Overcoming Trials
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7 Bible Verses About Being Stuck (and Tips for Breaking Free)
Somewhere along the thin line between night’s inky darkness and the hoary glow of daybreak, I place a flat palm on the frosted windowpane. It’s late winter in our world. I feel stuck inside and stuck in life today. Opening my Bible, I begin my search for Bible verses about being stuck in life. We all feel stuck at times. We feel stuck in habits we cannot break, jobs we don’t enjoy, and callings that suck the life from our bodies. During these times, God’s Word offers encouragement and inspiration. Today, we’ll explore seven Bible verses about being stuck. We’ll also look at five practical ways to get un-stuck! Let’s…
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The Blessings of Trusting God in Pain and Suffering
I’m cleaning out the basket above the fridge when I discover a tattered calendar. Opening it, I flip through the empty pages. I remember the year vividly. It was a year marked by pain and suffering. Illness kept the calendar blank for months. At the time, I was blind to the blessings of trusting God in our circumstances. Surprisingly, I realize I’m smiling as I reflect on the year. I recall the tears, the sorrow, and the prayers that seemed to go unanswered for months. At the time, those unanswered prayers didn’t feel like something to smile about. The Blessings of Trusting God Most likely, you have a few unanswered…
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4 Practical Ways to Overcome Fear With Faith
Welcome to our second post in the Set Free series. Today, we’ll talk about how to overcome fear with faith. This series offers a taste of what you’ll find in my paperback book, Lean Into Grace. And now, let’s talk about rising above our greatest fears. How to Overcome Fear With Faith Through the frosted windowpane, the world is colored by shapes. An angular patch of green breathes life into the dull surroundings where the neighbor has tended to her plot of earth. The C-shaped stretch of curving country road delineates the wild from the tame. I get lost in the scene and feel like I’ve stepped out of the latest…
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When Christmas Is Hard: 5 Insights to Give You Hope
Snow falls heavily like flour through a sifter, and I’m alone with only my thoughts and the hushed whisper of flakes gathering on frozen earth. As I sit beneath the hemlocks, I’m reminded of a season years ago when our family was suffering at Christmas. It can be challenging to know where to turn when Christmas is hard instead of celebratory. When Christmas Is Hard Our difficult Christmas came after a year filled with illness, disappointment, and deep grief. We’d just watched a lifelong dream go up in smoke, and we weren’t sure where to turn next. We were grieving, and we were having a hard time embracing the Christmas…
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How to Fight Spiritual Attacks: 7 Ways
We lose a little more light every day now. I slip out for my evening walks beneath an underbelly of midnight blue. Not long ago, while walking beneath the canopy of darkness, I began thinking about how to fight spiritual attacks. I’ve been feeling discouraged in certain areas of my life lately. After weeks of restlessness, I finally recognized that the relentless stream of negative thoughts might be coming from somewhere other than my own mind. After telling a friend about the thoughts, she said, “Sounds like a spiritual attack to me.” How to Fight Spiritual Attacks Like me, you might be feeling discouraged today. Maybe you battle with worry,…
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15 Scriptures to Destroy the Works of the Enemy
Are you searching for powerful Scriptures to destroy the works of the enemy? Let’s dig into God’s Word for 15 powerful Bible verses to help you overcome spiritual attacks. Speak these verses out loud when you sense you are under attack. Satan cannot read our minds, but he submits to the authority of God’s Word. Scriptures to Destroy the Works of the Enemy The year I started writing words for the world to read, things began falling to pieces all around us. The kids were constantly rundown with various viruses. There were financial strains, serious health scares, and much more. We faced spiritual attacks without reprieve, and we were worn…
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7 Ways God Uses Brokenness for Good
The first storm of fall comes with gusty gales and breaks loose the brittle branches and untethered leaves. I have a deep sense of my own brokenness as the leaves scatter across the yard, and a question stirs in my heart: If God uses brokenness for good, how do we turn to God and find beauty in the brokenness? God Uses Brokenness Perhaps it comes with remembering the ways God uses our brokenness. The world tells us to avoid suffering, failure, and brokenness. However, Jesus offers a different invitation. He invites us to embrace suffering, failure, and brokenness. We cannot become spiritually mature without adversity. This truth is difficult to…
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10 Empowering Bible Verses About Feeling Defeated
Outside the window, the goldenrod fields have shifted from emerald to buttery gold. Frost will come soon, and any hint of color will be swallowed up by the monochrome beige of winter. I open my Bible in search of Bible verses about feeling defeated because I sense I’ll need them throughout the long months ahead. Bible Verses About Feeling Defeated Perhaps you need these words, too. Maybe you’re facing an uncertain future or feeling defeated in some area of your life today. Regardless of what your discouragement looks like, let’s soak in these truths together today. 10 Bible Verses About Feeling Defeated 1. Isaiah 59:1 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not…
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Give It to God: 5 Ways to Give God Control
A midsummer drought slows the creek to a trickle and darkens it to the color of black tea. I sit by the water with a friend, and we talk about hopes, dreams, and the prayers we desperately want God to answer. We talk about how hard it can be to surrender control—to “give it to God” and trust him with the outcomes in our lives. I wonder if you can relate. Maybe you’ve been chasing a dream that hasn’t come to fruition, and you’re not sure how to embrace your calling while trustfully giving it to God at the same time. Perhaps you’ve been asking God to mend a broken…
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A Calming Prayer for Anxiety, Worry, and Fear
The hollow growl of a thunderstorm awakens me well past midnight. I turn to look out the open window and watch the skyline flicker white. Four sleepless hours later, I lie on my back and utter a calming prayer with the hopes of quieting the noise inside my head . . . A Calming Prayer for Anxiety, Worry, and Fear My calming prayer goes like this: “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.” The prayer is from Isaiah 26:3. It’s a promise for peace to cover us as we place our trust in God and keep our thoughts fixed…
