Tests make me nervous. In fact, I remember lying in fourth grade to skip writing a math test. I’d been sick with the flu for several days prior, and on the day of my return to school, the teacher plunked a math test on my desk. I took one look at it, felt the fear… [ read more ]
Posts Tagged: fear
Remember This When Bad News Comes
Bad news came to my inbox this week: Someone’s 14-year-old daughter went missing. A husband relapsed into drug addiction. A personal friend landed in ICU on a ventilator. Another friend was diagnosed with dementia. Jesus knows how easily we can lose heart when bad news comes our way. Perhaps that’s why He said, “Don’t let… [ read more ]
Be on Guard When Life Takes a Detour
What does it mean to be on guard when life takes a detour? Eight months after receiving “guard” as my focus word for 2022, I’m beginning to appreciate its relevance to my life in ways I hadn’t imagined. “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong,” says (NLT). In times past,… [ read more ]
Finding Hope When Tragedy Strikes Again
The news of a gunman slaughtering 21 innocents broke like another tragic wave on the shore of humanity. It left us stunned but, sadly, not surprised. The prophet Jeremiah observed mankind’s desperate state more than 600 years before Christ walked this earth, and he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately… [ read more ]
Count Your Blessings
As I write this, early morning sunshine streams through my sailboat’s pilothouse windows. Sailor-Man has already left for our ministry office, and I am alone. All is quiet but for the sound of birds chirping. Theirs is a happy song, and it lifts my spirits. It reminds me of — “Therefore I tell you, do… [ read more ]
Finding Freedom from Strongholds
What’s a stronghold? Simply put, it’s anything that has a strong hold on us. It’s usually rooted in faulty thinking patterns and lies we believe. Fear is a stronghold with which many people struggle, myself included. When my kids were preschoolers, an unknown intruder broke into our home and stole my jewelry… [ read more ]
3 Truths to Help Us Persevere
Life is flat-out hard sometimes. Stuff happens when we least expect it, and it can send us into a tailspin or drive us to our knees. Sometimes that stuff lingers much longer than we’d like. We tie a knot and hang on for dear life, but fear threatens to slip our grip. … [ read more ]
Choosing Our Perspective in Hard Places
Life being what it is, we occasionally face tough situations over which we have no control. Every time this happens, we get to choose the perspective we want to hold: we can either focus only on what we see and understand, or we can focus on what we cannot see or understand. The first… [ read more ]
Encouragement for When You Feel Overwhelmed
I’m hearing the word “overwhelmed” a lot these days. It seems people are feeling this way over so many things: Fractured relationships over the vaccine issue News about Omicron and resulting uncertainties and restrictions Paying the bills Facing the first Christmas after losing a loved one The dread of spending Christmas with testy family… [ read more ]
How to Give God Your Concerns
During a recent quiet time with the Lord, I sensed Him nudge me to set aside my Bible and kneel in His presence with no agenda other than to hear His voice. I’ve walked with Him long enough to know that obedience is the only option when He speaks so definitively. I waited… [ read more ]
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