beads cross prayer rosary

Good news in the midst of my suffering

We ache for good news in medical challenges. We pray for good outcomes to the hardships our kids and grandkids are experiencing. We grieve when good things disappear. We live in a fallen and fearful world in which sin and resulting suffering affect everything.  We need good news, don’t we? Read more…

close up photo of tied blue box

How can God be good if this is happening to me?

Perhaps this is one of the deepest universal questions, driving us into cognitive dissonance when suffering lingers. When layers of grief and loss take us under, we can barely breathe. We feel like Job. But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness came (Job 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…

body of water between green leaf trees

God is So Good

In my years of suffering, I’ve had to beg God for His logical wisdom found in His Word. Since the Genesis 3 fall, our enemy hisses crafty lies that God is not good. Satan, the embodiment of evil, wants to make us doubt God’s goodness when we suffer. Let’s battle Read more…

low angle photography gray sky

I praise and trust You in this battle of waiting

Are you living through a time of waiting?  Waiting for diagnosis?  Waiting for treatment to work?  Waiting for a prodigal to come home? Waiting for a job?  Waiting for a loved one to be drawn to Jesus as Savior and Lord? Waiting for this weary season to subside? Does the Read more…

photo of planner and writing materials

Lord, I’m trusting my times are in Your hand

I found myself writing in pencil as I began filling out my 2021 calendar. 2020 taught me, “Don’t use pen!” Why?   “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?…You ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (Jas. 4:14-15 Read more…

blue and red galaxy artwork

God’s Gift of Grace in 2020

If we’ve all learned anything from 2020, we’ve learned that our plans actually submit to the sovereign Lord who orders all things.  The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps (Prov. 16:9). Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that Read more…

woman looking towards the sky

Praising Our Sovereign God Into Depression

I wondered about the author of this hymn’s lyrics (God Moves in a Mysterious Way, Cowper, W., 1773). What happened in this believer’s life? His mother died when he was six. He fell in love but wasn’t allowed to marry her. He went to law school but couldn’t handle the Read more…

God is good all the time

Singing Praise in Hard Change

One minute, things are fine. The next minute something suddenly changes. A hassle, a broken, a phone call, a mess, a tragedy. Suddenly, life changes and things are not fine. But are they good?  Somehow?  It’s ALL good If God is Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:6 ESV) and He Read more…

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