“Trials reveal your true thoughts and desires, where you have been looking for life, where you have sought meaning, and where you have looked to give you hope.”- Paul David Tripp “The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that […]
“Scripture works to prepare us, not so we would live in fear, but so we will be ready for the things we all will face. God gives us everything we need so that we will live with realistic expectations and so that moments of difficulty will not be full of shock, fear, and panic, but […]
“People try to numb the pain of emptiness with things that make the hollow worse, not better. There are far more false comforters than real comforters in this area.”- Carey Nieuwhof Carey Nieuwhof concludes Chapter 13 of Didn’t See It Coming as he observes that the solutions we chase just end up introducing more problems. […]
“The problem with pain is that when you slow down your pace, often you have only your pain to focus on. And pain is selfish; even emotional pain demands your attention.”- Carey Nieuwhof As Carey Nieuwhof continues Chapter 12 of Didn’t See It Coming, he discusses factors four through seven that help people recover from […]
“Inner anguish . . . forces us to embrace God, out of desperate, urgent, need. . . . God is never closer than when your heart is aching.”- Joni Eareckson Tada “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”- Matthew 5:4 Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller conclude Chapter 11 of Boundaries for Your […]
Heart Made Whole (Zondervan, 2016) Christa Black Gifford — worldwide speaker, worship leader, and songwriter — penned her second book, Heart Made Whole: Turning Your Unhealed Pain Into Your Greatest Strength, in 2016. Since pain never goes away on its own, you must feel, embrace, and bring that pain to the Healer. For as long […]
“Whether you’re conscious of it or not, you know your emotional heart extremely well because it’s the part of you most closely connected to your pain.”- Christa Black Gifford “Behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wait for breaking of spirit.”- Isaiah […]
“Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words. They should remain open. Our only comfort is the God of the resurrection, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . .”- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer “Pain shields us from living a […]
“But here’s my caution: don’t be so focused on getting out of difficult circumstances that you don’t get anything out of them. Sometimes the very circumstances we’re trying to change are the very circumstances God is using to change us. . . . listen carefully to what God is saying during the tough times (emphasis […]
“Pain is a result of the curse, and it’s most often a symptom of sin. But sometimes it’s a gift from God. It’s the language that can’t be ignored. You can leave the Bible on your bedside table untouched. You can ignore desires, dreams, doors, promptings, and people. But you can’t ignore pain . . […]
“Nothing gets our full attention like pain. It breaks down false idols and purifies false motives. It reveals where we need to heal, where we need to grow. It refocuses our priorities like nothing else. And pain is part and parcel of God’s sanctification process in our lives.”- Mark Batterson “I would still have this […]
“Yes, we spend ourselves on what we value the most. Whether it’s money, time, energy, or emotions, we pour ourselves out on the thing that we deem most worthy of our devotion.”- Ann Swindell In Chapter 3 (“When Waiting Costs You Everything”) of Still Waiting, Ann Swindell discusses the high price of hiding. On a […]