Category Archive

Discoveries.  We often make the most insightful discoveries about ourselves when our spirits are sorrowful.  While clarity may not come until a season of challenge has passed, the Holy Spirit has a way of bringing to our remembrance that which is most useful from that particular season. Whatever sorrows are endured, they have the potential to embellish personal character even though the means to them can seem overwhelming in the process.

God’s ways are not our ways.  Still God’s ways of love, kindness, and grace serve His children so each can become refined into the personal designs as He created.  Jesus’ death on the cross did not look like a way of great victory nor could it be seen as a triumphant act of love.  However, it was.  Love poured out of that ugly human ending.  That same love lives and acts today to accompany your spirit and mine in times of sadness and transitions.  He extends the peace that surpasses all understanding.  This is the way of our utterly loving and refining God.  May His love and peace fill your spirit.

Father of Purpose, Your heart knows how difficult it is for Your children  to live through loss and sadness.  You knew this would be so You sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Thank You, Father.  May Your own  receive a touch of renewal today to carry on.   May Your love envelop those in need of its shelter and its assurance. You have made it such that Your people are never alone.  Thank You for Your powerful and precious presence.
In Christ, Amen.

Citizenship for a Christian is not in this life.  It is above.  Yet the here and now does and shall present challenges that seem permanent.  They are not.  Everything changes in life—everything.  Only God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and The Word of God never change.  The pains and transitions that we experience in this realm as a Christian spirit have a connection to another time and place, all because of a relationship with Jesus. 

Whatever ails, presses, and disturbs one of Christ’s own, is a malady that He shares and suffers as well.  Because one belongs to Jesus, He will walk with and sustain the steps that must be taken even though they are heavy and seemingly endless.  Seasons will pass.  Carry on with the certainly that Jesus accompanies you.  He is there.  He promised He would be.  You are His and He is yours, for this lifetime and for the one that awaits you as one of Heaven’s dear citizens.

Jesus of Companionship, there are times when life gets so difficult that it seems too hard to manage, and it seems as though things will not improve.  Jesus, help those who feel strained by  life’s pain.  You are there to lean on and Your arm does relieve pressure and leads to a better tomorrow.  In Thee, Lord Jesus, Amen.

Do you hear Him?  Do you see Him?  The Holy Spirit, that is.  He is with you.  Yes, with you.  Sorrow, uncertainty, confusion, illness, despondency, do not—cannot—stop the Holy Spirit from moving in your life and in mine when we least expect it, when we do not feel it.  When Jesus told His people that He would send a comforter, the Holy Spirit came.  He rests on God’s people today with a force stronger than any tribulation and separation we face in life.

Life is filled with unanswered questions.  Life as a Christian is also filled with an undeniable presence:  The Holy Spirit.  Advance your faith walk today by trusting His presence with you.  Do not rely on your feelings to assure you He is there.   Rely on the promise of Jesus to assure you that you are not alone.  You have a supernatural guide walking beside you and dwelling within you.  Jesus said so, therefore, it is so.

Holy Spirit of wonder, You reside in God’s people as a living promise made to us by Jesus.  Holy Spirit, make clear to each of God’s children that whatever must be faced in our lives, we face them with You.  You are our company and comfort.  You are our guide and hedge.  Thank You for Your anointing and for Your keeping power over our lives.  In the Name above all names, Jesus, Amen.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life must not be underestimated.  The Spirit moves in its own way and timing; in ways humans are unable to see or discern.  This is true in every facet of a Christian’s life, which includes seasons of grief.

When endings come and certain challenges follow, it may seem as though the Spirit of Holiness is gone.  He is not.  He is present to guide, comfort, counsel, and help—just as before. However, grief numbs everything.  It is difficult to feel anything worthwhile.  But the Holy Spirit lives and moves beyond human limits, and links by love that which has purpose and meaning—even in goodbyes.

Lord of Reason, Your purposes are exact.  Come, Holy Spirit, to be with those who are in grief.  Comfort and reside in these needful hearts.  And by Thy might, grant a comfortable assurance that You are near, and that each is being carried by Your love in this season of goodbye to a time of purpose. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

One may not think of grief as an achievement.  A spiritual achievement, that is.  Yet, grief has all the makings for spiritual growth.  Grief’s ways are painful and arduous and seemingly unending.  But the sorrows we bear hold wisdom and purpose; revelations that shall only come in God’s timing.

 The God of all comfort and purpose sees the struggles we face.  He is with us in them.  As sons and daughters of God, His earthly and eternal purpose for us is to make us more like Jesus.  Sorrow is part of the process.  Sorrow is part of what grows us spiritually.  Through it all, He promised to be with us.  When it hurts, and when you cannot FEEL God, trust that He is still with you.  For He is.

Father of Life, Your promises are real.  Your proof of love is in Jesus.  By the might of Thy Holy Spirit, tenderize hearts this week to know that You are in the midst of any and every tear shed and in every step we take.  All this is asked in Jesus and for His sake, Amen.

Grief asks questions.   How could this happen?  Why me?  Why?  Who am I now?  How can I carry on?  The heart and mind seek answers but the unpredictability of grief is such that those answers are often long in coming and come during and after an emotional season of adjusting to a significant loss.

Every answer in life comes up to Jesus.  Whatever the questions, He is the answer.  He is there with you to guide you through the painful questions and be your support as answers come.  The Holy Spirit has a way of offering what we are to know and when we are ready to know it.  When grief asks its questions, be assured that Jesus is the answer.  Because of Him you are never alone as you seek answers and discover them.  In the process, He will furnish you will renewed strength and hope.   Trust Him.

Lord Jesus, our limited view is no match for Your perfect eyes.  Be our vision through grief’s stay.  Keep us mindful that every painful question we ask is one You long to answer with the love and presence of Yourself.  In Thy Name, Amen.

Job.  To think of his name is to think suffering.  Job’s life is an illustration of a man’s faith tried and tested because of multiple losses.  Even though the Lord God gave Satan permission to sift Job as wheat, Job came forth faithful to the God who had given him everything.   Therefore, it is no wonder that Job stands out as a unique figure and a model when we suffer in this age.

Job’s greatness was in his ability to hold on.  Yes, he was weak in every way; he experienced deep pain due to loss of health, loneliness, and grief.  But the one thing Satan was unable to take was Job’s ability to hold on to God.  Job is a reminder that we give up our faith or we hold to it—even if it is by a thread.  When grief and pain are penetrating, remember a thin thread of faith is sufficient to keep one connected to the invisible and  unbreakable bond with God.

Lord, sometimes we suffer pains so deep it seems impossible to go on.  Because of you, going on is possible.  By the might of Thy Holy Spirit, stir in us ample faith for the moment, and bring steady reminders that YOU are holding on to us.  In the clear Name of Jesus, Amen.

A new month.  A new beginning.  As August 2010 unfolds, it offers a new slate of hope and opportunity.  Oh, some of that opportunity will surely be concealed.  That is the way of God.  He often uses plights as the impetus to draw us closer to Him.  Nevertheless, there is opportunity disguised in problems and pain.  The key is to be vulnerable and surrendered to become closer to the Lord in the times of challenge or sorrow.

Jesus’ life was one of surrender to the Father’s will.  Although Jesus walked this earth as the Son of God, He lived human experiences and suffered human pains.  Jesus knows what it is to hurt and to yield; to empty Himself.   Whatever you face this week, the face of Jesus goes before you to meet the moments and the days.  Trust that.  Acknowledge that The Son’s example to surrender to God’s will is the same example we are given to follow.  When our relationship with God through Christ remains kindled by reliance and trust, then august God keeps warm a hope that pain and circumstances cannot cool.

Jesus, You have shown us how to live by the way You did—staying close to the Father.  Lord, bless Thy saints who hurt and are in need of healing with a touch from You.  Awaken hope so that each may live certain they take every step with Thee.  Amen.

In the throes of grief, each day can feel like an overwhelming beginning.  Lackluster in hope and indifferent toward outcome, a griever approaches a new week trudging through it rather than walking through it with attention and intention.  Be encouraged: Jesus sets the pace with His attention and intentions.  He leads. Always.

Grievers in Christ can live to expect that the Lord will carry the day, carry the week.  He always does.  Grief makes one reliant on other strength; blessedly  Jesus’ love and strength are available 24/7.  Trust that.  You need not feel it to trust it.  Meet this day and each day of the week confident that the Lord is already there.  Go through this week with Him.  Because of Jesus, you may even find yourself able to glimpse His view to gain hope and a perspective not seen before; a perspective grief cannot diminish.

Lord, with You all things are possible.  Grief can take us to places we do not want to go and stirs feelings unwanted.  But Your desire, Lord, is to stay with us throughout every season of life, especially the sad ones.  Help us to take the steps we must and to rest as required.  Thank You for always being at our side.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.