Have you even been walking through the woods or working in the yard only to suddenly feel a cut on your arm or leg? Upon further investigation, you realize that you have just crossed paths with a thornbush. Although small, thorns certainly can inflict pain, causing you to change direction. When the Bible speaks of hedges or thorns, they have a similar purpose.

Does the thought of holiday parties or family gatherings make you want to hide away in your house and not come out till January? Does the idea of small talk make you cringe? Are you tired just thinking about it?

There are times in each of our lives when we come up against obstacles that threaten to knock us over and flatten us. These times cause us to look up to the heavens and cry out, “Why God, why?”

Does “in everything” mean literally everything? According to my research, it does indeed mean everything. You might be thinking I just don’t understand your life or your circumstances or I would not be telling you to be giving thanks.

Have you wondered how much more you can take? Have you cried out to God for understanding and relief? Have you begged Him to just make it stop?

Like you, I wonder what God is accomplishing by my trials and by allowing me to be brought so low. I know I have been in this kind of a place before…this time it is deeper and different. God allows us to experience all kinds of trials on ever deeper levels to round out our character and to give us the ability to minister to others in their time of need.

Do you realize that what comes out of your heart is what you really worship and that it is always related to self? Jesus knew that we tend to worship ourselves, and He told us that if we are to be His disciples we have to deny ourselves, including the sinful desires of the flesh, in order to take up the cross and follow Him.

How much of what happens in our lives do we chalk up to God’s mercy? How much of what happens do we attribute to luck, good fortune, blessings, karma, or rubbing a lucky rabbit’s foot?

It is understood that in our present economy, we rarely have the luxury of taking the day off life in order to be on our face before God in prayer, so as always balance is the key here. Praying without ceasing means that I pray all day long in whatever moments I have interrupting my prayer for tasks set before me rather than the other way around.

The wonder of prayer is that it is communication with God. What makes it wondrous is that God listens! I can talk all day long but if no one is listening I am nothing more than a chatterbox. However, the God of the Universe bends His ear to my lips and my words go to His heart.

I have noticed a very disturbing trend among Christians when it comes to the topic of sex in marriage. Christian literature has inundated women with the idea that it is their primary duty to selflessly submit to their husband’s sexual demands without any reservations. I’ve spoken with dear ladies who have a very confusing and heartbreaking sex life with their husbands due to this poor, unbiblical instruction. As a result, a wife’s sexual life is motivated by paralyzing fear that if she refuses in any way, God will be displeased and her husband will commit adultery. The solution currently being presented?

What once was whole is now broken into pieces. You may get out the glue and try to put it back together the way it was, but you see the imperfections and some of the pieces don’t fit back like they were. It’s not the same, no matter how hard we try, the item is still broken.

Grace is given to us because it glorifies God to do so, not because we are deserving, special, or worthy. Have you ever thought about what a marvelous thing it is that God chooses to bring Himself glory by saving us?

If you are a person that others gravitate toward for help and assistance in solving life’s problems you already know that people come with a variety of problems. Contrary to popular thinking, the greatest need of a counselee is not always an answer to their problem! Rather, the greatest need is to learn to interpret their problems from a biblical perspective. We all need consistent reminders that our problems are not unique, but common to man.

There is nothing you can do that can outdo what has already been done by Christ on the cross. He was the complete, total, and perfect sacrifice for your sin and to think there is anything you can do to add to his substitutionary sacrifice on your behalf is foolish and a slap in the face of the Savior.

In the midst of our personal tragedies we want to believe that God is absent. I have heard bewildered people look to others with pain-filled eyes and ask how God could have let this happen. They wonder if He left on a break and it was in His absence that their world blew apart. People do not want to believe or think that God is in their hardships.

To say that Christians ought not to grieve is a ridiculous statement, yet I have been told it is said to those looking for help after experiencing loss of some kind. That is cruel and amounts to telling them to “get over it.” Christ has come to comfort those who mourn.

It is encouraging to me when a counselee tells me they are struggling with the flesh. It is a primary indication that she is truly regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Those who are not regenerated will have no fight within them for righteousness and purity of heart.

What is a true friend and how do I find one? What about my non-Christian friends, can I keep them? What are good boundaries for friendships? These are just some of the questions I have wrestled with as I have walked with Christ.

It is a wonderful thing to serve those who believe in Christ as their Savior and Lord! A while back I met with a woman who is struggling to achieve the balance of accepting and working, resting and doing, being sanctified and being sanctified. Each of these (and many more) has been done to us and is to be done by us in some mysterious way.