Tag Archives: difficult times

Jesus Will Carry Your Burdens

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Jesus Will Carry Your Burdens.

Jesus Will Carry Your Burdens

**This post was one I wrote several years ago, on February 17, 2015 during a sad, heavy-hearted time. While I am not currently sad, or heavy-hearted, I know that many are, and many are carrying extra burdens, extra duties, and extra cares & stresses during this present time in our world. I’d like to revisit this post with reminders for times like these.**

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Psalm 34:18 (NLT) 

My heart is so heavy, burdened and sad this past week.  I have had to remind and tell myself that “Jesus will carry your burdens.”  I am fine, and I have had no personal loss.  Unfortunately though some of my friends have, which makes me hurt for them.  For some reason I just feel like there’s so much sadness (like I said…my heart feels heavy).  If you know me at all, you know that I’m a person of great empathy.  I hurt when others hurt.

This past week a friend of mine unexpectedly lost her husband.  I can’t even begin to imagine the pain and suffering that she and her children must be enduring.  There’s also a feeling of helplessness because there is absolutely nothing that I can say or do to take away any of their pain.  I absolutely HATE death and the pain that it brings with it.

Sad times

On the same day that I learned about my friend’s husband, I saw that Continue reading →

Prayer for Time of Crisis

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Prayer for Time of Crisis

This week I wanted to share a Prayer for Time of Crisis (with some foundation scriptures). This prayer is timely during the COVID-19 crisis that our world is currently facing.

A few helpful things to remember during a time of crisis:

  • Our first response during times of crisis should be to go to the Bible to see what God’s word has to say about it.
  • Crisis happens all the time. Whenever a crisis comes up, God has something for us to grab right in the middle of it.
  • If you give the devil enough rope, he’ll hang himself. Satan often overplays his hand, and the very attacks he makes are often the very things that seal his fate. He brings about his own undoing, and God will turn the tables on him bringing his people out even better on the other side of crisis.
  • The people of God come out in victory on the other side because of faith. If we keep our faith, we will get the victory. We have to fight to keep our faith. The devil will try to steal it from us because he knows that’s how we will get our victory.

“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” 1 John 5:4 (NLT)

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12 (NIV)

  • Just because we experience crisis doesn’t mean that we aren’t living right or following God. Jesus even told us trouble would come to us.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NIV)

Take Some Practical Steps to Pray During This Time of Crisis:

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COVID-19: Fight Fear

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COVID-19: Fight Fear

I hesitated adding yet another thing out there having anything remotely related to COVID-19. Quite honestly I’m exhausted and overwhelmed with reading and hearing about it everywhere I look.

That being said, I do feel like God compelled me to provide resources for those who may need some extra encouragement to fight fear or who may need more reassurance and comfort. Just because I’m not struggling does not mean that others aren’t. Additionally, it would be nice to see some positive, encouraging, faith-related information out there to counterbalance and fight fear and panic inducing media that’s being shoved down our throats everywhere we turn.

Today, I’d like to provide you with some practical steps, encouragement, reminders, helpful scriptures, helpful posts/articles, and some faith and hope building resources to support you and help you fight fear during this volatile time in our world.

First and foremost: God is still God, and He can turn bad into good

God can take something bad, something evil, something the devil uses for harm and turn it into something good. God can turn the tables on our enemy. No matter how bleak things may look in our world right now, God can and will still work through this and in spite of this crisis.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28 (NLT)

“You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.” Genesis 50:20 (GNT)

Read this helpful post:

Getting Through a Tough Time and Coming Out Better On the Other Side

God is immutable—He will not change

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Are You Flexible When Things Don’t Go As Planned?

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Are You Flexible When Things Don’t Go As Planned?

Are You Flexible When Things Don’t Go As Planned?

I haven’t always been the most flexible person when things haven’t gone as planned. I used to get pretty bent out of shape usually displaying a bit of self-pity, irritation and thus irritability, and even a bit of a negative attitude that often lingers long after the incident has passed. Previously, I would just blame it on my personality. “That’s just how I am,” or “I’m just a very organized, structured person,” or “That’s just my OCD personality” (even though I’m not OCD nor should I be confessing/claiming that over myself).

However, I was pretty convicted after reading something that Joyce Meyer wrote in her book “Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind”. In the chapter on being positive Joyce said, “In Romans 12:16 the Apostle Paul tells us to readily adjust ourselves to people and things. The idea is that we must learn to become the kind of person who plans things but who doesn’t fall apart if that plan doesn’t work out.”[1]

“…readily adjust yourself to people and things…” Romans 12:16 (AMP)

For me, when things didn’t go how I saw them going in my mind, I would typically fall apart. I was not flexible nor did I “readily adjust” myself to my unexpected situations.

After reading what Joyce Meyer said and reading Romans 12:16 in the Amplified translation, I decided that it was time that I start making some changes. Becoming more flexible has been a very hard, but rewarding, lesson that I’ve had to learn over the past several years. I can’t say that I’ve quite mastered it yet, but I’ve definitely made some great strides in this area.

Be flexible–“Readily adjust yourself to people and things…” Romans 12:16 (AMP)

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Practice being flexible this week during my first day of summer class

This week was my first week of a summer college class that I’m teaching. The first day of class was riddled with a fair share of unexpected mishaps. However, can I just tell you how proud I was of myself in hindsight!

I was able to see a significant amount of progress in myself in how I handled the situation today versus how I would have responded 5-10 years ago. I remained surprisingly calm, was quick on my feet when responding to problems that arose, and kept a good attitude the entire time! Well, actually one thing did irritate me a little more than it should have, but I recognized it quickly.

Here are a few of the unexpected things I encountered on my first day of class: Continue reading →

Biblical Examples of Waiting

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Biblical Examples of Waiting

Biblical Examples of Waiting

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)

I love that we can look to the Bible to learn from others but also to gain encouragement. We can see from many of the Bible stories how the characters, these REAL people, were often extremely relatable and went through many of the same types of things that we endure today—maybe not identical circumstances but comparable troubles and accompanying emotions. We can see that we’re in good company. Because ALL scripture is useful for teaching us, including Bible character stories even as adults, I often use “character studies” in my lessons when teaching where we’ll explore different Bible characters that complement our current topic of study.

Today’s post comes directly from a character study worksheet I use on waiting. There are several examples in the Bible of people who had to practice waiting for various things. We’ll discuss of few of them here. I’ll also vary slightly from my typical post format and implement some “practical steps” with some questions to ponder for each character study instead of waiting to include them at the end.

We can learn a lot from and be encouraged by the extremely relatable characters in the Bible. We’re in good company!

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Unfortunately life requires a lot of waiting

Unfortunately throughout our lives, and often on a number of occasions, we will find ourselves waiting. It’s just one of those unenjoyable life truths. A few things we could find ourselves waiting on might include (but are not limited to):

    • Healing
    • A marriage or relationship to be restored
    • Our future spouse
    • Child(ren)
    • Answers, direction, guidance, and/or purpose
    • A loved one to come to or return to God
    • Financial breakthrough
    • Promotion
    • Freedom
    • Justice
    • Change
    • Fulfillment of a dream
    • Fulfillment of a promise

Waiting can be an extremely difficult and sometimes painful process. Previously I wrote a few posts on this topic that you might also find helpful…

When You’re Waiting on God—to give some ways to wait and some encouragement throughout the process

Explanations for Why We Wait on God—to share some potential reasons behind the waiting

Scriptures for Waiting on God— to give some scriptures to focus on during the waiting periods

To supplement these posts, today’s character studies will give some additional encouragement and hopefully some relatable stories from the Bible to help and give some food for thought in the process of waiting.

Abraham was waiting for a son

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Comfort: Together-Strength

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Comfort: Together-Strength

Recently, I’ve come to learn that comfort is a word where its meaning has evolved over the years. Its original meaning might not necessarily correlate to how we often use and view it today. Not that our current use of the word is incorrect…but maybe it has an even deeper meaning.

I stumbled across this perspective of the word comfort in a reading plan that I started in my YouVersion Bible app last week. I started a plan called “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”. I’ve been a Christian long enough to know that we can’t always explain things that happen, even though inside our innermost being we just can’t help but to wonder WHY at times.

A “why” moment

I was in one of those “why” modes last week. These moments for me are typically short-lived because I know I’m not guaranteed an answer on this side of heaven. However, I still find myself indulging in them from time to time…hence why I looked up and started the reading plan about God not making sense.

A little over a week ago, we had a very difficult death in our family. My cousin’s wife passed away after a very long health battle. She was very young, only in her 30’s, and the mother of 2 small children. Honestly, I didn’t know her well at all, but I know enough from other family members to know that she was a godly woman. The family has been believing for her healing and recovery for quite some time now.

Her family recently uprooted their lives and relocated to Minnesota to be near the Mayo Clinic where she was being treated. She had been awaiting a liver transplant. After numerous false alarms, they finally found a match. Unfortunately, on the day of her surgery—the day that everyone had been waiting and praying for…the day that was supposed to be a happy day—she passed away. That’s not how it was supposed to go. That’s not the ending we had all been praying for.

How could there possibly be any comfort?

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Explanations for Why We Wait on God

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Explanations for Why We Wait on God

“This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” Habakkuk 2:3 (NLT)

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)

I’ve been talking with a couple of friends recently about the draining process of having to wait on God. I’ve written before on this topic and of how it can sometimes seem like God has forgotten us or abandoned us as we’re in this waiting limbo. In that post I gave some encouragement and discussed some strategies to endure the process while we wait on God. I also shared a post with some helpful scriptures for waiting on God.

Today, I thought I’d tackle the subject from a different angle. Sometimes it can be helpful to know WHY we’re having to wait. To give some possible explanations for that, I’m going to share an analogy that I heard many years ago that has helped me tremendously. I’ve re-listened to this message many times since, and I also use it as part of my teaching lessons at Glory House. Additionally, I often refer this same message to friends…in fact I referred it again just this past week!

I love coming up with analogies to teach concepts and principles…but unfortunately I can’t take ANY credit for this one. It’s from a message that Pastor Steven Furtick did on May 5, 2012 at Elevation Church titled, “Waiting Room: Hubs & Spokes, Holding Patterns & the Supernatural Dateline”.[1] (You can watch the message here.) It’s such a good illustration that explains the process of waiting so much more clearly. The analogy compares our wait on God to some things you might experience when flying.

I’m going to summarize his main points, adding in some examples and expounding a bit so that I’m not repeating his exact message because I’d really like you to go have a listen for yourself!

Hubs and Spokes—We don’t always get a direct flight

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Keep Your Eyes and Focus on Jesus

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Keep Your Eyes and Focus on Jesus

Keep Your Eyes and Focus on Jesus

It’s easy to lose spiritual focus and get distracted when things don’t seem to be going our way. It’s especially true when we see or experience injustices, trouble, unethical behavior or wrongdoing. However, the Bible encourages us that even, and especially in those times, we should keep our focus and our eyes fixed on Jesus.

God has been showing me some of that lately. I tend to get more frustrated and discouraged when I rely on myself and my own strength instead of remembering that I have a God that will give me the strength I need to handle and endure anything that comes my way if I’ll just look to him.

Sometimes things just get under our skin so much that we forget about God’s role and ability in the whole process. For example, state budget cuts and administrative changes have completely affected education where I live. I teach at a local community college, and we’ve experienced some significant negative effects as well.

Take this upcoming semester, for instance…

In my department alone, over half of the classes have been canceled, instructors are receiving fewer teaching assignments but still have increased workloads, and a tremendous amount of autonomy has been eliminated. It’s super frustrating for both professors and students alike. I had a class canceled this semester, and a good friend of mine did as well, even though she was guaranteed a certain number of classes in return for some uncompensated work that she did.

In these situations it’s extremely easy to focus on the injustice. It’s easy to spend time stewing and trying to think of ways that we can make things right, change our circumstances, and/or make people see the error of their ways. What I should be doing instead is just focusing on God and the things that are in my control. I have to choose to shift my focus from the negative to God. 

I have to choose to shift my focus from the negative to God.

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Park’s tree

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