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Faith Gives Me Hope

~ Encouragement to live with true joy and peace in the midst of hardship.

Faith Gives Me Hope

Tag Archives: Bible

“Your eyes are windows into your body.”

15 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by faithgivesmehope in bible, Christian living, encouragement, special needs, The future, Uncategorized

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Bible, change, Children, Christian Life, dreams, emotions, future, God, God's word, Healing, hope, Joy., Parenting, peace, prayer, promises, Rest, Scripture, strength, understanding, wisdom

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“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! Matthew 6:22-23 MSG

I’m wondering what it’s like to be in a “dank cellar”because  I’ve never had a cellar before, let alone a dank one. Dictionary.com describes dank as “unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly.” I imagine most cellars, like basements, tend to be dark as well. Imagine our bodies being unpleasant, chilly and dark, in our souls. I was thinking about examples of what living with blinds on my windows (eyes) has looked like in the past as a parent of a special needs child. I’m not proud of them but here we go: Not being able to see the complete purpose for my child, thinking I’m alone and no one understands, closing myself off to relationships because their family was “normal”, lack of faith and prayer, feeling like I am a horrible parent, anger towards others who are not compassionate towards me, etc. Fortunately I’ve grown tremendously the last seven and half years.

What I’ve learned is that in pain we truly know and see God. We grow and can end up thriving if we can just learn to give up complete control. To say to Him I cannot even get to lunch time with out You leading me, comforting me and teaching me. Sometimes He puts us in a situation, or life does, where we literally cannot stand on our own two feet alone. Where our souls are in so much pain that the only thing we can do is succumb to that pain or reach out to God and say I cant do this, please help! Beautifully put by Ann Voskamp in one of the most important devotions of my life One Thousand Gifts “The vows of the Christ, they are covenant, and He lasts when we lose everything else and all the gifts are in Christ alone.”

To see light and be the opposite is to open our eyes wide to God’s gifts and beauty. Then everything is a gift and can be used by God for good or to show us Himself in such a real way that we’ve never seen Him before.

Strong medicine…and conviction.

10 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by faithgivesmehope in bible, Christian living, encouragement, Enlightenment, Heaven on earth, motherhood, Parenting, special needs, The future, Truth, Uncategorized

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anxiety, Bible, change, Children, Christian Life, confidence, dreams, emotions, fear, feelings, friendship, future, God, God's word, help, hope, journal, Joy., mood, Parenting, peace, prayer, promises, Rest, Scripture, Special Needs, state of mind, strength, understanding, wisdom, worry

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In Matthew 5 Jesus started his first teaching, blessing people…and teaching us how to live blessed lives.

The conviction is strong reading Jesus’ first teachings. The part about “gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it” (Matthew 5:38-42 MSG) is a real whopper when you think of defending yourself against suit. “Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer.” Wow! Energies! Of prayer! I love this translation in The Message Bible. Think about all the energy we put into things in our lives. Our relationships, homes, jobs, looks, etc. What if we put that much energy into our enemies?

I feel convicted especially on this point. At a time I was most vulnerable, learning to be the parent of a fragile child, a close person in our lives offended us at every meeting and it became so unbearable that we invoked boundaries against this person. Looking back I wish I had kept turning the other cheek.

When you are struggling from PTSD and anxiety just making it through the day is so difficult. Then add in an outside source of stress who, seems not to understand how the earth shattering things happening every day in your life are seriously effecting you and seems more concerned about their own opinion of your life, and you want to run for the hills.

I hope God can work a miracle for this relationship in the future and I pray for God’s continued conviction.

Here is a link to read Matthew chapter 5 in The Message translation, I really enjoyed reading the whole chapter in this translation. https://www.bible.com/bible/97/mat.5

Matthew 5:
3“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
4“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
5“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
6“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

Combat Recalling Disappointments

03 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by faithgivesmehope in bible, Depression, encouragement, motherhood, Parenting, special needs, The future, Truth, Uncategorized

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anxiety, Bible, Children, confidence, emotions, feelings, future, God, Joy., Parenting, peace, prayer, promises, understanding

black-and-white-person-woman-girl-mediumDisappointment:
Sadness or displeasure caused by the non-fulfilment of one’s hopes or expectations. oxfordictionaries.com

“…[and cease recalling disappointments]. For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide [even] until death.
Psalm 48:13-14 The Everyday Life Bible

I keep feeling this tug in my heart to grateful. I’m sure I’ve read this psalm before but it never stood out to me especially before today. Part of being grateful, I suppose, is to cease recalling disappointments. I find when I start my day out with gratefulness to God for my blessings I have a happier outlook throughout the day. Now I’m wondering how I should combat recalling disappointments and what the result will be if I do…

Disappointments come in all shapes and sizes, parents of children with special needs especially deal with disappointments, every day. People deal with disappointments at work, with family and with friends. They can make us feel hopeless and gray, like nothing will ever go our way.

How comforting it is to know that our God is God forever! That our God will be our guide until the end! If it’s the only thing you take comfort in today let it be that God is there guiding you, even in the midst of parenthood and all the disappointments we may face, He is there, right beside us.

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Psalm 62:5 NIV

Grasping a fact, about anxiety

12 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by faithgivesmehope in bible, Christian living, Depression, encouragement, Enlightenment, motherhood, Parenting, special needs

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anxiety, Bible, change, Christian Life, confidence, Deborah M. Coty, dreams, emotions, fear, feelings, future, God, hope, Joy., luke, NASB, NIV, Parenting, Scripture, Too Blessed To Be Stressed, worry

Is your mind ever so preoccupied with worry that you miss what’s happening right in front of you? Mine is quite often! Worry over my daughter’s future, worry about changes at my husbands job, worry I’m not a good enough parent or my hidden dreams will never be fulfilled…

“Worry can change us in intangible ways: negative, personality-altering ways. Our joy drains away like water in an unplugged sink, and hope is replaced by angst and dread.” Deborah M. Coty

I love the following scripture, Luke makes it seem very simple…”Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing why do you worry about the rest?” Luke 12:25-26 NIV

I also love the way Deborah M. Coty sums it all up with a fact I never thought of before reading her book Too Blessed To Be Stressed. “Be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6 NASB) takes on a whole new meaning when you grasp the fact that anxiety does absolutely nothing for you.”

Lord help me not to be anxious for anything but to wait on you. Give me hope, keep fear and anxiety far away from me, during this season of my life. Amen!

if you haven’t read Deborah’s book Too Blessed To Be Stressed I highly recommend it. It made me laugh and cry and helped me gain God’s perspective when I was in an anxiety riddled time of life. Here is a link to her website if you want to check out her books. http://deboracoty.com

Thanks for reading…God bless!

Age = Wisdom…And a few new wrinkles for this 30-something gal!

11 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by faithgivesmehope in Christian living, encouragement, motherhood, special needs

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30s, Age, Bible, Children, Christian Life, confidence, emotions, future, getting older, God, God's word, hope, NIV, understanding, wisdom

When we are young adults we fear getting older…but the older I get the more confidence I have in myself and I look forward to the future more now that I ever have!  I’m thankful for the things I’ve experienced and the people God has put into my life…it’s all because I’m aging😉

“Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?”
‭‭Job‬ ‭12:12‬ ‭NIV‬‬
http://bible.com/111/job.12.12.niv

My Emotions ~ God’s Promises

19 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by faithgivesmehope in Uncategorized

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Amplified Bible, Bible, Christian Life, coffee, emotions, Facebook, family reunion, fear, feelings, God, God Cares for us, God's word, help, help in time of need, journal, Joyce Meyer, meltdown, mood, normal kids, peace, prayer, promises, sound mind, state of mind, strength, The Everyday Life Bible

So there is this family reunion coming up in August that I have been planning to attend with Tori.  The last couple of months though I have had this fear that I will not be able to handle (emotionally) being there, around all the “normal kids”, without having a meltdown every day.  If you have a child like Tori you understand that for her to play with the other kids I have to help her almost constantly.  Kids start playing in one area and in the next second they are running off to another room or outside leaving Tori there by herself: enter mom to help her walk to the next play area and make sure she doesn’t get trampled on or left out.  Not to mention the comments I have already heard from other kids recently: “if you want to play with me you need to learn to walk”, “she falls a lot” and then the stares when she does not understand what is going on…of course they are only kids so I do not blame them for noticing her differences.  Now I am not sharing this so you will feel sorry for me but rather sharing to vent and then to share the encouraging things I have read or thought this morning while contemplating if I really want to make this week long trip.

I sat down with my coffee and my phone and yes my Bible and journal were close at hand as well but I was not really in the mood to hear what I needed to hear yet!  Coffee is most essential in the mornings!!!  I opened the Facebook app on my phone to see what is going on in cyber world and Joyce Meyer had recently posted this: “Fear always tells you what you’re not, what you don’t have, what you can’t do, and what you never will be.”  Wow!  That was the first thing I needed to hear…fear always tells me what I cannot do.  I would say fear has been my biggest struggle in my Christian life.  In fact several weeks ago I called my mom crying because I did not think I could go to the reunion and while I was talking to her I realized it was really fear talking.  Here I was again this morning, sitting and crying, letting that fear creep back in!

Joyce Meyer’s verse reference to the above quote was Romans 8:15 so I opened the Bible.  What I came across while in Romans was another of her brilliant statements: “Do not believe your feelings more than you believe God’s Word!” page 1820 of The Everyday Life Bible.  I started thinking of all the promises in God’s Word that pertained to my current state of mind and the following prayer came out:

“Thank You Lord for your Word today – it is exactly what I needed to hear.  I know You have promised me peace, help in time of need and a sound mind.  I know I can do anything I need to do because You have promised me strength! Thank You for caring for me affectionately.  Please help me to learn to rebuke fear and learn to live by Your promises instead of being led by my feelings and emotions.  Thank You, Lord, for your promises!”

Peace: Isaiah 26:3, Amplified Bible (AMP). You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.

Help in Time of Need: Hebrews 4:16, King James Version (KJV), Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Sound Mind: 2 Timothy 1:7, Amplified Bible (AMP), For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

Strength: Philippians 4:13, King James Version (KJV), I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

God Cares for us Affectionately: 1 Peter 5:7, Amplified Bible (AMP), Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.

I am so thankful to have a God who encourages and strengthens me for my day ahead!

 

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