nativity scene table decor

She Was Missing Christmas, the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Do you feel like you’re “missing Christmas” right now? Are you fearing you might be “missing Christmas” this year?  Is someone you love no longer with us on earth and so you’re missing your loved one, dreading Christmas day? Are your emotions so numb to Christmas that you just wish Read more…

assorted gift boxes on red surface

Trusting in God’s timing at Christmas

Lord, I’m constantly waiting as I suffer. Thing is…do I trust Your timing? Your people were waiting. The last words they’d heard from You in Malachi had been 400 years before, roughly twenty generations. They doubted Your love, couldn’t see their own sin, wondered why You weren’t intervening in injustices, Read more…

blue and green sky and mountain

“Fear God” in Worship When I’m Afraid

Lord, when we fear what might happen, help us to exalt You. Remind us who You are, stir us to reverently worship You, and keep us in rightful awe of Your unchanging character. This “fear of God” also soothes our fears as we walk into the scary things ahead. Why? Read more…

woman wearing gray long sleeved shirt and black black bottoms outfit sitting on gray wooden picnic table facing towards calm body of water at daytime

Looking to the love of Jesus as I suffer

Lord, Job’s words match my sighs, my groans, my losses.  My sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me (Job 3:24-25 ESV). I’m slogging through today, Father. Things seem to be worsening. I can’t Read more…

green trees

Praying to the great I AM, Alpha and Omega

Lord Jesus Christ, when suffering overwhelms me, I must remember how big You are.  I am the Alpha and the Omega…who is and who was and who is come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8 ESV). Jesus, You are I AM. You are self-existent, constant, and You always accomplish Your purposes. You Read more…

flock of sheep on green gras field

I praise and trust You as my Provider, Lord

Father, I remember Abraham’s anguish. You’d told him to kill his beloved son, as a burnt offering. “Where is the lamb, Dad?” Abraham encouraged his son with the trust You gave him, “God will provide for himself the lamb.” You had promised that You would create Your own people through Read more…

close up of hands

You are my strength, my God who is strong

Loving Father, I can’t do this. I’ve overwhelmed. Burdened. I can’t take it much longer.  But You understand, God. Your Word is filled with cries just like mine.  For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself (2 Cor. 1:8 ESV, emphasis added). My soul melts Read more…

green and black hummingbird

Lord, You are my safe refuge

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah (Ps. 46:1-3 ESV). Read more…

person s scooping water by hands

Help me trust You, my trustworthy God

It’s so easy for me to forget God’s trustworthy hold on me as I suffer. It’s so easy to forget my trustworthy Lord when I focus on the pain I’m enduring. My troubles scream loud and I quickly fixate on them, spiral into desperate fix-it mode, or helpless despair about Read more…

teal ceramic cup and saucer

God is with me as I wait

Do you feel like you’re constantly waiting for God to do something? Does your life feel like one giant waiting game? Suffering requires so much waiting, doesn’t it? My latest round of suffering has brought a newly convicting awareness of my needed mindset shift in the waiting. It started on Read more…

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