1104 results for author: Ashlee Schmidt

Increased Reliance

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be meditating on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. As we study the truths found in these verses together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God's Word each week with us! “ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. ” 2 Corinthians 1:9 READ: They say that losing a child is one of the very worst things a person ...

Growing in Grief With Your Spouse

It was just a month or so after our first daughter had passed away and my husband went out for some fun with a buddy of his. I was a bit aghast at the thought. How could he go out and have “fun” when we had just lost our daughter? For much of the initial weeks after her death our grief had been quite similar. We had shed many tears together, felt each other’s pain and it seemed were navigating grief in the same ways. Until we weren’t. And simply because my husband’s expression of grief was different than mine, I thought my husband had stopped grieving. I most certainly had not. What I didn’t realize was how differently two people ...

You Know the Way

“…And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me…” John 14:4-6 Jesus assures the disciples that they know the way to glory. For, they know Him. Thomas is concerned here that there is a pathway He doesn’t know about. His fear underlies a concern we can have: we do not know how to deliver ourselves to glory. How do we get there? This has to be one of the most fragile topics of Christian life. For, though we are saved from sin and eternal death, ...

In the Word: Despairing of Life

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be meditating on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. As we study the truths found in these verses together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God's Word each week with us! “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of ...

Wait Upon God For Your Reward

My friends, there is one temptation in suffering that I want to warn you of. It is a warning straight from the pages of the holy Scriptures—straight from the breath of God: Do not think that when you are suffering, your righteousness now means nothing. Job’s Righteous Life Job knew he was a righteous and blameless man before God—not that he was without any sin, but that he always looked to God for restoration and always sought to do what was right before the Lord. His wisdom was sought after at the city meetings. He treated the poor and oppressed with generosity and kindness. He made offerings for his family—for purification. He was an ...

I Will Come Again

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:3 Jesus encourages the disciples in this passage that if he is going to the cross to prepare a place for them in the heavenly realms of glory, surely He would be returning to take his own to Himself. This is a promise. Jesus emphasizes His presence in this verse: the disciples would be taken to Himself and the disciples would be where Jesus is. Is that not our great comfort too, that we would be found ultimately in the presence of Jesus? To be taken to Himself in the original language is an idiom for “to my ...

In the Word: Burdened Beyond Our Strength

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be meditating on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. As we study the truths found in these verses together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God's Word each week with us! “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself." 2 Corinthians 1:8 READ: My husband and I moved three times ...

Dear Odelle: A Letter to My Hope Baby

My darling, From the moment I first knew of your existence, I have loved you more than words can say. Tears fill my eyes even now as I think of the precious gift of your life. What a tremendous privilege it is to be your mother. Though many years have passed since we were last together, you will always have my heart. Oh! Those precious days when your tiny frame was cradled within me! I can still vividly recall the wonder of watching my body begin to swell as you grew day by day, seeing you squirm about on the monitor during ultrasounds, and dreaming of the life we would share. I am forever grateful for each day we had together. And then the ...

In My Father’s House Are Many Rooms

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” John 14:2 The disciples are concerned, here, with the departure of Jesus. They know that He will be away from them. In the previous verse, they are called to remember their faith in Jesus so that their hearts would not be troubledj. Jesus does not discourage their desire for nearness. Instead, He says that He is going to provide a way for even greater closeness—a place for the disciples (and us) in heaven. This reality would provide for even greater comfort and calm for their hearts. Jesus seemingly uses a metaphor here, that ...

In the Word: Unshaken Hope

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be meditating on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. As we study the truths found in these verses together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God's Word each week with us! “Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:7 READ: Some heartaches and trials will never make sense this side of heaven. One of those ...