True and Faithful

5 Ways to Approach Quiet Time When Life is Hard

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I remember praying with a friend through back-to-back hard. Her family was on mission in a country with an attempted coup, their monthly support had been cut and they were looking at a pile of medical bills from a summer-long health scare. Betsy de Cruz shares today about how to approach quiet time when life is hard.

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I’ve gone through seasons when I struggle to have a quiet time. Haven’t you?

Stress and a busy schedule can make it impossible to quiet our racing thoughts. When trouble weighs us down, or heartache seems to grow each day, we’re not able to focus long enough to even sense God’s presence, much less hear what He might want to say to us.

During times of trial, getting through the day can require all our physical and spiritual energy. Just when we need God most, we lack the strength to draw near to Him or the ability focus on prayer or Bible reading.

How can we keep showing up to invite God in when life is hard?

Maybe we need to first let go of our preconceived notions of what we’re supposed to do during our quiet time: follow a Bible reading plan, read a devotional guide, journal what we’re learning, and pray. Some days, we need to scale back and find simpler steps to reach out for God.

When life is hard, we need to embrace simple ways to invite more of God into our lives. I’m sharing 5 ways to approach quiet time when life is hard. 

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When Anxiety Flares in Grief: 4 Steps to Calm Anxiety

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Sometimes the trauma of grief leaves stubborn remnants, long after we’ve dealt with the hardest pain and missing. Christie Thomas knows deep grief wrapped in the hope of Christ. As a children’s author with a unique perspective, I asked Christie to share her story of anxiety flares in grief and 4 steps to calm anxiety. 

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I jogged through the park, keeping pace with the music in my earbuds. As I passed the fire station, something caught my eye. A nearly-crushed vehicle sat placidly in their back parking lot, probably for training purposes.

I stopped short, suddenly unable to jog any further. My heart pounded. Memories surfaced — memories I felt were physically choking me.

. . . police officers at the door late at night telling us my sister wouldn’t be coming home.

. . . pictures of a crushed car, the car I gave her the keys to that morning.

I stood there, face in my trembling hands, trying not to break down in the middle of the path, trying to breathe again, to slow down my heart rate.

I wasn’t used to losing control like this. It had been years since my sister’s death and I thought I had dealt with the grief. But this was an anxiety attack, triggered by the unwelcome sight of a crushed car.

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The Ultimate Guide to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

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Look around the stores and St. Patrick’s Day seems to be about lucky clovers, rainbows and leprechauns.

But the real Saint Patrick was a bold missionary who faced tremendous danger to take the gospel back to his enemies.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated every March 17 and it’s a great opportunity to explore the early church, missions, the Trinity and celebrate the legacy of the real Saint Patrick.

This post is chock-full of activities and resources for your ultimate guide to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

First, let’s separate fact from myth and look at the real story of the St. Patrick.

The Story of the Real Saint Patrick

Fun fact: Patrick was not Irish and nor born in Ireland.

St. Patrick was actually born in Roman Britain in the mid-400’s, in the area of what is now Scotland or Wales. He grew up on a farm and though his family was active in the village church, Patrick was not a believer.

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How to Hope in the Storm

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Hope sounds heady engraved on a necklace in the mall store but what about when hope is all you have? It’s then we realize how thin we’ve let our hope become. Shauna Letellier weaves Biblical narrative into hard places of hope and shares how to hope in the storm today. 

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It was an expensive, last-minute hotel reservation we didn’t want to make. It came with a seven-hour drive and a complimentary shuttle to the Mayo Clinic. With the help of a clinic scheduler and family members, my husband and I left our three sons with family, promised to get them home for their first day of the new school year, and scurried off to Rochester, Minnesota to get some answers.

For 452 miles I contemplated the appointment that might be the continental-divide of our lives.  As the highway markers zipped by, I gave myself a spiritual pep-talk.

“Now, be a grown-up Christian about this. No matter what tests reveal or what kind of spots appear on thermal images, God is with you. No matter the diagnosis or the prognosis, God is faithful. Tragedy and illness, tumors and injury, are part of living in a fallen world, and nothing you will discover in the next few days will change the inseparable nature of God’s love.”

My head and heart knew the facts. Although I chewed my cuticles into hangnails, I had a sense of calm. A strange lack of anxiety.

I felt like a bonafide “mature Christian.” No tears. No tantrums. After so many years of walking with Christ, I could finally demonstrate some semblance of stability, and I secretly wanted to congratulate myself.

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Praying for the Next Open Door

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Jackie Drew and her husband Rick work together in businesstry — their family business they see as ministry. If you’ve felt God leading you to something new, you’ll want to read Jackie’s story. With a comfortable job and house, Jackie shares what happened when they began praying for the next open door. 

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It was the fall of 2015, and I had just finished my 2 year commitment of co-leading a local mom’s group.  I loved serving other mommas, and I was really enjoying being a full time stay at home mom to our three kids.  Though it was a sweet time, I also felt like God was growing my heart for something else.

My husband Rick was working at a local oil and gas company.  When we first married in 2002, he had spent those beginning years getting his Masters in Finance, his CPA, and his CFA Charter, and he had been in business roles ever since.  

Rick had worked his way to the top of the ladder, and found it was pretty empty up there.  Having a certain amount of money saved in the bank and great bonus checks were nice, but they did not provide the security he hoped for.  He longed to do something more impactful, where he could truly make a difference.

During this season of unrest, we knew that God wanted us to do something different, but honestly, we had no idea what that was.  

I started praying a very bold prayer: “Lord, please open doors widely or close them loudly.”

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