Devotionals for the Heart: When God gives you space to struggle

Space to Struggle
A devotional by Tessa Huckstep

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”

–1 Peter 5:10 (KJV)

Have you ever heard it said that if you help a butterfly escape his chrysalis, he will die shortly after?

It is difficult to watch the butterfly struggle to push out of its chrysalis. We don’t enjoy sitting back and watching difficulty or suffering. But it is this struggle that strengthens the butterfly and prepares it for the future.

This past year at university, I had a professor who would not answer all my questions. After I asked a question in class she would say, “Hmm, that is interesting. We should explore that.” I knew by the look in her eyes that she knew the exact answer to my question, but she wanted me to figure it out on my own. At first, I was baffled that she would not just answer my questions. Answering questions is what teachers do! But after researching my questions and coming to answer them on my own, I understood why my professor would not just give me the answer. I learned so much more through the process of searching for the answer than I would have if she would’ve given me the answer as soon as I asked the question.

In the career field of Education, there is a certain area of learning that all teachers strive to guide their students toward. As students learn, they move toward things they are capable of understanding, but do not yet understand. In this area of learning, students struggle. However, the place of struggle is the optimal environment for learning to take place. The best learning takes place during the struggle.

I have often been guilty of going to God and asking why He would allow me to struggle. It is okay to ask God questions, but it is not always easy to hear His answers. Sometimes, we struggle because in our struggle we are learning to lean on God for our strength–far more than we would without the struggle. Through our struggles, we are spiritually strengthened and more established in God’s love.

A butterfly must struggle out of its chrysalis in order to survive in its new and beautiful life. As Christians, we are learning to live a new and beautiful life in Jesus Christ. The struggles we go through are a natural part of life, though they can be painful in the moment. Take hope to heart as you remember this truth: After the struggle, you will be stronger and more established in your relationship with Christ than before and you’ll be better because of it.

Let’s Pray: Dear Lord, thank You for the struggles You send our way to strengthen us! Please help us to remember that our struggles are only for a season. You are preparing us for a new and beautiful life. Help us to look beyond our struggle and keep our eyes on You and trust that You are working all things out for our good. In Jesus’s Name I pray. Amen.

Song of Reflection: “Not for a Moment” by Meredith Andrews. Listen to it here.

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Author Bio:

Tessa Huckstep grew up in rural Illinois. She was born to Christian parents and has known Jesus Christ personally since the age of five. 

Currently, Tessa is attending community college and majoring in elementary education. In the future, she plans to teach in the public school system, hoping to bring the love of God with her.

Tessa enjoys being active in her local church. She serves as a co-teacher for the two-to-five year old class where there is never a dull moment.

It is Tessa’s passion to be a girl after God’s own heart and through her studying of God’s Word, Tessa longs to draw closer to her Savior. Through her writing, she longs to take others with her on this journey of faith.

Tessa loves all things Regency, needlework, and dainty teacups of every size.

When she isn’t writing or studying for exams, she can be found in the kitchen with more flour in her hair and on the floor than in the bowl, though the mess is always half the fun!

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Connect with Tessa:
Blog: https://beautifulbeloved937002841.wordpress.com/

Devotionals for the Heart: Quicksand

Be Still
A devotional by Erin M. Handley

“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.” – Matthew 7:7-8 (ESV)

Quicksand.

Imagine every visual example of quicksand you can think of. Unaware of your surroundings, you step into a situation that consumes you faster than you’re able to understand how you got in that situation to begin with. It is the surprise of the faulty foundation that catches you off guard. You are unable to physically move forward without the aid of logical thinking.

Your body flails, and you fight for life in an attempt to find your footing. But the more you struggle to get out, the deeper and faster you seem to sink. The physical quicksand can be a scary thought, but the mental and emotional quicksand many of us find ourselves in seems to feel just as bad as what we imagine the physical quicksand feels like.

We find ourselves in a struggle. We attempt to fight the thoughts and emotions that come with our situation. We struggle so much that we find ourselves deeper in the thoughts and emotions we were trying hard to avoid. We go from fighting them to being engulfed by them. Sometimes we get so stuck in the thoughts that consume us that we forget to remember the basics. We forget that the best way to fight is to simply be still. Our stillness gives us the opportunity to think more clearly and to simply wait on help. But whatever happens, it requires us to make the first move and take the first action of BEING still.

Being still is very different from doing nothing. Doing nothing seems to increase the thoughts and emotions that surround us. To be still requires intentionality and strategic thinking. To be still, we must focus on being still. We must collect ourselves. We must require everything that's in us—every fiber of our being—to be in alignment. We must tell our mind and body to get on the same page of being still.

And suddenly...it happens. We're still. Our body is still, our thoughts are still, even the situation seems still. But let’s be clear: being still doesn't change the situation. You’re still stuck. The difference now is that you have had enough time to observe the situation. After some thinking you realize you can't help yourself. There is no way to pull yourself up, and there is definitely no way to pull yourself out. You recognize you are incapable of fixing the situation or manipulating your circumstances to adhere to your deepest wills and desires. What's done is done, and you need help to get out of the situation.

But where is the faith?

We know Matthew 7:7-8 instructs us to go after what we want and that it is our responsibility to put in the action if we really want to receive the benefit. The Bible says in Matthew 7:7-8 (ESV) “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.”

Easy right? But let’s remember that James 2:26 reminds us that faith without works is dead. In the same way that we ask for the door to be opened, we have to actually desire for the door to open. Us simply formulating our lips to utter the words doesn't necessarily equate as us asking for whatever we're asking for.

This is faith. You have to really want your circumstances to change before they do. Those thoughts and emotions you may struggle with will not disappear until you are truly ready for them to go. Realign your thinking. Focus on what's more important. If for no other reason than simply allowing them the freedom to just 'be', you have to focus on the positive. You have to intentionally—with everything in you—tell your troubles where to go. You don't care where they go, they just can't stay with you, in your physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual space.

Let’s Pray: Father God, thank you! Thank you for allowing us the authority of our minds and hearts. Thank you for entrusting us with the responsibility to be good stewards of our thoughts and emotions. We recognize that we can’t always control things that happen around us, but we thank you for allowing us to manage the things we can control – ourselves. Father, we ask that you help us in our times of need. When we can’t find a way out, we look directly to you. But we ask that you remind us that our faith is our responsibility. You require that when we bring our requests to you that we must also have the faith that is double the size of the request. Lord, we desire to elevate our minds and hearts. Thank you for continuously giving us opportunities to grow closer to you. And when we are in our darkest hours, we ask that you remind us to be still, focus, and tell our troubles where to go. In Jesus’s Name we pray. Amen.

*Note from Alexis: Erin’s devotional today reminds me of this song “Be Still” by Steven Curtis Chapman. Listen to it here.

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Author Bio:

With an ever-growing desire to continually learn the Word of God and present teachings based on Biblical principles, Erin M. Handley is committed to her calling of teaching and inspiring others to ‘be more by doing more.’ With this in mind, Erin mentors young women and appreciates seeing the growth and change in the lives she impacts.  

While she sincerely enjoys mentoring and speaking to young people, she is most passionate about educating and empowering women from various stages of life about biblical womanhood and how to live out those principles in today’s world. 

For over 15 years, Erin has worked with youth and adolescents in the fields of mental and behavioral health, education, and ministry.

When reflecting on her experiences in ministry and non-ministry settings, her most memorable encounters have been those that allowed her the opportunity to teach the Word of God in a way that is most relatable to the audience she served in that moment. She has enjoyed writing since her youth, but only recently felt the call to share her writing with the world.

With an undergraduate degree in English and a graduate degree in Ministry and Pastoral Counseling, Erin M. Handley has been fortunate to be able to leverage her gifts and her passions throughout her career in Education.

Aside from reading, writing, and mentoring, Erin enjoys dancing, interior design, cooking, and most other activities which allow her to utilize her creativity.

Devotionals for the Heart: Loneliness

How my relationship with Jesus got rid of my loneliness
A devotional by Jessica Brodie

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”—1 John 4:7 (NIV)

Friendship was always a huge struggle for me. I was shy, I moved around a lot, I was a little socially awkward, and I had issues going on in my family that created a ton of turmoil within me—perhaps these are many of the reasons.

Still, it left me lonely. I never had that one “best friend,” and while I would make friends, I never had a close inner circle. As I became an adult, I’d hear about other women getting together to go shopping or grab lunch or do a girls’ weekend together, and a pang of envy would stab in my heart. What’s “wrong” with me? Why aren’t I likable?

Friendship always seemed out of reach for me. I felt so deeply isolated—on an island of my own. I was certain I was the only one going through this because everyone else I knew at least had a single friend or two. But me? Nope. I’d start to make friendships but never got past what felt like an invisible wall that blocked me from real depth. My best friends were in the pages of books I’d read.

Over the years, life happened. I had children. My relationship with the Lord deepened and grew.

And one day I looked up and realized I wasn’t lonely anymore.

Wait—what? I still didn’t have close female friends. On the surface, life hadn’t changed very much. What was the difference?

Jesus. That was the difference. It wasn’t that I didn’t know Jesus before. I believed wholeheartedly. But along the lines, belief became relationship, which is quite different.  And now, because I had a relationship with Jesus, somehow I didn’t feel lonely anymore. I felt complete.

It’s like before, I was always wanting to be a closed and perfect circle, fully connected, spinning round and around, but somehow there was a little opening, an open wound, in my circle, and all that love was spilling out like water from a hose. That’s why I never felt complete.

I didn’t realize it, but I think I’d been looking for my “other half” my whole life, that I firmly believed there was another person out there who would complete me, whether in a love relationships or a friendship—like that Jerry Maguire movie (“You complete me”).

But Jesus closed that hole, mended that gash, and with that my soul felt right. Jesus completed me.

With this realization came another, more painful one: how much of my energy had been going into myself. Ouch!

When I became centered on my Lord, I stopped being self-centered. With that, not only did I feel a million times better, but something magical happened: I began to attract friends like bees to honey!

You know that old saying, “To make a friend you’ve got to be a friend?” I used to think that meant acts of service or giving up all my time, but those can be superficial. What I’ve realized is that being a friend means giving yourself in love—full-on, sacrificial love.

Just like Jesus loved us.

Love means sacrifice. It means living out the greatest commandments, which Jesus told us are to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). Or, as I saw condensed on a T-shirt a few years ago: God first, others second, self last.

That was an impossible task before I had a true and deep relationship with Jesus, but somehow from that deep relationship with Jesus, everything else miraculously fell into place.

Because of that relationship with Jesus I knew how to love. I could love friends. I could love my children. I could love my husband. Fully and completely.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:10-13 that he had learned the secret to true contentment: that he can do all things through Christ who gives him strength. I’ve learned the same. My relationship with Christ is the only thing that gave me the inner strength to overcome my loneliness.

And when his light shines into that lonely darkness, it obliterates the darkness.

Today, I’m not lonely in the least. Whether I’m in a crowd or I’m by myself, it is well with my soul.

Jesus is love. Because I now have that love in my heart I’m no longer lonely, and now I can love others back, too, the right way. The Jesus way.

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Author Bio:

Jessica Brodie is an award-winning Christian novelist, journalist, editor, blogger, and writing coach and the recipient of the 2018 American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Award for her novel, The Memory Garden.

She is also the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism, and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministries team.

Learn more about her fiction and read her faith blog at http://jessicabrodie.com/shiningthelight.