Category: Spiritual

The daily rhythm of Mom life can feel ever so mundane. Like, make food, wipe faces, load dishwasher, do laundry, read stories, clean house, go to bed. Get up and repeat. For days and months and years. An occasional break from the cycle refreshes the soul. I felt privileged to experience a delicious refresher in September.

How freeing to be responsible only for myself and my bags as I trotted through the airport. Only one plate to fill when I was in line for lunch. No hair to braid and shoes to tie before heading out the door. But wait. What’s the little ache in my heart? Being away from my family reminds me how much I love my Mom and wife career. How much I love my people. How much I love my home and housework. Am I boring? Maybe I am. But it’s my life and I love it.

September 16 I flew to Atlanta Ga where my longtime friend Valerie Miller picked me up. Together we drove to Hartwell to attend the annual ladies seminar that weekend. We’ve been besties since teenagers but now live miles apart. Quality time for just the two of us has not been reality for a lengthy stretch of years. It was a definite gift from the Lord who orchestrated all things so that we could enjoy an inspiring weekend together!! I wish more of my friends could have been there!

Friday morning’s first session was by Jen Miller from Westcliffe, CO. Jen has had 3 daughters who all carried a genetic disease that caused them to be handicapped with a shorter life span. She has lost all 3 of her beautiful daughters. She spoke of her dreams being crushed. Her struggles in surrendering to God’s plan in her life. I was inspired all over again; I’d heard her story some years back. Seeing how God healed her broken heart. Hearing her testimony of His faithfulness. His supplying the little drops of grace moment by moment as she needed them. If you would like to read her story you can purchase her book, Life is a Gift. So heartbreaking. Here are some highlights of her sessions:

We all experience dark seasons of life, but God’s beauty can be seen in our life as we endeavor to learn what God is teaching us in that time. There’s beauty in the cross of Jesus. The cross teaches us brokenness and surrender. My sinless Savior surrendered himself to the cruel death of the cross. How can I not surrender my dreams to Him? Brokenness is rough. This journey to surrender is not silky with fragrant blooms to soothe our feet. It’s dark and jagged, but the beautiful peace at the end of our struggle to surrender is worth the rocky road. It leads to beauty! God may change us and our dreams but that is a surrendered lifestyle. We must remember He sees the whole picture. We do not. Only as we fully trust Him can we fully surrender.

“Control and fear go hand in hand. Surrender and peace go hand in hand.”

Jen also shared this quote– It’s not so much the giving up what we can’t have, as the embracing what we’ve been given.” -Trish Hostetler

God’s love does not depend on my performance for Him. This performance mentality is something I personally have struggled with much in my life, but slowly, at turtle speed, I’m learning. He loves me as much when I’ve failed a woeful amount as He does when I’m living in sweet victory. He loves a saint of 70 years no more than the poor sinner of 80 years.

Serve Christ because my heart is brimming with love for Him, not with a slave mentality. Be quietly confident God will supply my needs. Emotional needs. Physical needs. Grace needs. Whatever your need, know and trust He will supply!!

When we’ve been hurt it’s easier to build walls around us but that gets us nowhere. Lean back into God’s embrace and learn to embrace the seasons of life!

People like to talk about the hurts they have from what others have done to them. But we need to be talking about what God has done for us instead of what people did to us! Then we can go from being a victim to a victor. In John 5:1- 9 is the account of Jesus healing the lame man. Jesus asks him, “do you want to be healed”? (Wilt thou be made whole?) We tend to think, of course he wanted to be healed! But does everyone really want to be healed? This man was laying by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years! It had become his life. His response to Jesus’ question was not an excited “yes Jesus!” He simply stated how he’s never able to get to the pool in time. Was he complaining? I’m not judging him; I know how easy it is to get stuck in our ruts. All we can think of is the woeful circumstances we’ve been given and murmurings readily spring forth! Some people enjoy their “mat” of hurts so much and for so many years that they really don’t want to be healed! Get off your mat and Jesus will heal you- if you really want to be healed!

I also thoroughly enjoyed the class; Cultivating a meek and quiet spirit amidst the challenges and demands of Motherhood, by Deborah Heatwole from Waynesboro GA. She is a homeschool Mom of ten. Here’s glimpses of her session:

My children’s attitudes are very closely tethered to my own.

We must prioritize God over phone time. Read your Bible before checking your phone. Put your phone down when your child is speaking to you. Look him/her in the eyes.

Listening to Bible audio is a great way to engrain scripture in our minds amidst our bustling Mama schedules. Pray out loud when you pray by yourself.

Everyday faithfulness is an act of worship, not just survival. (I heard this quote before and she also shared it, but I don’t know who to credit for it)

Cultivate your relationship with your husband! It’s hard to have a quiet heart if your not in tune with your husband.

Discouragement and Distractions are the Devil’s tools. Are you discouraged with your unending stack of jobs? Discouragement can creep in super easy and for a slew of reasons. Is your phone distracting you? Is it distracting you from more important relationships than those on social media?

If your workload is overwhelming, keep cutting back until it’s comfortable. This can be hard to know where to cut back! Ask your husband for his thoughts. Husbands can often give good advice. Also, Ask for and accept help. People are generally quite willing to lend a hand if we humble ourselves to ask.

The house may be falling apart but if organization and order are found in my heart, I’m doing fine. I love this! It’s ok when we’re not always on top of things. We can have peace in our hearts amidst the clamor of life. Having my heart in order is what really matters! – Much easier said than done.

Read read read to your children.

Listen to your children talk. Let them ramble on their day’s events. If we want them to ramble about their life when they’re teens, we better take an interest and listen to them now.

Apologize to your child when you’ve been frustrated with them. Make sure they know they’re more important than the milk they just spilled.

Involve your children in service. No better way to teach them service to God and others than by your example.

Children have no time concept. Slow your speech and do not constantly rush them. Things really do go better if they have ample time to dress and do their jobs without us reminding them to hurry, every couple minutes.

We must take times to rest. Resting ourselves from the buzzing life around us. Rest is where we realize the time restraints and limitations God has given us. Rest by doing something to rejuvenate yourself. We can’t likely be in solitude for hours, but take the mini vacations when you’re feeling overworked and underpaid. Enjoy a walk in the crisp, autumn air or relax with your favorite magazine and don’t chide yourself. We need those moments.

Live a life of gratitude. Thank and praise God for His unnumbered blessings! Praise Him for all He’s done, is doing and will do!

How many of us have multiple Bibles in our homes? We’d probably all raise our hands. We are exceedingly blessed with the freedom of Bibles in our homes and plenty of them. God’s Word is precious, but in our abundance, let’s not take it for granted!! There’s many people still praying for Bibles today!

Do you have a Bible you dearly love but it’s well worn and falling apart? We did! A couple months ago we sent off two Bibles to get rebound. Both were in really bad shape. Mine was a soft cover Life Application Bible I got years ago and absolutely loved it! It was soft and easy to page through. I also loved it for the application notes. It was my everyday Bible. I marked, wrote notes and underlined it all up. It became very dear to me! But it was in such poor shape. The cover was so badly worn and pages falling out. I sadly stuck it away several years ago, because it simply doesn’t seem appropriate to dispose of a Bible even if it’s in bad shape!

Jerald also had a Bible he used for years. It’s been his church Bible. The cover was badly peeling, plus he also had a few pages coming out in the back. Every now and then I would mention he ought to get a Bible cover. But he never wanted one. He always said he just don’t like Bible covers.

There’s a place in Virginia that we sent our Bibles to, called One Cut Bindery. They rebind any books or Bibles. And to top it off, it is very reasonably priced. It was around $45 for the largest Bible and even less than that for the smaller one. They offer a variety of colors in leather. I will share their information and pictures of our Bibles.

🪴On Reviving Our Souls🪴

Our private time with God on a daily basis is vital for a flourishing Christian life. Communion with God and daily reading His Word must have first place in our lives. But how do we know if we really are giving God first place, when there’s little faces and countless duties that greet us every morning? What if it’s not doable to get up at an early hour, because your health and sanity depends heavily on sleep? Or your up a lot at night with your baby and every minute of sleep is desperately needed? Can we still give God first place? Where is the balance between our needs and sacrifice for time with God? I’ve often felt guilty for not spending as much time reading my Bible as I used to when I was single. But I’ve concluded, God gave me a family and He knows my heart, and perfectly understands my predicament. Not that I can be sloppy and rarely read my Bible, but that I simply can’t spend a whole hour or two everyday, as I’d like to do. Reading my Bible and praying is something I endeavor to be very diligent in, although it’s not always as long or as uninterrupted as I’d like. Also, as life’s seasons change, my devotional life has shifted as well.

We should be giving our first fruits to God because He deserves our Best! First fruits is not something cheap or free. It costs us something. I like the description given in 2 Samuel 24:24 And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. Giving God our best will require a sacrifice on our part. We will need to sacrifice something. It may be sleep, some work, relaxing, reading or whatever. Included in giving God our best, is giving Him our best time of the day to read His Word. And a good prayer before we begin reading is, Psalm 119: 18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

If you do not spend time with God each day, it is not because you’re too busy, but because you do not care enough about God. Quote from Women at the Cross. This is a challenging thought!

So how much do we truly love God and His Word? If we’re neglecting the Bible, perhaps that really is more of our problem than we like to admit. When we don’t get our Bible read, it sounds better to say I was just too busy, than to say I didn’t have my devotions today because I just don’t enough care about God. Psalm 119 is loaded with verses about keeping and loving God’s law/word/testimonies/statutes/precepts, or something that gives the indication of the Bible. If I counted correctly, all but 6 of the verses mention that. I noticed especially the latter part of it, from verse 97 to the end that there’s many times it’s in the connotation of loving His Word, and a longing to not forget them. Read that Psalm and take note of the writer’s intense love for God’s Word! Is our love for God and His Word that strong?! I hope so!

97- O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. 111- Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. 127- Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. 162- I rejoice at thy Word as one that findeth great spoil.

So when is the best time to read and meditate on God’s Word so that we can give Him our best? We’ve probably all heard the first thing in the morning is the most golden time for solitude worship with the Lord. And ideally it is. But if your adjusting to a new baby, struggling with serious fatigue or stress and sleep is crucial, is it still golden? Is it sinful to not read it first thing? Here’s some suggestions:

* There’s no virtue if you get up, plop in the softest chair with your coziest blanket, and try reading your Bible while your still waking up! If your so tired, you nearly fall asleep, choose a different time when you can properly give God your best. Or take a cold shower to get you fully alert!

* If an early morning routine fits your life’s season, that’s wonderful! I like doing it in the morning, but something I need to be on guard against then is that I don’t just rush through it, because I feel pressed by the day’s duties! But God also understands when there’s times it just doesn’t work so well to read and pray as soon as I’m up.

* Or maybe you find a slot of time later in the forenoon, after the morning rush of getting your big people out the door and the younger ones fed, dressed and combed, laundry started etc. There’s been times when that has worked well for me. Especially when I had a small baby and mornings were a bit unpredictable. The catch then is, it takes real discipline! For me anyway. I can so easily slide right into my day’s work and suddenly I remember I did not read my Bible! My daily round of duties that really do need accomplished, can actually be Satan’s tactic for me to forget my time with God!

* Perhaps your best time is after your afternoon nap and the children are still sleeping . You feel refreshed and have a small block of time where you can read your Bible and pray. Or maybe you don’t need naps and you can’t have your devotions while your babies are napping. That too can be a first fruit to God because it’s what works best for you.

* And maybe your one of those who loves to relax in the evening by praying and reading your Bible then. That works too if your not so tired your bout to fall asleep! If you feel it’s your best time for God, then that is fine. In any of these scenarios, we just need to make sure we’re giving God our best time. Not our leftover time.

* And sometimes there’s those unpredictable, emotional and precious weeks of a newborn in the house. God certainly understands when a day slips by and we didn’t have a slot of quiet time with Him. I don’t think it should be often or that we should use that as an excuse, but in reality, it happens. Tiny people are 100% consuming. Here’s some suggestions for those wobbly weeks: *It is ok if you can only read three verses before the baby howls with hunger. God knows your heart and your own hunger for His Word. *Post some Bible verses by your changing table or kitchen sink. Those areas are ‘hot spots’ where you’ll be many times in a day. You can read, meditate and memorize even through the constant care of a newborn. (I still like having verses posted in my kitchen. It helps me memorize and meditate on one specific verse.). *Another idea is to keep an open Bible beside your favorite chair. When you sit down to feed the baby, you can glance over and read or, even as you pass through the room, pause and read a verse or two.

Currently, I do not have a baby, and my health and sleep are much better than they once were. So in that respect, I find a morning devotional working good for me. I have a glider rocker in our bedroom. Beside it I have a cute stand with my Bible and much paraphernalia- my devotional book, tablet, pencils, high lighter, sticky notes and colored pencils right close by. Sticky notes are used for writing meaningful verses, then transferring out to my kitchen sink. In the past I’ve had my spot in the living room. Which is fine too, but I noticed how easy I could get sidetracked if I went out there in the morning! Here’s how I could easily slide. I go out to take a few supplements that are best taken on an empty stomach. Then I’d do a quick check on my phone (I do not keep my phone in our bedroom) then I’d try to quick start my laundry or get sidetracked by something else that I really wanted to do before the children are up, and before I knew it, I’d hear them waking. So then there’s breakfast for them, the day is upon me and I’ve not read my Bible! That is why I started having my devotions in the bedroom. I try not to leave the room until I have read my Bible and prayed. It still doesn’t always happen like that but it is my goal. It helps me to stay disciplined.

Feeding our souls is imperative to a vibrant walk with God! Why should we not give our best to God who gave His very best to us? Give Him your best time of the day too!

How do you as Moms or other busy women manage your devotional time with God?

This is an article I wrote for the Inspiration Emails several years ago, so bear with me for those of you who’ve read it before. This topic is something I have really been struggling with again lately. I was doing an extensive fast the other week, only to weigh myself and discover I had not lost a single thing but instead, gained a whole pound!!! A woeful predicament indeed!! Obsessing over weight sure doesn’t bring happiness. But why does it bother me so much? There’s various reasons of course, but I conclude the bottom line is simply pride. It humiliates me that I cannot at least be a little less fleshy than I once was back in my new bride days…

And so it is, that I endeavor to resign myself to the body God has given me…. Perhaps it’s not your weight that bothers you. Maybe it’s a self acceptance of your personality, your looks, your health, whatever it is for you, know that God created you exactly as He thought best! You can serve Him the best just the way you are! (Who needs this reminder more than the writer herself!) 🙄

I heaved another big sigh as I began dressing for church. “I don’t want to hear it!” my husband quickly replies. “I know what you’re thinking!”
Yes, my dearest on earth knows me quite well! “But why can I never be thin?!” I grumble inside. “I try so hard to lose weight and the stubborn pounds cling on for dear life! And often, when I do lose a few, it isn’t long till they’ve found me again.” Dark thoughts continued to torment me as I tried on one sweater and then another hoping one would at least make me appear a little thinner than I really was.
I have a bigger build and never owned a cute sized waist. Plus, several full-length stomach surgeries have left me with bumps and bulges that I call mini Appalachian Mountains. I can’t imagine me with a lovely smooth tummy and I’ve murmured discontent way too often.
“Honey, I love you just the way you are!” Sweet words from my sweet man! I know he wearies of my complaints but how much more does God? Nay but, o man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay? (Romans 9:20, 21)
Shame on me! Being discontent and not accepting ourselves is sin. When we struggle to accept ourselves, we are focusing on ourselves instead of God! Our evangelist this fall spoke one evening on man being the crowing glory of God’s Creation. “We are here to bring honor and glory to God and one of the ways to do that is to accept ourselves the way God made us. Take the focus off yourself and serve God the best where He calls you!”
It’s okay to try losing unnecessary pounds but when it becomes obsessive, it becomes wrong. Let’s accept ourselves the way God chose to create us and remember He made us exactly like he wanted us to look! Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! (Isaiah 45:9)

Recently our church had its annual Thanksgiving supper with a mini service beforehand. Jerald led the youth in giving a small program of singing a few songs in the service. I had babysitters, so was able to participate this time. One of the songs, My God How Endless Is Thy Love, has taken on a special meaning for me. The text was written by Isaac Watts and was set to music by James S Martin. The music to it is simple and beautiful!! (you can listen to it on Tract 1 of Tapestry Singers Arise album)

My God How Endless Is Thy Love
-Isaac Watts-

My God how endless is Thy love;
Thy gifts are every evening new;
And morning mercies from above
Gently distill like early dew.

Thou spread’st the curtains of the night,
Great Guardian of my sleeping hours;
Thy sovereign word restores the light,
And quickens all my drowsy powers.

I yield my powers to Thy command,
To Thee I consecrate my days;
Perpetual Blessings from Thy hand
Demand perpetual songs of praise.

Perpetual blessings demand perpetual songs of praise! Constantly, God is granting good things! He bestows His mercies on us daily! Am I as perpetual in giving Him songs of praise as He is in bestowing blessings?! I confess I am not. But it’s certainly my desire to do so! Hopefully you are better than I am! But we all know it’s our natural inclination to be negative. It takes no effort. To be positive and grateful requires effort!

I think even just having a quiet, thankful heart of praise, whispering our thanks throughout the day, can still be praising God. Even though we may not always literally be singing. Although that is a wonderful habit!

If we’ll only look and take notice of God’s abundant gifts, we’ll see them all over! I know the world is in perpetual turmoil and if that’s where our focus is, we’re sure ‘nuf gonna miss them blessings!! It’s all in where our eyes are turned. Turn your eyes upon Jesus…. and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. Will you, with me, make a conscious effort to take notice and not only Thank God, but Praise God for His endless love and His endless mercies bestowed upon His children?! Certainly thanking Him is the first step but choosing to Praise Him, when we think we have plenty to complain about can be our sacrifice of Praise. Hebrews 13: 15 (Amplified) reads like this; Through Him therefore let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of our lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.

What do you have to Praise God for today? Can you round up enough songs of praise to equal His blessings?

Nebraska night sky

As everyone everywhere has been affected in one way or another by COVID-19, it makes one aware of the many things we took for granted! One of those for me was Church. We love our church and church family, but having had that privilege of going to church taken away, it was extra special to meet together yesterday! (Sunday)

March 15 was our last church service. Nebraska never issued a stay at home order, but it was encouraged. Also, groups were not to be larger than 10 people. So our church decided to do in home services, meeting in small groups. While that was better than not meeting at all through those 8 weeks, it still was not like real Church! In this respect, going to church yesterday was a treat! I had to think of the verse in Psalms 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.

But how important is church to us on a regular basis, when we can go every Sunday, year after year? Does it still bring gladness to our hearts to go into the house of the Lord? It certainly should! Do we realize how important it is to our spiritual well being, to be part of a Biblical body of believers? How quickly we would be more apt to cool off and lose our fervor for God, if we did not have our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us along! Hebrews 10: 24, 25 says, And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Also, the discipline it takes to study our Sunday School lessons and especially if we need to teach! Or for the men who need to prepare for devotions or the ministry as they study for messages. We are such weak, needy people in our earthly bodies. If we just coast along, we’ll soon coast right into an eternal destiny where we do not want to be!

We are still under some restrictions. We needed to comply with the 6 feet social distancing, no passing of the offering basket and such. The basket was conveniently placed on a chair where we filed past to enter the auditorium. We sat together in families, using every other bench. We could not have Sunday School, but someone had a children’s class. And then there was a devotional by our deacon and the message by our bishop. He preached a message on Mothers, since it was Mother’s Day. Afterwards, we were advised to file outside to visit if we wanted to do so. Outside it was easier to respect the distancing, plus safer with the abundance of fresh air! It was a sunny day, but chilly with a strong breeze! It was so good to worship collectively and to see everyone again!

Sometimes God takes things away from us so to teach us more important things of life…

How has your Church life been? Have you been able to start having services again? I hope so, but more than that, I hope your Spiritual life has blossomed even through the quarantine days. Perhaps God took social life away from us to shake us out of our normalcy, so that we focus on Him! We can find our satisfaction in Him, even when our whole lives were/are topsy-turvy! God hasn’t changed- oh wondrous thought! and He was not taken by surprise when everything shut down. God is always available and open. He will never “shut down!”

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3: 17, 18

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. John 20:1

But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, “Woman, why weepest thou?” She saith unto them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus saith unto her, “Mary.” She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. John 20:11-16

What does the resurrection mean to us? There are some verses in Romans that are a beautiful analogy to our own new life in Christ. When we are sick of living for self, we must receive Christ into our heart and He will give us power to live a new life in Him! Jesus gave His life to make it possible for us to live in victory over sin (and to enjoy eternal life after death) and so we must crucify our old self to live in that victory. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6:6-7

A right relationship with Jesus and being submissive to Him in our life is only possible because of His resurrection. Because of that, we can also walk in newness of life! Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; Romans 6:4-5

Since Christ suffered for our sins and rose again by the power of God we also can have power to live new and holy lives in Him! What will we do with the crucified and risen Lord? Will we choose to crucify ourselves and utilize Christ’s power to live in newness of life, bringing glory to Him? Or will we choose to continue our selfish life? We make a choice. Even if we think we will remain neutral we are still making a choice. Christ has the power we need to live a new life in Him!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

For some time I have been pondering along the line of God still being good, even when bad things come our way. Hardships come in many different forms. Some are very difficult such as a wayward loved one or the death of someone close. And on a less severe level, things such as sick children, pinching my finger while I’m doing a good deed, biting my lip when I’m chewing food etc. What do we do when it feels like everything is going wrong all day and we don’t feel God’s goodness? What are we feeling now with the current coronavirus? Are we panicking as the world is? Or are we able to fully trust in God no matter what lies ahead? We must remember that His goodness hasn’t changed. NOTHING changes God’s love for us and goodness to us!

I was wanting to write on this subject two weeks ago, but felt like I didn’t have the time just then to write on this deeper subject, so I wrote up something else and pushed this off till I could give it the attention it deserved. And I’m pretty sure God had something to do with it, because in the meantime, our Deacon preached a message entitled, Why Bad Things Happen To Good People. I so needed that message in my own life, besides it giving me lots of notes I could use to blog!

Quite awhile back in my devotional book, Prayers For A Simpler Life, the following sentence made a real impression on me. God’s goodness is not measured by the good things that come into my life. Why does it feel like it does have something to do with it? You know what I’m talking about don’t you? When my health is great, there’s money to pay the bills, the children pleasantly cooperate, and we find out our taxes aren’t nearly as high as we expected, it’s easy to say “God is so good!” Yes He is, but does this then insinuate when adverse things happen that God isn’t good? No! We absolutely cannot start thinking like this. But it’s something I greatly struggle with. Many times in the midst of severe struggles, I would pray “God, show me Your love!” “Show me You care!” But I’ve started praying “God help me trust Your love. Help me believe You’re still good.” I know, I know, there’s so many verses in the Bible that speak of God’s love and goodness, but in my darkest times, especially when I’m struggling with depression again, my mind finds it hard to comprehend that!

Job was an upright man, yet was severely tested. In the first chapter of Job, we read how Satan had to first get permission from God for the adversities he wanted to bring into Job’s life. That’s something we need to remember too. Any suffering we as God’s children face, must first pass God’s inspection, so to speak. And sometimes we think things are really bad and then it only gets worse! How can we keep our focus and remember it doesn’t mean God has forsaken us? Job 10:15 and 16 talk about how Job’s affliction just increased. That reminds me of a quote- Faith is not easy. It means not only believing God in times of trouble, but giving Him the freedom to increase that trouble. Not only trusting Him when our plans are disrupted, but trusting Him when our plans are crushed out of existence. Faith is believing that whatever comes into our lives is never beyond the sovereign control of the Almighty and that in His hands it can be turned into our eternal benefit and blessing.

Some key points to remember are:

1. All suffering has its roots from sin back in the Garden of Eden

2. All suffering that Satan wishes to bring upon God’s children must first have the approval of God.

3. We have a desire to know why bad things happen. It’s ok to wonder why, but to demand an answer from God is wrong. Satan can use that as bait for us and we can become bitter when there’s no answer. Some ways are only for God to know. Isaiah 55: 8 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

4. No matter how great trouble we’re in, God’s grace is always greater! But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Ephesians 4:7

Now why do bad things happen to God’s children?

1. Some things are simply a reaping for sin

2. Some trouble is because we live in a fallen world. Romans 8:22 says For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

3. Some trouble is because we are capable of exercising our free will. We can choose to go outside of God’s plan.

4. Some suffering happens because of the laws of nature.

God also allows trouble so the unbeliever focuses on Him. What causes people to cry out to the Lord quicker than suffering and trouble? And for the Christian, God wants hardships and suffering to teach us humility and obedience, as well as to help us focus on the important things in life. God does not want us to rely on our earthly things. Maybe he sends a tornado or allows a house fire. How attached am I to ‘my’ things? Also, God wants us to learn to bless others through our own suffering. Most of all, God wants us to be refined. To still trust Him. To love and worship Him even when the dearest people or things are taken away from us. To glory in our tribulations.

Romans 5: 1-5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

It stands out to me when I see someone in severe affliction, someone who would have ‘reason’ to feel like God has forgotten him, to hear him say, that God is still good. Amid their adversity, they still find God being good and kind to them. Then is when someone saying, “God is good” is really attractive to me! Jerald’s uncle passed away a few years ago from pancreatic cancer. He was an excellent example of still voicing the goodness and blessings of God despite his own suffering. That can only be done when there’s a strong faith in God!

Lamentations 3:21-23 This I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Sometimes we must make a deliberate choice to trust in God no matter what! In the midst of all that’s heartbreaking or disappointing in our lives, we must choose to purposefully praise God for who He is. He is always good. He is loving and merciful, and we can always trust Him!

• The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him. Nahum 1:7

• There are those who would love to have your bad days.
• If we want an increase of faith we must consent to its testings.
• The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting Him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving Him when He seems distant. -Rick Warren
• All that God works in my life is good, even when it might seem as evil to me. -Faith Sommers

So is God still good no matter what He allows in our life? Yes He is!

God is good all the time! All the time God is good!