Transformation
Encouragement on how life's trials and struggles can lead to the transformation that will shape your heart to be more like Christ, bring greater joy, and usher in the fulfillment you crave.
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5 Morning Routines to Help You Start Your Day With God
Autumn rain hangs from the spruce boughs like glass beads. Cleansing the sleepy earth, it feels like God’s invitation to begin again. I’ve been thinking about my rhythms lately—analyzing the morning routines that are working for me in this season as well as the ones that aren’t. The Importance of Morning Routines Last week, I felt tempted to return to self-effort in an attempt to restore some off-kilter areas of my life. However, this morning, the ivory mist reminds me that a Spirit-filled life is not built around willpower but around rhythms. The rhythms we establish ultimately make up our lives. 5 Morning Routines to Help You Begin Well If…
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7 Empowering Scriptures on Insecurity
Most of us deal with insecurity. This week, let’s take a few minutes to explore the ways comparison keeps us from fulfilling our God-given assignments and explore ten powerful Scriptures on insecurity. 7 Empowering Scriptures on Insecurity Are you feeling insecure today? Let’s look at what God’s Word has to say about overcoming insecurity. 1. Psalm 139:13 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” God created you just the way you are to fulfill his unique purpose for you in this world. You might feel like you don’t have what it takes to step into the calling he has placed in front of…
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How to Be Gentle With Yourself
Do you need to learn how to be gentle with yourself? If so, you are in the right place. Today, we’ll have an honest conversation about what it looks like to treat ourselves with kindness and gentleness. I’ve spent most of my life being unreasonably hard on myself. I stand in front of mirrors, roll my eyes, and commit to more rigorous ab workouts. I regularly push myself beyond exhaustion and feel guilty for taking naps—even after staying up all night tending to fevered children. Often, I tell myself to suck it up, try harder, go faster, and give more. You might not push yourself through exhaustion or condemningly grab…
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How to Be Still and Know That God Is With You
The shaded canopy at the trailhead fluttered to the ground, one golden leaf at a time. The way the pale light filled the forest felt like an invitation to be still and know that I was in the presence of God. I was in the woods because I’d grown weary from juggling the many commitments in my life. I was desperate to quiet my soul and draw close to God. You probably know about the exhausting effort of juggling your commitments. Your arms grow weary, and you desperately need rest. In an attempt to rest in God’s presence, you go to a quiet place, but your mind refuses to rest.…
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Knowing Jesus: Four Ways to Go Deeper in Your Relationship
The peepers sing their sweet serenade while raindrops crackle like fire licking up a pine bough. I search the skyline for a hint of lingering daylight and breathe a prayer that God will take me deeper on this journey of knowing Jesus through experience. “What do I need to know as we prepare to head into the summer season of noise and activity?” I pray. The words of Philippians 3:8 come to mind: “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” I’m…
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Two Ways to Fall More Deeply in Love With Jesus
The old sycamore leans over the icy creekbed with shoulders washed white by the weather. A pine squirrel watches us from a crook in the sycamore’s gnarled elbow, and I stop to get lost in the moment. Closing my eyes, I inhale the scent of the forest in winter and pray a quiet prayer that I might learn to embrace my moments and fall more deeply in love with Jesus in the process. The past few years, I’ve been on a journey to slow down. I’ve been asking God to help me live with less grit and more grace. (You can read about this journey right here.) And in the…
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How to Transform Your Life With Listening Prayer
I slip into the woods on a Thursday evening to get lost in the chatter of the pine squirrels, the southbound honking of the Canada geese, and the kind of listening prayer that shapes a woman from the inside out. Autumn days are getting shorter in these parts. The afternoon sunshine foreshadows the coming months of darkness. There are whispers of vermillion on the tree line. I sit in silence to admire a row of golden aspen and read the words of Dallas Willard. His book Hearing God is changing the way I approach prayer: “Hearing God? A daring idea, some would say—presumptuous and even dangerous. But what if we…
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3 Questions to Ask If You Want a Deeper Relationship With God
I sit by the sliding glass and force myself to stay for ten minutes of silence and semi-solitude. I’ve been sitting by this glass intermittently for several years now, trying to incorporate rhythms that will teach me how to have a deeper relationship with God. Most of the time, nothing spectacular happens by this window. I watch the poplar leaves wave mitten-like hands at the dawn. The slow fade of verdant wildflower fields captivates me as summer slips into the cool days of autumn. The Psalms help me lift my eyes to the work of God’s hands. This particular morning, I’m met with a surprise out the window. A grey…
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How to Grow in Faith: 5 Things You Can’t Take With You on the Journey
I sit beneath a salmon sunset and tell God I want to go deeper with him. A certain pattern of behavior comes to mind, but I dismiss it quickly. I want to learn how to grow in faith, but I’m not willing to let go of the habits holding me back. Maybe you can relate. You know how it feels to ask God what he wants you to surrender into his hands, only to butt up against a bad habit you don’t really want to release just yet. I sit with my desires as the coral-streaked sky fades to inky black night. Ultimately, when it’s time to return home and…
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Why Dying to Self Is the Gateway to the Fullest Kind of Life
A vase of salmon-colored zinnias rests on the dining room table the day my friend speaks the words. She tells me motherhood will be an adventure in dying to self. I’m eight months pregnant with our first child, and my friend’s words aren’t at all encouraging. I’ve been sick for eight months. I feel like I’ve died a thousand times throughout this pregnancy. Imagining life getting worse before it gets better is nearly enough to send me over the edge. I smile politely and pray my friend is wrong. Ten years later . . . That conversation took place more than ten years ago. As I reflect on the past decade,…