spiritual warfare

ethnic sister and brother in angel costumes touching decorative clouds

Can we hear the angels sing into our suffering Christmas?

This week’s Christmas carol resonates. It sings of tragedy, tribulation, suffering upon suffering. It sings of the evil wreckage that we all experience in this fallen and broken world that’s groaning under the weight of sin and its effects on everyone. Including believers in Christ. But it also sings of Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
a bible on a wooden surface with pine leaves and christmas lights

An “ongoing suffering” Christmas of silent, humbled, reverent awe

I will never forget it. Exactly one month after my second lifesaving brain surgery, I was able to sit at the piano and quietly play this Advent hymn. Pumped up with heavy medication, muscles and nerves shrieking in pain, our Lord gently tweaked the very direction of my earthly life Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
photograph of variety of fruits on a table

All good gifts around us

This week’s hymnwriter, a pastor’s kid, wrote this in serious illness, re-turning to the Lord after falling away for over twenty years:  We plow the fields and scatterthe good seed on the land,but it is fed and wateredby God’s almighty hand. (“We Plow the Fields and Scatter,” Claudius, M., 1782) Serious Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
people on dinner during ramadan

Thanking God for Jesus when I’m under attack

How I’ve desperately needed to sing daily of our Redeemer’s propitiating work on the cross as I suffer. When I’m under attack, I need to remember that He became sin in my place and completely took all the punishment for sin that I deserve.  Jesus paid it all, All to Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
a woman in a white dress stands in front of a large stone building

Dear Refuge of my weary soul, I sing a love song

What is the “new commandment” from Jesus for us? Jesus echoes 2 Kings 23:25, telling us to “turn to the LORD with all,” a holistic, embodied, interconnected turning of our affections, thoughts, and emotions. In the weary wilderness of suffering, our souls long, our emotions thirst, our bodies faint, and our minds Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
a woman sits on a rock beside the lake

What do I need to think about as I suffer? Jesus. 

Jesus, turn my eyes to You. My suffering overwhelms, loss and grief profound. My thoughts are only of my needs. They engulf me. You promise to “supply every need” I have, according to our Father’s “riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19 ESV). Today, I need to think of Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
brown gift box

God’s rewards as we suffer? “Oh, how I love Jesus!”

Lord God, I’ve often believed the lie that, other than relief from suffering in the end, there is no reward for this awful pain. That there’s nothing good I can do in this world, that my life can’t have good purpose if I’m suffering. I’ve often felt like there can’t Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
foot prints on desert during daytime

All the way my Savior leads me

Good Shepherd, thank You for guiding me through this suffering journey. Psalm 23’s promises are precious to me, for You are indeed leading me in paths of righteousness, giving me needed moments of rest, restoration, and comfort in Your always-good and compassionate presence. You’re leading me through the darkest places Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
human standing beside crucifix statue on mountain

Have you ever heard of spiritual depression? 

Particularly when our bodies suffer from chronic illness or ongoing fatigue and stress, we can become prone to what Martin Lloyd-Jones describes as “spiritual depression” or joyless unhappiness, a temptation of Satan for a believer.  My harp on yonder willow lies, Silent, neglected, and unstrung; My cheerful songs are turned Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
crucifix on the roadside

Suffering and constant stress in this fallen world…with Jesus

I’ve pondered this question over the many years of my earthly suffering: How does the gospel apply to our daily lives? How does the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ have personal relevance to our times of suffering and constant stress as we live in this fallen Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago

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