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This hand clenched so fingerswhitened at the knucklesopen wide, palm up, to giveyou what I have.Not enough and perfectlyenough transformed intoplenty and abundantand good.Keep these fingers openfor I will not denyopportunity—for a miracle. —jennifer j. camp This post appeared originally at jenniferjcamp.com

                                            www.insideoutwithcourtnaye.org If you clicked onto this post, my first question to you is what are you afraid of, sis? Is it fear of failure for a test? Is it fear of failure in a relationship or with your children? Or maybe it’s fear of failure with a new ministry or business venture? What are you facing that is causing you to be afraid of failing? The root word of “fail” actually means to be unsuccessful in achieving one’s goal, to fall short, to feel inadequate, to disappoint expectations or miss performing well for an expected service or test. Does any of this resonate with the way you feel when you’re afraid to fail? Personally, I’ve...

AUTHOR: COURTNEY ELLIS (COURTNEY’S 2ND BOOK ALMOST HOLY MAMA RELEASED JUNE 3RD! IT’S FUNNY, THEOLOGICALLY RICH, AND AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO ANY MAMA TRYING TO GROW CLOSER TO JESUS!) I’ve apparently and unfortunately reached the age where previously normal moles go a little haywire. “That’s going to need to come off,” said the doctor, holding my ear in a gloved hand, peering closely at it. “I’ll schedule you for next week.” Entering my mid-thirties had been rough on the health front. In the past two years one doctor told me my days in high heels were over, after an old soccer injury turned into osteoarthritis, and another stamped my prenatal chart with the dreaded letters AMA—advanced maternal age—as I prepared to welcome our third baby. “I don’t mind getting old,” I’d told my hu...

About Jennifer Camp Jennifer Camp, co-founder of  Gather Ministries, and author of  Loop, grew up in the middle of an almond orchard in Northern California and now lives in the busy Bay Area with her husband and three kids. A former high school English teacher, she loves to write, but she especially loves to encourage people to seek and live out the truth of their story, their identity in Christ. You can find her writing at her blog, Jennifer J. Camp .You can connect with Jennifer on both  Facebook  and  Twitter. She would love to have you join her there.

Barely alive living beautythat day you ranand the sun huggedyour shoulders andlaughed and the sweetgrass tickled yourtoes and the doglicked your face andyou lay down, downin green blue goldbursting, bursting loose all binds. No, no you arenot far away,away from here, not tied down, downto any thing. This post appeared originally at jenniferjcamp.com

We don’t need much to serve God – we need willing hearts and open minds, but as with most things we complicate it. Recently, it feels as if I’m spinning plates and failing miserably. As long as I have breath, I plan to live my life to the fullest with God’s help. So there’s new goals, new adventures, new tasks even at this stage of the game. One thing I’ve learned, I’ll never perfect my walk with Christ this side of heaven. It’s one of the only things I know for sure. I realize that I need to keep leaning on Him. That abiding in Him produces fruit in a way that I can’t explain (John 15:1-15). This is my secret.  I want to be so desperate for God, that the only thing that quenches my thirst is Him – His word, His pea...

Doubt queries her,hawk eyeing its prey.Is this good enough?Unique enough?Lovely, worth noticing?Her very life a question,wingless bird in her hands.And yet majesty of truth,strength in being small,are Poor in Spiritturned right thereon its head.Pivot! Breathe!Open your fists!And the bird,its wings solid andstrong, turns its faceto the sun and flies. This post appeared originally at jenniferjcamp.com

                                                                          www.insideoutwithcourtnaye.org  I’m going to start this post by saying that managing marriage and ministry is NOT easy. Yet, it can be done. Personally, I’ve been married for nearly 16 years and been saved and active in ministry for over 20 years. So, I know from experience that this can be done. However, no matter how long we’ve been married and in ministry, for you and me, it’s still going to take prayer, personal discipline, love, and respect to manage them both, well. In this post, I’m going to be sharing with you so...

                Freedom is in knowing who you are in Christ and being able to let things go. It’s refusal to walk in offense and being quick to forgive. It is in the being slow to speak and even slower to anger.  Freedom is in knowing that you don’t hold a grudge from a wrongdoing in the past that would potentially weigh you down.  It is truly, truly, truly a freeing feeling to know that you don’t need to always be right. My precious elderly aunt once told me that her more than sixty year marriage had lasted because she long ago gave up her right to be right.              Sadly, when I began this article, I realized I could write about twenty or thirty thin...

You see the crack in the cup,the jagged scar like lightning piercing stormy sky.Fingers trace the lines etched from collisionof counter and ceramic and stone.But it holds still, my coffee steaming,and I remember how beautiful are scars that tell a storyfor I like the way you tell it, the untwisting oftruth until it straightens outand it is all I ever see. —jennifer j. camp This post appeared originally at jenniferjcamp.com

                                            www.insideoutwithcourtnaye.org I can admit that trusting God is not always as simple as it seems when things are uncertain (especially when you’re staring the problem right in the face and you can’t see your way clearly through). I know, because I’ve been there so many times. I’ve been there in marriage. I’ve been there with my children. I’ve been there in finances. I’ve been there with life’s circumstances. Are you there now, sis? Are you facing uncertainty right now? Are you struggling to trust God, because you don’t know what He is doing? There are so many situations and circumstances that occur in our lives as Christians where Go...