life is hard, we tend to turn to prayer – or turn away from it. It can go either way, can’t it? It’s easy to lose hope. The Bible tells us we will experience trials and tribulations in this world (John 16:33, Romans 5:3-4, 1 Peter 5:10) and we surely know it from walking these paths, don’t we? So what’s a girl to do when she feels as if she’s loosing hope?
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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!
Hi Friends!
Today I’m honored to be sharing the story behind the creation of Journey to Imperfect through a guest post at my friend, Natalie Venegas’ blog, Milk & Honey Faith. Natalie’s writing and her generosity has been an inspiration and encouragement to me. She has a heart for inspiring others to grow in faith and to step out into their God given callings. You’ll see this through her writing just as I have seen it personally as we’ve had the opportunity to get to know each other.
Natalie also has a heart for helping women connect with each other. She does this through her a monthly post on her blog called the “Faithful Feature.” I’m honored to be a part of that today!
Are you curious about how Journey to Imperfect came to be? Join me and Natalie over at www.milkandhoneyfaith.com and find out more! When you get there, I encourage you to stay for a while and look around. You’ll be blessed, I can assure you!
Click READ MORE below to find links to Natalie’s Faithful Feature and learn more about the story behind Journey to Imperfect!
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!
I sat in the stillness of the early morning with a new kind of peace. It came from deep inside, quiet, strong and sure.
It was a long time coming, this new kind of peace. It had always been there waiting for me, but every time it tried to come out of its hiding place, it was beaten back into the recesses of my heart by an enemy bent on blinding me to it.
My new kind of peace was strong though. It was patient and knew how to wait for me. My new kind of peace never gave up and was steady, not changing with the ebb and flow of my emotions. My new kind of peace understood me better than I understood myself. And it accepted the other one and felt their pain. My new kind of peace was not mine at all. It was His.
It was all about my identity.
Over the years I had found my identity in all sorts of things, good grades, awards and activities, my jobs, my relationships, being a wife and mother, and sadly, even in my mistakes and failures. The ups and downs associated with any of those things tended to dictate my level of peace and happiness. The truth was, the messiness of the ebb and flow of my emotions left me feeling at a loss most of the time. And very much far away from the peace I was seeking.
But that fact was conveniently folded away like an unnecessary piece of paperwork, tucked away into a sliver of a place where my heart could not dwell on it but always felt its presence. I didn’t want anyone to know. And it weighed on me.
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Misunderstandings. We all have them at one time or another. We just can’t make it through life without facing hurt feelings, harsh words, and misunderstandings within a relationship. Sometimes we receive it; sometimes we dish it out. When these kinds of things happen, our relationship feels fragile. We may stand there stunned, wondering how in the world we could be in the middle of such a misunderstanding. Or we may feel convicted, knowing it was our fault when our own bad attitudes and words created the situation in which we find ourselves.
And at this point, we have a choice.
We can avoid the situation, hide our hurts, cover up the misunderstanding, and even deny our need to seek forgiveness. Or we can be seekers – seekers of His grace both for ourselves and for pouring out to the other person. We all know the right choice, but it’s the hardest one, isn’t it? How can we move forward and turn those hurts and misunderstandings into a deeper relationship?
We can find some amazing answers in Colossians 3:12. Friends, I have read this verse many times. I have prayed it for the past few weeks since this post. I know others of you have prayed these verses right along with me. But what I didn’t realize is what we were really praying when we claimed and prayed this verse over our relationships!
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Relationships. They fill our hearts full, provide support and camaraderie, and give us all manner of things to help carry us through life’s difficulties. But when there are misunderstandings within our relationships, we may find ourselves feeling at a loss for what to do. I think most of us could say that relationships can be the best and the worst, a stress reliever on many occasions, but sadly, during misunderstandings, they can create much inner turmoil.
As women who love Jesus, we should be compelled to love others like He does, but that doesn’t often come easily and this calls for a lot of prayer. Even the easy relationships should have our payer attention because we have an enemy that wants to tear us apart.
Prayer can heal our relationships and give us direction when we feel at a loss about how to continue. It can help us understand a situation and keep us going when we don’t. Through prayer, God will hold us close when we are hurting, and He’ll not turn us away. Prayer undoes things inside of us so we can move forward in spite of misunderstandings. In prayer, Jesus walks before us, behind us, and right alongside us, all at the same time. God is working in our relationships in ways we can’t see. He is working in especially powerful ways when we pray.
Click below to read more and find 6 powerful verses to pray over your relationships! *FREE PRINTABLES!
Have you ever wondered what it means to pray without ceasing? Do you feel it’s not possible to pray continually? Join me today over at my friend Sarah Geringer’s blog as we see that an attitude of continual prayer is not only possible, it’s powerful!
Here’s a little sneak peak for you! I hope you will click over to Sarah’s blog to finish reading!
Pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NIV)
Have you ever wondered about what it really means to pray continually?
On the surface, continual prayer might seem like an impossibility. As much as we would love to have more hours in our days for that sit-down kind of prayer time with Jesus, we have things to do, people to care for, and places to be. But we are clearly told to pray without ceasing. So what does that really mean?
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