When Rachel Hollis spoke on the Jesus Calling® podcast she shared one of the hardest seasons of her faith journey. Here is excerpt from her book,Girl, Wash Your Face, that describes a portion of that difficult time and how we must have faith in God’s perfect timing. Imagine a little baby taking her first step. She’s joyful and chubby and she’s been balancing in place without holding on to the coffee table for weeks now. Finally, finally, she takes her first coltish stumble from the relative safety of the side table, then wobbles across the perils of the living room rug to grasp the edge of the sofa. She gets there and looks up at you with elation and pride and so much excitement. Now imagine you give her a quick, brittle smile and demand, “Yes, Chloe, that’s fine, but why aren’t you r...
“You can find joy in the midst of brokenness. One of the hardest times to be joyful is when you’re dealing with multiple problems—seeking solutions but finding none—and then several new difficulties beset you. The way to encounter joy in adversity is to encounter Me. You can pray,‘Jesus, help me find You in the midst of this mess!’ ” —Jesus Today, Day 67 “You aren’t listening to me. I’ve had enough. Get out of my house!” Harsh, isn’t it? Brokenness reveals itself in so many ways. I recently felt very broken over a verbal misunderstanding. I knew that the other party could only see her way and felt that I was completely wrong. Exasperation grew when she failed to take time to listen to me, and I lost my temper for the first time in a long time. As a Christian, I felt extremely discouraged. ...
“Follow Me one step at a time. That is all that I require of you. Keep your mind on the present journey, enjoying My Presence. Walk by faith, not by sight, trusting Me to open up the way before you.” —from Jesus Calling, February 1 Jesus left us with a lot of promises: words of hope, encouragement, plenty of instruction. Yet one thing Jesus said we probably wish He hadn’t was that trials are sure to come. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). As you know, trials come in all shapes and sizes—financial insecurity, sickness, infertility, the loss of a loved one. While we might be overwhelmed by them, trials can also be great opportunities to put our faith to the test. Trials refine and reveal our faith. Several years ago, we e...
“Follow Me one step at a time. That is all that I require of you. Keep your mind on the present journey, enjoying My Presence. Walk by faith, not by sight, trusting Me to open up the way before you.” —from Jesus Calling, February 1 Jesus left us with a lot of promises: words of hope, encouragement, plenty of instruction. Yet one thing Jesus said we probably wish He hadn’t was that trials are sure to come. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). As you know, trials come in all shapes and sizes—financial insecurity, sickness, infertility, the loss of a loved one. While we might be overwhelmed by them, trials can also be great opportunities to put our faith to the test. Trials refine and reveal our faith. Several years ago, we e...
Tyson: Everything that happens, [it] happens for a reason, and sometimes you have to be put through the fire so you can be refined. Trusting God to Fill the Gap: Rodeo Stars Tyson Durfey (w/ wife Shea Fisher) and Cody Custer – Episode #156 Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. Our guests both have rich legacies in the world of Western sports and know the highs of winning but also have felt the sting of defeat, and share how God walked with them through it all: world champion rodeo athlete Tyson Durfey and his wife, country music artist Shea Fisher, and former champion bull rider Cody Custer. When cowboy Tyson Durfey met Australian country music artist Shea Fisher, he knew Shea was the woman he was supposed to marry, but Tyson didn’t know how much Shea’s love for him and for...
There’s nothing like the feeling of a fresh, clean home. The floors are swept, the bathtub is scrubbed, the furniture polished till it gleams. Perhaps the biggest chore of cleaning your home is getting rid of clutter. Whenever something comes in, something needs to come out. Otherwise, you’re left living in heaps of things you don’t need. There are also things that clutter our lives, things we carry out of habit or familiarity—our baggage, if you will. I wrote a novel called The Baggage Handler to help people deal with things clutter their lives. For many, getting rid of their baggage is the same process as cleaning their house. They take a look at emotions or situations they no longer need but still hang onto without knowing why, or find they’ve accumulated far more than they realized. Cl...
Leave outcomes up to Me. Follow Me wherever I lead, without worrying about how it will all turn out. Jesus Calling, November 19 Where I work, we have an ice-breaker question we ask every new person joining the team: If you could have any superpower, what would it be? The answers, as you can imagine, vary. One colleague told us her superpower would be to become instantly dry as she stepped from the shower. My own superpower—as my fellow introverts will understand—would be to turn invisible the moment I walked into a cocktail party. A New Superpower But more recently I’ve thought of a new superpower, which would be this: I would want the power to know, with complete certainty, that Everything Is Going to Be Okay. I’m not talking about the moment-to-moment stuff. Intellectually I know, for ex...