Life is hard. Relationships can be messy. Pursuing your dreams can be a challenge. The work to “make ends meet” can test your strength and endurance.
Try again. Peter James and John were fishermen in Israel. Hard workers, their livelihood relied on each night’s catch. And sometimes the catch just wasn’t there...
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Typically I look forward to the new year. A time to hope and dream. A time to toss the old and embrace the new. But this year was different. I’m facing uncertainties in 2024 and I realized there was an element of fear in my heart.
Can I meet the challenges? Dodge the potential punches? Ride the roller coaster that “new” and uncertain sometimes brings? Instead of excitement, I was reluctant to dream too much, hope too big... Is it worth it to go the extra mile? Does God – or anyone else for that matter – really notice when you go above and beyond? Extra hours put in at work to complete a project, volunteer work at church, even the sacrifices you make for your family can sometimes seem ignored or unnoticed. Is the extra effort worth it?
Doubt is a funny thing. It can masquerade as justified concern or prudent cautiousness. It can be the OCD force that makes you line up all your ducks before you act on what God has called you to do, right here and right now.
Doubt can hold back the strongest of us when it dresses as an imposter syndrome... Are you afraid of snakes? I used to be. But something’s changed. I’ve changed. I was helping my daughter move a blueberry bush this week. Hiding in the roots was a snake. Granted, it was small, but still—a slithery snake.
Normally it would cause me to run for the hills... Has life become uncomfortable? Are you feeling out of sorts—even on the verge of tears—and can’t put your finger on why? You’re desperate for a breakthrough of SOMETHING but you don’t know what that something is.
Is God birthing something in your soul? “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 NLT Are you in need of mending? I’ve never considered myself brokenhearted, but I suppose I am. It’s nigh impossible to travel through this life without wounds and scars. I do my best to practice spiritual heart health. To not be easily offended when a hurtful word or act has been thrown at my heart, but rather to offer forgiveness when a wrong has been done... I asked for a dry road. In fact, I breathed that prayer before I even got into my car to return home from a weekend trip at my parents. The weather report said “stormy” but I believed God could clear that storm out of my way for a safe, uneventful trip home.
And then it started to rain. What’s your biggest need right now? It could be spiritual, emotional, physical, or even career related. We’ve all been there. Stuck, stalemated, absolutely at the end of ourselves.
I don’t know what your desperate place is, but I want to encourage you that now is the time to believe. I realized the other day that I had let an important aspect of God’s word slip through my fingers.
I was standing in a church service (which is a great place for self-realization) and it hit me. It may have been caused by the uncertainties of the pandemic... or I may have simply let my worries and doubts push the truth out of my heart. |
Laura WoodworthWhat’s your dream? I pray you will be inspired and encouraged to pursue all God has for you. Now, more than ever, we need people of faith to go, do and become the light for the world. Archives
March 2024
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