Fear

Facing The Storms Of Life

May 1, 2012 By Cyndi Spivey 7 Comments

I have to tell you, I’m not crazy about spring storms.

We’ve already had several tornadoes throughout our state that have left a lot of devastation.

Springs storms are a part of life, but I believe we face other storms in life and it’s important we know that Jesus is in control.

Death, divorce, financial difficulties, family problems, health issues~~all of these can be devastating storms.

Mark 4:39 says, “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”

I’m reminded in this passage of scripture, that no matter what storms come our way, Jesus is in control.

As Christians, we are never promised a life free of storms.

But knowing we have Jesus to help us through them, makes all the difference!

Here are some important things to remember when storms come your way:

1. Storms are inevitable!

We all have them and we need to be prepared.

That’s why it’s so important for us to spend time in God’s word every day.

When the storms come, and they will come, we are already in the habit of seeking Him daily.

2. Storms are unpredictable.

One day everything can be sunny and perfect and the next day we have a crisis. So where do you turn?

3. Storms are impartial.

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:45

We all face them. None of us are exempt.

4. Storms build our strength.

I don’t know about you, but the times I have grown the closest to Christ are through the storms.

The storms in my life have changed me and reminded me how much I need Jesus.

5. We need to be in the boat with Jesus.

We know storms will come so the best place to be is with Him.

Maybe the boat doesn’t seem safe to us, but if Jesus is in the boat, that’s right where we need to be.

Okay, I don’t like storms, but I do know they are a part of this journey and I choose to face them with Jesus.

What storms are you facing today? We would be honored to pray for you.

Filed Under: Encouragement, Fear, Hope

Blooming In The Desert

March 29, 2012 By Rachel Martin 23 Comments

There it was. A small sealed post card in the middle of the mail – underneath the pizza flier and between a couple bills – a white card, with my husbands name carefully written in pen on the front and the cancer center’s address on the upper left corner.

It was the reminder card.

I hate that card when it comes. Or at least I used to hate it. I know, I know, I used the word hate, the word I tell my kids to never really ever use, and here, on Sisters in Bloom I just spit out the word hate. But, you see, I really, really don’t like cancer, and in fact, I actually, honestly, hate it.

It was six years ago when my husband was diagnosed with cancer. We only had five kids then, and our then youngest, Caleb, was just a three month old baby. In those dark days and months I began to learn to seek the Lord in a way that I’ve never sought Him before. In that place of deep need I began to really understand the words — Blessed be Your Name — especially in those desert places of life. Cancer is a desert. But, sisters, in that desert I did find life, hope, strength, and growth.

You see, cancer may have tried to rob years of our life, but it was in those years I learned to fight. To get up when I had no energy to get going. To fall at the feet of the Lord in surrender. To learn to receive. To humble myself. To encourage. To believe. To have faith. To cherish the small things in life. To seek joy. To never take for granted a day. To say I love yous. To seek information. To pray boldly. To praise in all times. To cry. To really live. To not be afraid. To speak to others. To be real. To be. To praise when the world was so hard. To grow. To bloom in place that seemed so desolate.

Cancer is a journey, that Lord willing, I don’t want to ever walk again. For those of you walking it — I hate it with you. But, I will tell you, cancer did not steal our family of joy. It was now, in the early spring six years ago where we heard the words, treatment is done now go live life. Live life. Not in fear, not in worry, not with anxiety, not in thinking about the cancer every single day — even knowing we have to constantly monitor his cancer to make sure it doesn’t return — but live life in joy and utmost appreciation for today.

Sisters, today, today is a gift. I know that there are some of you reading right now who might feel lack of hope, or are in a terribly challenging place, or are hurting, and for that I am sorry. I will pray for you, and as I prayed for myself years ago, I will pray for joy in the midst of challenge. And I also know that some of you are content today and things are going well, and for that I rejoice and I pray also for you. You see, my prayer for you no matter what, my Sisters in Bloom, is that where ever you may be that you are given glimpses of joy, peace and hope in your everyday life.

That reminder card? I now look at it as a reminder to seek, to look, to reflect, to be grateful for the joy moments in life, and to remember those years of blooming in the desert.

Filed Under: Beauty In The Everday, Cancer, Fear, Gratitude, Hope, Joy, Prayer, Restoration

Dream Again…

March 28, 2012 By Jacque Watkins 14 Comments

“If you can imagine it, You can achieve it.

If you can dream it, You can become it.”

~William Arthur Ward

I’ve had dreams my whole life—dreams of who to become, whom to love, and what to accomplish.

But I haven’t always chosen to make my dreams a reality.

In college, I dreamed of being a physician. I majored in Biology and got A’s in almost all my classes. I graduated but never applied to medical school. I invited doubt, and lacked courage, and I let my dream die.

As a new bride, I dreamed of being married forever–of riding off into the sunset with my prince charming. I dreamed of a blissful marriage without work or difficulty. But five years later I was alone—the first person in my family to ever get divorced. I had entertained comparison, and killed my dream with my own choices.

And after that, I had a dream to have new friendships. But for years I was paralyzed with shame and afraid of rejection. I let fears strangle my dream.

I went for a walk the other day and couldn’t help but notice all the preparation for spring. The bees buzzed about, furiously gathering all the nectar they could find. The maple trees stretched their branches to the sky, lined with buds that would become the leaves of spring. And the plum blossoms soaked in the warmth of the sun, each one a precursor of fruit to come.

And while Southern California doesn’t have the freezing of winter, many flowers of beauty fully bloom only because of winter’s bitter cold. In winter they grow dormant–seemingly dead. Yet they endure the biting wind and the snow-covered ground. And it is that process that prepares for the utmost beauty–the cold and dormant-death, brings vibrant and glorious life.

And often when our dreams seem to die, it is as if we are in winter. Yet it’s in those moments there is the possibility of a new beginning—the potential blossoming of a new dream. And that new dream may have never been realized, had the other not died.

Fifteen years ago, instead of becoming a physician, I became a registered nurse. And instead of seeing patients briefly, I spend hours with them, caring for them intimately.

I am remarried and happy now, with realistic expectations of what a fulfilling marriage can be. We connect with intention, and serve together in a mentoring ministry to help others in their marriages too.

And after half a decade, I chose to forgive myself and shed my shame. I began to reach out to others with authenticity and trust, and now I have some wonderful friends.

Do you struggle with doubt and fear?

Have you had a time when it killed your dream?

I know how that happens, really I do.

But doubt and fear is not God’s desire for us.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)

God has given us the power to be aware of our doubts and fears with the power to hope in Him. And He has given us the self-control to choose to press on, even after the death of a dream.

Oh friend, now is the time to dream again, in the cold and frozen of the now. Now is the time to prepare for the vibrant and glorious newness to emerge.

Dream again, won’t you?

Because a new dream is waiting … and it is only in the dreaming, that the becoming is even possible.

What dreams have you let die?

What has been your biggest obstacle to dreaming again?

Filed Under: Encouragement, Fear

Anger and Unmet Expectations

March 22, 2012 By Jennifer Camp 22 Comments

Anger and Unmet Expectations

Can you imagine these scenes, girls?

It’s a girl’s night out and you sit at the table, alone, until your friends show up 30 minutes later than the plan.

Your boys continue to wrestle the new, rescued dog like he is a friend on the playground and ignore the tenth request to come to dinner.

Your loved one, whom you’ve reached out to repeatedly, continues to shun your attempts to build relationship.

Would these situations prompt disappointment, frustration, or even anger?

In most life situations, we have expectations for how we hope things will play out. And when these expectations aren’t met, our feelings might be hurt, we might be annoyed – and we might feel angry. And it is our anger, girls, that reveals false narratives we believe about God .

It is worth investigation.

Our hearts depend on it.

I am thankful for James Bryan Smith’s insights in The Good and Beautiful Life, helping me identify false narratives I’ve believed about God. These false narratives underlie much of what prompts anger in my heart.

Do any of the seven false narratives listed below strike a chord with you?

“I am alone.” I have felt angry dozens of times because I falsely believe I am alone. We can be filled with anger when we make ourselves believe that we need to carry burdens by ourselves. We believe that no one could ever understand what we are going through or want to come alongside us when we need help.

“Things always have to go as I want them.” When we get stuck in the mindset that this life is all about us and believe the false narrative that it is essential that things have to go as we want them to, we are believing that our way is better than God’s. Anger erupts – injuring our hearts and the hearts of others – when we don’t surrender our desire for control.

“Something terrible will happen if I make a mistake.” Those whispers of the enemy that come and make us believe self-sufficiency is strength can lead us to doubt the Father’s love. Do we believe that God is so small that He didn’t really take all our sin – and that He will turn away from us if we mess up again?

“I must be in control all of the time.” God has a better plan than we do. Pushing for what we think is best, and believing the false narrative that we need to be the one in control makes us strive to not have any weaknesses. If we live like we are the boss, we believe the lie that we need to be in control all of the time.

Life must always be fair and just. It can be a stumbling block to receiving His grace when we forget the life Jesus lived – how His life was one that offered freedom only because life, without Him is so unfair. We can be full of anger – full of self-righteousness — when we react to a perceived injustice done to us or to those whom we love.

I need to anticipate everything that will happen to me today. This is the lie that makes us uncomfortable with the unknown. We are never going to know what unexpected event is around the corner, and rather than feeling at peace about this, we feel anxious and want to plan for the next “what-if” scenario. We don’t trust what’s ahead and don’t feel God has a good plan and is in control.

“I need to be perfect all of the time.“ We might know we are not perfect, that we are never going to get it right all of the time, but yet we might believe we will be less loved, less worthy, just . . . less, if we don’t try, with everything we are, to get it right.

What prompts anger in us reveals deeper truths that we believe about God.

What false narratives about God do you believe?

Filed Under: Fear, Identity In Christ, Renewing The Mind

Don’t Buy the Lies

March 14, 2012 By Jana Driggers 28 Comments

This is hard to admit, but I believed lies about myself for far too long. The enemy whispered these lies, taunting me with words of fear and insecurity. Maybe you’ve heard them, too:

You’ll never be good enough.

Your life is a complete mess.

You’ve sinned too much to be useful.

God doesn’t want to use someone like you.

Although I know I’m forgiven of my sin through faith in Jesus Christ, I believed the lie that I’m still “damaged goods”, a second-rate citizen taking up shelf space on the scratch-and-dent aisle. And, of course, this disqualifies me from being used by God, right?

Wrong!

Friends, if you’ve felt this way too, it’s high time we confront those lies with the Truth of God’s word.

The Bible calls Satan the “father of lies” (John 8:44). He wants to keep us shackled, deceived, duped into thinking we are less than God’s beloved daughters. God’s word tells us this:

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:11-13, NIV)

God wants us to grasp how much He loves us and let that love transform our lives. Out of sin, into forgiveness. Out of darkness, into light. Out of shame, into confidence through Christ.

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:15-17, ESV)

Sisters, we are daughters of the King! No lie of the enemy can ever change that.

When you accept Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf and confess Him as lord of your life, God welcomes you into His family and washes you “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). He removes the old and makes you new. This isn’t anything we can mess up; it’s pure grace through the power of Christ.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself…” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18, ESV)

God is doing a new thing in you, sister! He has already redeemed your past and set your feet on the solid Rock. There is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1-2), just a desire to draw you near and make you more like Jesus each day.

Spring is a season of new growth, new life, new opportunities. My prayer for you today is that you’ll reject the lies, embrace God’s truth and allow Him to transform your life.

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV)

How do you combat the lies of the enemy in your life? What favorite verse do you claim when you’re discouraged?

Filed Under: Encouragement, Fear, Identity In Christ, Renewing The Mind, Spiritual Warfare

Seeds Of The Heart

March 13, 2012 By Kris Camealy 14 Comments

I’m not a very good gardener. I lack the knowledge and skills necessary for producing anything more than a mediocre crop of random odds and ends. In the five summers I have worked my garden soil over, we have garnered just a fraction of it’s potential yield.

The truth is, I don’t keep the garden up as I should. I lack the knowledge because I don’t invest the time it takes to gain an understanding of effective gardening methods. I wish I had a better excuse.

I lack the commitment. I lack the know-how. Too often, I lack the motivation to keep it up properly. And of all the garden-soul analogies out there, this is the one on my heart these days; If my heart is the fertile soil where Christ’s love can grow and flourish, then fear is a rogue seed that has slipped in beneath the soil and bloomed unwelcome.

Fear has burrowed itself deep in, and while I might clip it’s leaves back from time to time, reciting scripture, or taking one small but brave step out in faith, fear flourishes in the garden of my heart- a thorny thistle threatening to crown out fruit that has potential to nourish.

How many times have I been stabbed unexpectedly by fear’s sharp edged thorns? Some seasons, the punctures are too numerous to count, and I have bled out and shirked back from harvesting for the greater reward. Fear’s stealthy roots spread like wildfire under the surface, and in the places I least expect to see it, those thorny pricks appear, nestled right in between the juicy strawberries and tomatoes. Taunting me with their rows and rows of thorned-teeth leaves.

While I am not a good gardener, there is One who knows His way around the soil of my inner parts. He never-minds the muck and mud that I’ve tracked all over and when I ask Him, when I am willing to seek His help, He uproots the misplaced weed and carefully covers the holes left behind. It’s an unending task, this rooting out the foul seeds.

On my own I am incapable. I allow fear to reign in my garden because she’s mean and pointed. Because even when I want her ripped out by her tree-like stem, her spiked stalk gives me pause and so I say, “tomorrow, I’ll pull that weed out tomorrow, when I am feeling more brave.”

But I am not finished. At the rate that pest spreads in the hot dry seasons of discontent, I may never be finished cutting her down. But when my hands are tired and my knees ache and I bring in just a tiny bowl from the garden, I am reminded that Christ knows His way around the gardens of our hearts. He knows the struggles we have and the seeds we let bloom where we should not.

He is patient, He is relentless, and He teaches us again and again how to nurture the good seeds the way He does. He reminds us that in order to keep our gardens producing, we need the know-how. We need to know Him.

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:8-9

Have you allowed weeds to bloom in your heart? What is your struggle these days? How might we pray for you as you dig in and learn to garden along side the great gardener?

Filed Under: Fear, Grace, Restoration

A season of hope

March 8, 2012 By Richella Parham 38 Comments

March is here, and with it the promise of spring. My heart swells as I see daffodils blooming. I think there’s something special about the way they push through the cold, brown ground and remind us that a new season of life is coming.

This time last year, my family and I were anticipating our third open-heart surgery. My 14-year-old son had heart surgery in April 2008. My husband had heart surgery in February 2009. Then in April 2011 my husband had a second open-heart surgery. We were such regulars at Duke Hospital that doctors, nurses, assistants, and cafeteria workers all recognized us. All that time spent at the hospital was exhausting, to say the least.

But I learned some things from those times of anxiety and worry, including this:

Hope is important.

Our hearts can withstand a lot of stress and anxiety if we have hope. Trials of all kinds can bend us without breaking us if we have something to which we can cling. If we know that our difficult circumstances will not last forever, we can make it.

And isn’t that what we have as Christians? We know, down in the very core of our hearts, that the troubles of our lives won’t last forever. To be honest, sometimes they feel as if they will last forever. Sometimes we’re too weary to stand, too discouraged to smile, too troubled even to pray. But deep in our souls, we know that Jesus has provided us with victory. Even when things are desperately hard, we have hope–and “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Perhaps you’re in a difficult season right now, just as I was at this time last year. May I encourage you by reminding you that there is hope? The winter may be long and harsh, but spring does come. Perhaps you’re so weary in spirit that you’re struggling to think of spring. Oh, sister, let us help you! Let us share your burden with you. Lean on us in your time of discouragement. If you can, share your concerns and prayer requests in the comments. We’ll take them to the Father. We’ll stand with you. For this is our prayer:

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

May hope bloom in your heart!