Transformation
Encouragement on how life's trials and struggles can lead to the transformation that will shape your heart to be more like Christ, bring greater joy, and usher in the fulfillment you crave.
-
8 Reassuring Bible Verses About Patience
Most of us are waiting for something. We’re waiting for dreams to come to life, prodigals to return home, and babies to sleep through the night. Some of us are waiting for God to heal our bodies or the bodies of our loved ones. Waiting on God is never easy. Let’s dig into some reassuring Bible verses about patience together today. Bible Verses About Patience The Bible has a lot to say about waiting on God and being patient. 1. Romans 12:12, ESV Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. We all face troubled times in life. Meanwhile, God calls us to press through these times…
-
How to Stop Being Moody and Irritable: 4 Practical Insights
We put the trip to camp on the calendar and crossed off the white boxes with eager expectation. Winter felt like it might never end, and we all needed something to look forward to. I was desperate for some space to step back and assess how to stop being moody. Wild places help me find my roots like nowhere else in the world, and I couldn’t wait to get to the woods. At last, the weekend arrived. We packed the bags, loaded the kids, and headed north. Saturday dawned grey and soggy. As the day wore on, it became clear it was going to rain all day. We played board…
-
How to Stop Being Miserable: 7 Negative Mindsets That Might Be Stealing Your Joy
I awaken to a twisted knot of sheets, and it’s clear I’ve been wrestling all night long. No part of me wants to get out of this bed and step into my life today. I want to stop being miserable in this season, but I have no worldly clue of what to do about it. Most of us have been here. You wake up to the buzzing alarm, and you have absolutely no desire to return to the same old job in the same tiny cubicle to perform the same fifty tasks in an endless cycle. Or maybe the baby cries two hours before daybreak. You just can’t see starting…
-
Overcome Anxiety With God: 6 Steps to Help You
I sit beneath the hemlocks while my little boy throws rocks into the water. I’m thankful we have a place to slip away from the demands of our days. Today, I’m desperate to overcome anxiety with God in this quiet moment by the water. A question comes to mind as I sit in the silence: Where does my life feel out of control? When I feel like I have a grip on my life, peace reigns. However, when my house is a mess, my schedule is overbooked, my kids are disobeying me, and my career feels uncertain, anxiety creeps in. Not long ago, a friend looked into my eyes and…
-
How to Stop Comfort Eating and Turn to God Instead
It’s 9:00 p.m. on a Thursday, and I stare at the cupboard with an insatiable appetite. I want to learn how to stop comfort eating and find my comfort in God, but when I’m honest about it, chocolate feels more tangible at the end of a long day. Several cookies, way too many chocolate chips, and an hour later, I lie in bed and ask God to help me find freedom. The heavens are silent, and I open my Bible for inspiration. What the Bible Says About How to Stop Comfort Eating My bookmark leads me to an unnamed woman in the fourth chapter of John’s gospel as she walks to…
-
15 Bible Verses About Breakthrough
“I’ve started to wonder if my breakthrough will ever come,” a friend recently remarked. “I’ve done all I know to do, given my best effort, read countless Bible verses about breakthrough, and prayed for months. I feel like God isn’t listening.” We were sitting by the creek on an unseasonably warm autumn day. The firmament hung low and grey, like maybe the underbelly of heaven was brushing against us. “I don’t know why God gave me this dream and then slammed the door closed in my face,” my friend added through tears. I sat with her words and offered her space to be honest about what she felt. We’ll return…
-
How to Overcome Sinful Habits: 5 Insights
Do you feel defeated as you continue to stumble into the same sinful habit repeatedly? Maybe you feel like you’ll never find victory in this area of your life. Today, I invite you to join me as we discuss how to overcome sinful habits for good. How to Overcome Sinful Habits: 5 Ways I stand in front of the cupboard and stare blankly. I’m not hungry, but this cupboard is the place where I come for escape when the kids are fighting and the walls are closing in. I admire the cheese curls and decide this is not the night to break a bad habit I’ve carried for decades. I…
-
Giving Control to God: 8 Life-Changing Ways to Let Go
Morning’s first rays of light slip through the curtain panels like beacons of hope. “Lord, help me to let go of control and surrender my life to you today,” I pray. I’ve been on a journey of giving control to God, and every day is an invitation to begin again. My journey began a few months ago when a friend came to visit and asked hard questions. She wanted to know how I was doing in my walk with God and where I felt stuck and discouraged in life. I told her that I sensed God calling me to stop clinging to control. I also noted that giving control to God…
-
How to Have a Closer Relationship With God: 8 Ways
Our world is quieting with the breath of winter now, and the barren maples at the field’s edge speak of what is to come. I want to learn how to have a closer relationship with God, but there are times when the emptiness of winter amplifies the barrenness I feel inside. How to Have a Closer Relationship With God Six months ago, a friend asked if the ways I’m seeking God in my quiet time are leading me to life-giving encounters with him. When I realized my answer was most often no, I sought God’s heart to encounter him in life-giving ways. Today, I’m returning to these ideas as I…
-
How Waiting on God Just Might Open the Doors of Abundance
I walk past them every week on my way into the grocery store. Perfectly positioned on bales of hay, like the image of everything that’s right and good about autumn, it takes everything I have not to splurge on a burgundy mum for the front stoop. I’m not thinking about waiting on God when I see them, but God will soon use the moms to teach me a valuable lesson. Walking past the autumn décor at the grocery store week after week, I resist the temptation to splurge on what isn’t essential on our tight budget, and I try to ignore the rainbow of mums as they whisper my name…
