book of Job

woman hospital gown lying on bed crying

How to endure tribulation and suffering, singing the gospel to Job!

I’ll never forget it. As we interviewed to join a church after moving to a new state, one of the elders asked me, “What is your favorite book of the Bible?” I immediately responded, “Job.” He was shocked! Job’s words of lament became mine through years of undiagnosed and progressively Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
adult and young sheeps

When suffering makes me feel numb

Are you also suffering with chronic illnesses? With pain that interrupts your ability to sleep? Are exhaustion and depletion becoming a “numbed” depression? Blankly existing? Is an onslaught of simultaneous relational or financial suffering making you feel numb? “Numbness is an incredibly strong emotion, an emotion so strong that it Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
people playing the piano

Jesus, teach me, guide me in this suffering’s learning

I sat with God’s Word and my prayer journal, exhausted, in pain, not sure what I should even attempt to do after an unexpectedly short and challenging night of “sleep.” Like Job, my prayers floated between “help” and “how?” I had a list of things I’d planned to do, but Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
distressed middle aged woman in black blazer holding a woman beside her

A glorious love story’s chapter

A sweet medical helper tried to encourage me, “Your story isn’t over yet. This is just a chapter.” Amazingly, this world has invented positive thinking “mantras,” faintly shadowing Biblical truth. With each chapter of ongoing suffering’s ebb and flow of hardships, a Christian’s story isn’t over yet! Why? Because our Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
three red heart decors

A crisis of faith, a bursting of love

God has woven some underlying themes into my 35 years of suffering from chronic illness and pain, much like themes in a sonata. As I read my prayer journals, one theme has been the ongoing need to believe the gospel…daily.  I see the subtle spiritual warfare and temptation of the Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
boat out at sea at dusk

God knows what is best for my suffering loved one

A mighty fortress is our God,a bulwark never failing;our helper he, amid the floodof mortal ills prevailing. (“A Mighty Fortress,” Luther, M., 1529) Mortal ills and storms of life in this fallen world, raging temptations to sin, all of us desperately needing God’s help. Here’s one of the greatest of Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
the book of psalms in the bible

Resisting when Satan tempts us, in our suffering

Suffering is prime time for our enemy to tempt us to sin. We’re tempted to doubt what God says about Himself in His Word. If we’re suffering, how can God be good?  We’re tempted to doubt the gospel is true…are we really saved? If we’re suffering, how could He love Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
person holding hand

When people don’t understand our suffering, we have our Friend

Job’s friends started well. They visited to “show him sympathy and comfort him” (Job 2:11). They mourned with him; they wordlessly sat with him, “for they saw that his suffering was very great” (Job 2:13). Maybe they didn’t know what to say?  Job himself was the “first to speak,” honestly sharing Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
seashore under white clouds

I am not skilled to understand

I’m writing this week’s “praise interruption” on a day when suffering’s earthly storms are howling on multiple fronts. Screaming at me, to the point of overwhelm. Are you having “one of those days” too? Perhaps, like me, we could recount many days, weeks, and years of storms. But sometimes, when Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago
woman looking at sunset

Jesus, “I Need Thee Every Hour” of chronic illness

Physical suffering brings tears and fears. Up at night, we join Job in turning to God: “My heart is heavy on account of my groaning” (Job 23:2) “and now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night racks my bones, and Read more

By Lauri Hogle, ago

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