Quote of the Week | To Love and Be Loved

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courage, God's love, inspiration, Love, strength

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu

What would life be like without people to love and to love us back? I’m extremely blessed in that I have never gone a moment in my life without knowing that someone loves me. It’s experiencing a constant and unconditional love like this that fuels my response of loving them back in the same way.

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My Theme for the New Year

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dialogue, God, inspiration, interactive, new year, prayer, resolution, theme, word

 

 

For the past few years, I’ve been asking God for a special word or theme that He wants me to focus on during the new year. Last year, it was “loving others with an unconditional love and compassion”; the year before that it was “abiding in Christ.”

How to Stop Feeling Alone in a Room Full of People

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alone, God, inspiration, introvert, Love

Check out this amazing post by Brandon Adams about how to stop feeling alone. Honestly, this is one of the biggest things I’ve struggled with all my life, and the only thing that has truly been the answer to that problem is what Brandon talks about in his post. So I hope you are encouraged like I was.

Brandon J. Adams

We all can feel alone even when surrounded by our greatest fans.

You probably know how this goes. Moments come where we feel something unshareable, something that seems to set us apart from the gathering. It might be a pain, or it might be a joy. Whatever it is, we know the others aren’t feeling it. It’s stuck inside us.

It’s the worst feeling.

Finding someone like-minded to us is cause for celebration, along the lines of finding a vein of gold on your property. But they seem few and far between. Our struggles pull us toward isolation.

This is often our God-shaped hole. There are parts of us that are just too deep for any human to reach. Those needs belong on the broad shoulders of God.

However…God Himself did not intend for humans to live alone. In a stunning act of humility, He designed us to need each other as well. (It’s also one of His tools of sanctification…

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Asking, Seeking, Knocking: Why Don’t We See Answers?

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answers, ask, asking seeking knocking, door, inspiration, knock, matthew 7:7, opened, scripture, seek

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

~Matthew 7:7-11

Matthew 7:7 may be one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, and yet, ironically, one of the least to be actually understood and carried out in a believer’s life.

Why do I say that? Well, in my limited experience, I’ve heard that verse quoted and seen it engraved on plaques and statues, hung in churches and homes, and adorning jewelry and pictures to no end. But very rarely have I heard a Christian talk about the concepts of that verse as being real and true in their life, about how God has been rewarding their diligent practice of asking, seeking, and knocking.

14 Things About Life I Wish I Could Tell My 14-year-old Self

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advice, future, Identity, inspiration, teenager, younger self

By Arkady on Unsplash

I think out of all the awkward teenage years, fourteen is one of the most awkward. It’s just the worst. It’s right in the transition stage between childhood and adulthood; you’re still feeling like a kid in many ways, but your mind and body (not to mention your family, friends, and culture) tell you you’re not one anymore. So you shift hesitantly into “adulting mode,” but the minute you do, you start skidding out of control and bumping into anything and everything with the klutzy grace only a teenager can manage.

Yeah. You need some serious help. You probably have parents waiting to impart a wealth of wisdom and advice, but sometimes there are things about life that just can’t or won’t be learned from parents. Sometimes a true grasp of these things will only come through many years of trial and error in the classroom of life.

At any rate, don’t you wish 14-year-old you could have reached into the future and had a nice chat with your mature, responsible grown-up self? You’d probably have a better chance than anyone else of actually jolting some sense of seriousness into yourself.

When God Reveals Himself in Simple, Unexpected Ways

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creation, creator, God's presence, inspiration, nature, purpose, revelation

If you’re like me, you may have wished more than once that God would reveal Himself to you in a grand, thunderbolt-like, voice-in-the-sky gesture. Maybe you’ve told Him that, too.

“Lord, I just want a sign from you; just reveal yourself to me in a clear, undeniable way so I know you are here with me and that you have a great purpose for me.”

Maybe you then turned away resigned to silence, in fact, not really expecting any sort of response at all. In reality, perhaps you were just venting from a long, hard day and weren’t directing your words toward God seriously.

But whether or not you realized it, He did respond to you.

Crossing Over the Great Wall of Fear

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anxiety, fear, God, inspiration, Jesus, Love, victory

First of all, uh…no, I did not get this post out when I was planning. Here’s an apology for being over three weeks late. But in my defense, in those weeks, I’ve started a new job, or maybe two new jobs, if you want to get technical; I’ve been planning and preparing for a two-and-a-half week long trip to Europe with my sister that we are leaving for on Tuesday; and just a lot of other stuff thrown in there too. In other words, I’ve been busy.

However, I’ve also spent a lot of time laying out my thoughts for this post, so I really hope it will be an aid and encouragement to you! Winning the battle against fear is a topic that I believe we as Christians need so badly and seems to be often overlooked in our circles as a legitimate problem to address.

Quote of the Week | The Other Side of Fear

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dreams, fear, george addair, goals, inspiration, motivation, Quote of the Week, quotes

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

– George Addair

I saw this quote recently and it’s become one of my favorite inspirations to remind myself of whenever I fall into worry or anxiety about my circumstances.

I’m writing a longer post about fear that I’ll put out later this week, but for now, just think about that statement. Really let it sink in. Then go and be victorious in everything you do the rest of the week.

It’s amazing what you can do when fear is no longer a factor.

 

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Hope you enjoyed what you read! Feel free to add your personal thoughts in the comments below. If you haven’t already, check out my About page, and I’d love it if you subscribed to my blog as well! That way you won’t miss any of my future posts, and you’ll completely make my day.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Grace So Glorious | Reblog

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God, grace, Identity, inspiration, Jesus, Love, truth

I encourage you all to read this amazing, uplifting post that I found today.

If you think you’ve blown God’s plan for your life, rest in this: You, my beautiful friend, are not that powerful.

A Look Into Why I Believe Following God is the Only Way

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believe, following God, God, God's promises, inspiration, my philosophy, reflections, truth

A couple weeks ago I posted a list that I made of God’s promises and truths about various issues, which has sort of led to this follow-up post.

While writing out that post, I started thinking, “What if there’s someone out there who isn’t even sure if they can trust God and His promises about life? I mean, what if they are reading about this list of scripture promises and they don’t even bother to check it out because they don’t care about, believe in, or trust the Person behind those words?”

So if that sort of describes you, then these are my thoughts for you.

This is a look into my perspective on God, why I believe in Him and His control over my life despite the hardships, confusion, uncertainties, and disappointments I’ve encountered.