Written by Sue Schmitt

I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. NLT

My picture of happiness is all of my children and grandchildren gathered around my table in the house. We are sharing a meal, and sharing our stories of love and laughter throughout our years together. There is no greater feeling than being with those you have loved and nurtured for almost 40 years. This is my wish, but not my reality. I have a broken family. Two of my daughters have chosen to exit my family. It is heartbreaking, and yet I hear God ask me to continue to pray and follow him. Can I leave behind the perfect picture that I thought was my family, and still follow God with love and joy?

I recently read Max Lucado’s book, You’ll Get Through This. He used parallels of the story of Joseph to illustrate how we suffer today. I can relate to Joseph. I have been cast out by my daughters. Joseph was sold by his brothers. He was only 17 years old when his brothers threw him in the cistern. He was 37 when he would see his brothers again, and still a few years later before he would see his own father. Sometimes, God takes his time. I haven’t seen one of my daughters in five years, and the other in a year. It feels like an eternity to me. Joseph never lost sight of God, and always remained firm in his faith.

Geneses 39:20-21 says, “But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him: he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.” Joseph endured slavery, exile, imprisonment, for over 20 years before he was reunited with his brother. When the opportunity arrived, he was without anger.

God took 120 years to prepare Noah for the flood, and he took 80 years to prepare Moses for his work! God wants us to trust him and defeat Satan. God can turn any bad situation into a teaching moment with a good result. Life is hard. Everyone has suffering and difficulties. If we keep our eyes focused on God, and His word, God will see us through the difficult times. God is our refuge and strength.

Maybe we need to surrender our wants, and ask God, what is it that He wants? Do you trust God enough to surrender your brokenness? Allow God to have the time and show you what He has in store for you. If we trust God to do the next best thing in our lives, the results are limitless.

Maybe you do not suffer from a broken family, maybe it’s a frustrating job, or a difficult school. Give it to God. Pray for his help, and guidance to leave the hurt behind you. What might God have in store for me that could be better than anything I could have imagined? What are the possibilities? God is limitless. You may be surprised!

Written by Becky Perkins

Written by Cindy Music

I thought I was doing what God and my peers expected of me. Keep in mind I only hung out with people who were like me.

Move forward a few years. I was introduced to someone that was kind, giving, fun to talk to and laughed about the same things as I did. We would hang out, go to movies, to the zoo, or just talk on the phone. One area we weren’t alike was this person was not a Christian. In fact, not a believer. When I realized this, I began to change how I saw this person. We’d meet at the movies and I would bolt as soon as I could. I didn’t linger in conversation or have dinner afterwards. You can see the pattern starting again.

One evening during my prayer time, the Holy Spirit was very clear in telling me, if I was the only Jesus this person ever saw, I had done a pitiful job. I had been everything but Christ like. In fact, I had given this person so many “Christian” restrictions there was no room for Christ’s love and acceptance to come through.

So, what do you do with that? I called and apologized. I confessed that for someone who claimed to be a Christ follower, I had not shown Christ’s love. What I found out in the conversation that night was this person had been turned off by churches because of how Christians had treated them. This person had long hair and heavy metal t-shirts. When he went to church, he was told how he needed to dress, act, and present himself. He had to fit into their box in order to be accepted.

You see, God used a non-believer to open my eyes to see people how He sees them. Recently, this person’s friend asked me if he goes to church or shows any interest in knowing Jesus. My reply was, “My husband will not be one who comes to know Jesus by walking through the front door of the church. It will be through the back door. Where people accept him as he is, and walk through life being Jesus to him.” A lot of damage has to be undone before he will be able to see the authenticity of the Christ followers who love and see him as Jesus’ does.

I continue the process of restoring old relationships with friends and family that I had once passed judgement on. I have learned that I cannot make disciples of Jesus when my only relationships are with people just like me. Since I started allowing God to transform my stubbornness into openness and grace, I love having relationships with people who don’t always think or believe like I do. These are the people that God uses to broaden my knowledge and life experiences. I am learning how to be a part of someone’s life and still be what God wants me to be. When I am focused on the direction God is leading me in, I don’t have much time to judge others on where they should be.

I am working hard at meeting new people from all walks of life. I can’t know what others are going through unless I walk along side of them. What great experiences I have had in recent years. I like getting to know people and what their life experiences have been. It helps me grow in my faith and what better way to share Jesus than with someone.

Yes, there are still times that God goes around my stubbornness and uses someone else to accomplish His mission. Sadly, those are opportunities that I have missed seeing God at work. I have no one else to blame but my own selfish ways.

Life is too short to miss out on God experiences. I will continue my faith journey, knowing God isn’t finished with me yet.

Written by Pat McKain

There are many different ways to pray. To name a few, we can pray to commune with and praise the Lord. We can pray to petition God for needs around us. And we can pray on someone else’s behalf. It is this last way on which I wish to focus.

Intercession is defined by Oxford Languages as “the action of saying a prayer on behalf of another person.” Our Scripture from Ephesians talks about “remembering you in our prayers.” So how do we intercede for others?

So many times when people come and ask us to pray for them, we tell them we will. Sometimes we follow through on our commitment and sometimes we don’t. This is serious. Do we believe that God hears our prayers? Are we so focused on ourselves that we forget? Heaven help us. Or if someone comes across our path, we can ask them if we can pray for them right then. Many times, if we ask, they will say, “Yes.” There have been several instances when a server in a restaurant will seem burdened. We will tell them we’re going to pray over our food and ask if we can pray for them too. They have opened up and appreciated our prayer for their need.

How can we remember others in our prayers? In talking with a friend recently about this, she mentioned some very helpful ways to pray for others. She said we need to stop, listen, and feel their need. Empathy for others is God-given, and should be practiced. It doesn’t mean agreeing with or maybe even understanding, but feeling their pain and praying with them. When we pray, I believe the Holy Spirit acts. He knows what is right and how to meet their need. Our responsibility is to ask Him to be present in their need.

The remainder of the verse gives us direction in this. It reminds us to pray they will have wisdom and that they will be enlightened by the Lord. Oh that we would all have God’s wisdom and enlightenment! From this, we praise Him who has done immeasurably more that we could think or ask in bringing us into relationship with Him. (Eph 3:20)

What a gift to be able to pray for others and know He hears us.

We love You, Lord. Thank You for hearing our prayers. Amen.

When you read 1 Kings 18:41-44, Elijah goes to the top of Mount Carmel to pray for the rain to come after a severe drought had been brought upon the people of Israel. He sends his servant to look over at the sea seven times to see if anything was happening. At the seventh time, his servant describes a small cloud, the size of a man’s hand coming up from the sea. Heavy clouds came and it started to rain.

If you read Chapter 16, you can see why God brought a drought upon Israel. When Ahab took over as king of Israel, he married Jezebel (THE Jezebel), began to serve and worship Baal, and built a temple for Baal in Samaria. This made God angry, therefore he sent Elijah to let Ahab know there would be no rain, until God told him there would be. Jezebel had been murdering God’s prophets, so Elijah had to go into hiding until it was time for him to come back to announce the return of the rain.

I’ve known God all my life. I don’t remember a time when God wasn’t a part of my life. My mother was a devout Catholic, and I grew up going to church. I always admired my mother’s faith and looking back, the only thing that got us through the difficult times was my mom’s tremendous faith and prayer.

As an adult, I prayed, kept attending church whenever I didn’t have to work on a Sunday, and tried to keep God at the center of our family’s life. We did not go to church as a family, since Ernesto was no longer Catholic and I did not want to attend any other church. We were just not all-in spiritually. God was not at the center of our lives. Like Ahab and Jezebel, we had our own Baal at the center of our lives: chasing success, money, material things, personal gain, etc.

When God is not number one in your life, nothing seems to be right. There is always something missing. Looking to my mother as an example of what faith looked like, I started to think that maybe He just didn’t listen to everyone; my faith was nowhere near her level.

In 2018, when we were expecting our fourth daughter, I got this nudge that told me to move our family. Not only were we in a spiritual drought, neither of us had ways to move up professionally unless someone retired, quit, or died. I felt like we were trapped and like something was missing. When I told Ernesto that we should sell our house in Arizona and move to Indiana, he thought I had lost my mind or that this pregnancy had made me lose it. It was not an easy decision to leave everything I knew, my mother who had dementia, and our friends. The more we talked and prayed about it, the more “right” it seemed. The feeling of peace with this decision was the sign we needed to move forward.

Fast forward to today: we regularly attend church as a family, Ernesto and I go to Sunday school TOGETHER, our children are learning about God, and Ernesto and I are helping with the youth outreach team. We are both thriving in our career paths. Looking back, if God would have given us everything we prayed for at the time, we never would have gotten to this place we are in now, spiritually.

My spiritual life is much fuller. I find myself reading scripture every day, waking up with an attitude of gratitude, and praying. I read and study everything about God that I can get my hands on. My soul craves it.

When God brought on that drought on Israel, he did not do it to hurt them. They strayed away and looked for provision in all the wrong places. He needed to remind them that He is the one true God and that he would take care of them if only they would turn to him. God wants to give you good things, for you to find success, and live a good life, but these things cannot consume you to the point that they become your “Baal.”

May you always seek God first in everything that you do, recognize that nudge, and denounce anything that is a “Baal” in your life. Amen.