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 ...
Lauren’s Story
My husband and I and our three small children moved from Nevada to Texas in the summer of 2014. Soon after, we were thrilled to learn I was pregnant with our fourth child. Our other three pregnancies and births had been so straightforward and we had no reason to think this one would be any different.
On November 14, 2014, my husband and I went to our 20-week anatomy scan. During the scan, my husband and I happily chattered away, totally oblivious to how long the doctor was looking at our daughter’s brain and heart. After the doctor finished the anatomy scan, she ...
A Prayer For the One Who Feels Envious
I see you and I’ve been there. More importantly, God sees you and hasn’t cast you out. The sin of comparison, jealousy, envy—it’s heavy, but it was also paid for with Jesus’ blood. You don’t need to hide it from Him, nor from this community. You can be honest and exclaim, “God this doesn’t feel fair that she gets to keep her baby when I don’t!” You can lament, “Lord why her and not me?”
My Anna died on October 7, and I was met with a close friend being pregnant the very next month. Not only was this a blow to my infertility struggle, but it was so ...
A New Name
I like the Psalms because they are honest. They’re joy and pain and longing and grief and anger and worship—all mixed up and raw, just like our hearts.
In college, I took a poetry class—I had been writing angsty poetry in a cool-looking journal since high school, so I thought I knew what I was doing. Turns out, I was pretty terrible. The problem was that my goal in writing was to “share” something kind of obscure and then spin it into something nice and happy. Because I thought that’s what Christians were supposed to be. Nice and happy. After getting paper ...
In the Word: A Revival
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 law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul”
Psalm 19:7a
READ:
Perhaps you are wondering if you will be under this veil of grief for the rest of your life—Will I ever ...
The Gift of Greater Witness
In Philippians 1:12-14, Paul talks about the joy of being imprisoned. He wasn’t joyous about his imprisonment. He was joyous because his imprisonment helped him spread the good news of Jesus’ salvation and encouraged fellow Christ followers to do the same.
I never wanted to be imprisoned in the jail of grief after losing my son. No one does. I think of Paul in a dark, damp jail cell sharing how God is good, faithful and always with him. The jailers and other prisoners didn’t think he was crazy. They believed Jesus was the salvation of the world. He shared and they ...
Meditate on Grace After a Panic Attack
Severe anxiety and periods of panic may have come to complicate your grief, adding more pressure to the pain of loss you already feel. Sister in Christ, take heart. You are holy and set apart by the grace of God, even today and even in suffering. We have discussed how Christ nourishes us in our anxiety and how the Bible gives us perspective as we face panic attacks and anxiety; today, we are discussing four biblical meditations for when you are recovering from a panic attack.
As you recover, dwell on these verses of Scripture that extol our God for His grace in our ...
