Obedience is hard when clarity is missing. This article speaks to the tension of sensing God’s leading without knowing the outcome, and how trust often grows not through certainty, but through taking the next small step with Him.
All in Quiet Time
Faithful When Quiet Time Feels Hard
Quiet time with God can feel discouraging when your mind will not slow down and your heart feels worn thin. You sit down with sincere intention, but your thoughts wander. The list of responsibilities presses in. Emotions you have been avoiding rise to the surface. What was meant to feel sacred ends up feeling messy.
Ten Minutes With God
A new year is a good time to make changes in our lives-things we know we need to do differently. As for me, I plan to slow down and to spend more quiet time with God. You may be saying, "I can't possibly put another thing in my day." Well, I have a suggestion.
Advent: Experience God in His Fullness
Oh, the sights, sounds, fragrances, tastes, and textures of my Czech family Christmases! Clove-studded oranges. Fresh, sappy, evergreen boughs bound into garlands and wreaths. Almond crescents, colorful lights, flannel stockings, crunchy peanut brittle. Fresh-baked hoska (braided sweet bread). Hot chocolate. Roasted chestnuts. Christmas caroling outside our front door. I didn’t yet understand most of the carols, but I sang along.
Advent: The Gift That Satisfies
In my first childhood home, our freshly cut Christmas tree stood in the middle of a platform of two four-by-eight-foot panels hinged together. Attached to the platform lay a figure-eight train track. My older brother crafted scenery, a town, and papier-mache mountains with tunnels to scale. We enjoyed many hours playing and trying to keep the cat from chasing and derailing the train! A few presents were placed on the floor next to the train display. As a traditional Czech family, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with a meal of homemade barley soup.
Advent: My Plan or God’s
For some reason, I was allowed to choose the family Christmas tree when I was about eleven years old. We planned a Saturday in early December—packed a sack lunch, poured hot chocolate into the Thermos, bundled up, and piled into our late-model station wagon.
Silenced
Have you been at a restaurant and the noise level is so loud that you cannot hear the person seated right next to you? You can see their mouth moving, but you have no idea what they are saying. Frustrating, right?
Reflections from a Well-Worn Classic
I treasure my collection of vintage books. One of these tattered treasures holds an honored spot on my bookshelf—the thirtieth edition of Prayer by Ole Hallesby, a Norwegian theologian.
In the First Waking Moments
What happens when you first have an awareness of waking up in the morning? To where or what does your mind turn? A dream you had? Your overfull to-do list? Your cell phone? Your current crisis? Your work commute in heavy traffic? Your health concern? I’d have to answer yes to all of these at one time or another.
A Harvest of Righteousness and Praise
Working my way through my garden the other day, pruning, picking, reveling in the care God took to create such beauty—how blessed we are! How little I know about the growth process, except that it begins with a seed.
God is Able
Bits of my tattered prayer journal’s cover stick to my hands after holding it. The yellowed pages identify needs of those dearest to me. It also contains various prayers I turn to when my own words fail to express my heart.
Hush and Listen
Ecclesiastes 5:2 jumped off the page at me. I realized it referred to public prayer, but how often did my private prayer time consist of me doing all the talking? I determined I would spend time listening.
Dig Down Deep
I sat behind a man whose hat displayed the phrase “dig down deep.” I thought, What would it look like for me to dig down deep into God’s Word?
Proverbs 2 enlightens us on how and where to start digging.
Jesus is With You – A Bird’s Lullaby
One night awake at 2 a.m., as I lay in bed, I tried to go back to sleep. I could hear a little bird chirping outside my bedroom window. I thought you cannot sleep either.
Breathing Worship
One reason I love our church is singing our praises together each Sunday. Whether we are on key or not, we have the privilege to vocalize our love for Jesus. Some enjoy quiet hymns others fast-moving praise songs. If we are truly showing the Lord how much we love Him, it’s worship!
Quiet Movement
What moves you?
I mean … moves you to action … compels you to do something.
Anger? Injustice? Anger can motivate.
Sauntering
As I longed to be out on the mountain trails this summer, the following quote by John Muir, writer and naturalist, caught my eye:
“People ought to saunter in the mountains, not hike! …people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, ‘A la sainte terre, to the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers.”
The Importance of Prep Work
If Jesus took the time he needed to get on board and ready for the day, how much more do we need to do the same thing. Spiritual readiness does not happen by accident, we must be intentional about it.
When My Heart Burns
“Mommie, my heart hurts. I think it’s Jesus kicking it because He wants in!” my granddaughter announced on the way to school. Did she feel preschool anxiety or had God created an opportunity for a spiritual conversation?