Blessed Are The Poor in Spirit
In Matthew chapter 5, we find at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount a portion of His teaching that is commonly referred to as “The Beatitudes.” Over the next several weeks, we will be studying this passage of Scripture together as we seek to understand what it looks like for us to aspire to live in such a way as the following verses describe.
“Seeing the crowds, He [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the ...
In the Word: To Know What is Right
Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next few weeks, we will be meditating on Psalm 19 together. As we study these truths 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!
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?"...
Comfort For Hope Siblings: God Cares About Your Tears
Dear one, the loss of your sibling is such a tremendous burden for you to carry. The heaviness of loss has deeply affected you, even though you do not fully understand this grief. Death is still such an illusive and incomplete concept in your young mind. How can I help you understand?
These are heavy days for you. I wish I could shield you from the grief that fills our home.
There may be days when you feel unseen. As we all work through the loss of our precious baby in different ways, your own grief may not always be recognized. I am so sorry. I wish I knew how to ...
A Secure Future
It’s a strange thing to say that sorrow comes with a gift. And I hope that idea doesn’t come across as pithy or like something you’d see on one of those inspirational posters in a middle school counselor’s office or like one of those really bad sympathy cards with the pictures of clouds. But, when we experience grief in its many forms, it forces us to really think about what happens after death.
C.S. Lewis writes, “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”
Whether heaven exists ...
Mary’s Story
But Zion had said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me,the Lord has forgotten me’Can a woman forget her nursing child,that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”Isaiah 49:14-15
“God, you are the God of miracles. Lord, please let this be a mistake.”
When I realized the lines on my home pregnancy tests were getting progressively lighter, my heart broke. It was July 2019, my first pregnancy, and the burst of euphoria at learning I would be a mother swallowed me whole until the day I miscarried.
It was ...
A Prayer for the One Who Is Weary
The loss of a child is a heavy burden filled with so much complexity. The multifaceted intersections of grief often fill us with a weariness that is felt in the deepest recesses of our souls—emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical weariness. No part of us is left untouched.
Maybe today, the weariness in you is manifested in a struggle to get out of bed or perform simple tasks around the house. Perhaps you are experiencing a mental fog that leaves you hardly able to focus on anything. You might find yourself opening up your Bible to spend time with the Lord, only to ...
The Gift of Himself
There are lies about the hard things. I bet you’ve heard them. They use the language of Scripture to make them sound like holy things. But, oh, friend—they are lies and they come to deceive. They sound like this:
“If you are good enough, God will give you what you want.”
“If you claim the thing you want in prayer, and believe that you have already received it, God has no choice but to give it to you.”
“With enough faith, you can bring physical healing.”
“God will never give you more than you can handle.”
The lies sound like truth, and they sound ...
In the Word: A Treasure of Wisdom
Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next few weeks, we will be meditating on Psalm 19 together. As we study these truths 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!
“the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple”
Psalm 19:7b
READ:
Baby loss is something we could never have imagined before it happened to us. That parents could ...
Comfort For Hope Siblings: The Joy of Heaven
Dear Precious Child,
I see you there, smile on your face but pain in your eyes, longing for your Hope Sibling. You feel so many feelings, just like we do. You feel all the things within a matter of seconds, just like we do. Sadness, confusion, a bit of anger. Your mind races with questions as to why your meant-to-be sibling now lives in heaven instead of our home. You expected to spend hours snuggling on the couch and lending a helping hand with feedings and bath time. Instead, you now have memories of a casket far too small and a permanent resting spot which we plan to ...
Another Way
"I said to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.' As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight." Psalm 16:2-3
When you go through something hard, it strips away the fake. Have you noticed that? The harder the thing, the less tolerance I have for the frivolous. I want to get down to the essence of life, to spend time on the things that count. I think that’s where David is when he writes this Psalm.
I’ve wrestled with “Why?”—as if knowing the answer to that question would bring some kind of healing or ...
