Overcoming Trials
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7 Stress Relief Bible Verses About Worry and Stress
After a long winter, a hint of auburn crowns the tree line on the eastern horizon. The buds are emerging on the maples. I’ve been feeling anxious about some changes that will take place in our next season. In response, I open my Bible in search of stress relief Bible verses about worry and stress in life. I need these Truths to wash over me as I step forward without fear or anxiety. Perhaps you need to soak in these assurances, too. Stress Relief Bible Verses About Worry and Stress in Life As I admire the trees, it seems God is pouring his love out as he pours color onto…
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How to Overcome Fear With Faith
Not long ago, our family faced a battle with fear that surpassed any fear we’d ever known. As we wrestled with fear regarding the life of our child, I wrestled with God as I asked him to help me overcome fear with faith. On a cognitive level, I knew the answer: Faith pushes out fear and reminds us of where we find our hope. On a heart level, I had much to learn about walking by faith. How to Overcome Fear With Faith In the months following our child’s frightening medical diagnosis, I turned to God in desperation. I asked him to show me what it looked like to rise…
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The Truth About God and Your Emptiness in Life
The first red-winged blackbird appeared from out of the pasty white sky on a Sunday, and we marveled at the feeder like we’d never seen such a miracle. We were at the end of a season when all the emptiness in life had us feeling poured out. It’s funny how the normal can become a miracle when everything else has been stripped away. It’s funny how the once-expected rain can become a phenomenon after a season of drought. In the aftermath of the longest kind of winter season, that first red-winged blackbird looked something like a scarlet-caped wonder. In the aftermath of a never-ending night, just a little flicker of…
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When You Feel Broken: 4 Ways to Find Hope
When you feel broken inside, it’s not easy to find hope to hold onto. I’ve lived through some broken seasons, and today we’ll talk about where to turn in these difficult times. I invite you to join me on a day when I felt deeply broken, and we’ll learn to unburden our brokenness together. When You Feel Broken It’s a grey March afternoon, and I drive down the Interstate feeling numb. I’m on my way to a doctor’s appointment that will offer glimpses into our family’s future. Our unborn child has a heart defect. Today, a pediatric cardiologist will determine how serious the defect is and offer a prognosis. I’m…
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7 Bible Verses for Weariness (Plus 5 Tips for Weary Days)
The snow blows past like a horizontal wall of white. I stare at the thousands of tiny flakes like maybe this is heaven’s way of touching this muddy earth. I’m running on fumes all over again this morning, and I open my Bible in search of a few Bible verses for weariness. Maybe you can relate. You might be weary from the demands of a career that is wearing you down, children who rely on you day and night, or something else. Today, we’ll look at seven Bible verses for weariness and explore five tips for tired days. I encourage you to soak in these truths and draw strength from…
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10 Refreshing Bible Verses for the Weary and Burdened
The translucent breath of heaven lingers on the morning window panes, and the burdock lifts barbed hands toward a grey sky. Sometimes this season of darkness leaves us all feeling just a little too threadbare. We crave light and warmth. If this is you today, I invite you to soak in these refreshing Bible verses for the weary and worn. 10 Bible Verses for the Weary and Burdened As I prepare my heart to walk through this season, I’m reminded of the burdens our little family faced throughout past winters. Our past few winters have been difficult. We have faced struggles that often felt beyond our strength. We have faced blustery…
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How to Find Strength in God When Life Is Tough
Winter was bearing down on us with a stranglehold that left me breathless at times. Every morning, I sat beside the window and wondered whether our family was about to walk down the most broken road we’d ever known. Day after day, I opened God’s Word in hopes that I might to discover how to find strength in God as we faced our storm. There was a medical prognosis on the horizon, and I was terrified. I’d been standing on Truth that held the power to slay the giant of fear. I’d been rebuking, taking back ground, worshiping, and fixing my eyes on the pure and good. Nevertheless, as I…
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One Word to Help You Navigate Holiday Sadness
The burning bush blazed crimson, and I vividly remember the year when suffering marked our family’s holiday celebrations. I was alone, ill, and stuck on the couch. For the first time in my life, the joy of the holiday season was replaced by deep and lingering holiday sadness. I didn’t want the lot that had been assigned to me. I had prayed and believed for health, and I’d fallen into a stretch of sickness that was more intense than anything I’d ever experienced. Aside from a short half-hour in the mornings, I was forced to lie completely motionless and drown in my haze of illness. After a month on the…
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3 Ways to Draw Close to God When You’re Weary and Worn
I’m feeling weary and burdened as we make the long walk to the end of the driveway to wait for the school bus. I know my soul longs to draw close to God. Sadly, setting aside the time feels like work, and work is what’s worn me thin. Ann Voskamp’s words pass through my mind: “It’s never the things you carry that hurt you, but how you carry those things.” Meanwhile, when I’m honest with myself and with God, there are times when it feels like I’m carrying an unbearably heavy load, and there’s no way this load could do anything other than crush me. Truth to Help You Draw…
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How to Embrace Change: 8 Mindsets to Help You
It happened on a balmy August evening with locusts droning on like a reminder that the earth would keep spinning, even if my world had shifted in an uncomfortable direction. It was time to learn how to embrace change, and it wasn’t going to be a lesson that came easily. We will all face seasons of drastic change in life, and that August evening threw me like few others. In a matter of minutes, every dream I’d been dreaming – every plan I’d been carefully laying down like a piece of some giant puzzle – fell to the wayside, and I was left alone with a radically shifted set of…
