Tag: hope

How to Find Hope in the Hard Places

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hard places book
image provided for Sarah Beckman

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am not being paid to write this or being told what to say.

There’s nothing like reading a book that you wish you had earlier but then realizing the Lord directed you to survive in the very way the author has suggested. That’s what I found in Sarah Beckman’s book, Hope for the Hard Places. That is exactly what happened to me.

Our family has had our share of hard places: chronic pain, job loss, bankruptcy, grief, You name it. Sarah offers some definite steps in how to handle a crisis. And everyone, one time or another, will need this guide.

If you are in a hard place, this book is for you. It’s a beautiful guide to making it through the worst of times whether it is from grief or sickness or any other trial. If you need encouragement, go ahead and read the last chapter.
Then start from the beginning and read IT through. This book is filled with practical advice along with the spiritual. Trust me you will be glad you picked this one up.

Everyone will need this guidebook sooner or later. Buy it today, get bonuses. #hopeforthehardplaces #pastors #grief #cancer #chronicillness Click To Tweet

Sarah will tell you how to place the right people around you and what you need to have at your access. She will offer you great ways to get what you most desperately need in your own time of crisis. This book will help you deal with words that hurt and friends that disappear. Sarah will also help you look inward to change impossible expectations and how to give yourself grace when you fail to rise to your own expectations for yourself.

hard times without missteps

Most importantly, she talks about your own soul-care for this, to me, is the most important thing you can do in a crisis because as the scriptures say,  “For what profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul” (Matthew 16:26) I’ll let you get the whole explanation by reading the book yourself but here are the steps in a nutshell.

5 Steps of Soul-care during a Crisis

  • Listen to God – Ask “Why me?” but also “What now?”
  • Be Honest with Trusted Friends – tell them what you need
  • Trust God without any Expectations – He sees you & knows what you need
  • Choose Joy – A positive outlook makes all the difference
  • Spend Regular time in God’s Word – Cindy Barnes recently wrote this about regular time with God here on the blog.

Get bonus products by ordering today ~ LAUNCH DAY, March 5th

Hope for the Hard Places

There is so, so much more in this wonderful guide for the hard places. Please go get your own copy to read and keep on your shelf. Trust me. You or someone near you will need it soon.

The Perfect Guide for When you are in Hard Places. #grief #cancer #chronic illness Click To Tweet

And Hold on to Jesus, He’s got this.

Mandy Farmer

P.S. Free Resource – How Can I Help

I wrote about how How you can Help Others when they are in crisis. There is a free resource there.


You may also like Sarah’s book, Alongside which guides you to come alongside a friend who is in crisis.


Mayo Clinic – How Healthcare Should Be Done

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Inside the Doors of Mayo Clinic

As soon as we entered through the doors at Mayo Clinic, we felt peace and hope. We had never experienced anything like the atmosphere and the love and care we felt when we arrived.

When we turned the car onto the campus we felt peace. We saw beautiful landscaping with trees and flowers and water fountains as we drove onto the campus. We drove right up to the building we needed to check into. Continue reading →

How Hannah Prayed

Two Lessons from Hannah’s Prayer

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10 Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. 11 And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime, and as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut.

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Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad.

1 Samuel 1:10-11, 18 (NLT)

When I read about the anguish in Hannah’s heart, my own heart is pricked.

Do I Pray with Deep Anguish?

First, while I had a great desire to have children, I don’t know this kind of pain of waiting years to be blessed and seeing others around me having children when I did not, however, I do know about pain of a different kinds=. I have actual pain from my chronic illness, I have aching pain for family members that are far from God, I know the pain of rejection.

But I wonder at times if my pain has been deep enough for me to cry out to God in “deep anguish”. I wonder if I have ever fallen before God begging him to work in my life or in the lives of others. Do I fall prostrate before God, asking and fasting while I pray for Him to intervene?

When we say that we are praying for someone, do we really pray for them or do we just hope that things will get better for them? Do we actually take the time to stop and focus on God and ask Him to intervene?  I have recently made an effort to always place the person’s name in my prayer journal app. (See Prayer Popper) I don’t say I will pray unless I place them in this journal. This brings them to my mind occasionally and I do lift them up in prayer for a moment. But I still wonder if I am praying or just wishing and wanting. Do I get serious about intercession?

Secondly, Do I Believe God will Answer?

After Eli blessed her and asked God to grant her request she “went and ate with her family and was no longer sad.” She accepted with confidence that God would now answer her prayers. She was no longer distraught over her situation. She left it in God’s hands.

When we are distraught over our situation, do we take it and lay our concern on the altar and then go away “no longer sad”? Or do we pick up our concerns and take them with us?

Are we content to trust Him no matter what His answer may be?

Hannah was able to leave her request at the altar. She went home and was happy. She had not received her heart’s desire yet but she now found joy in her God. Her faith held her up.

Our hope should be in God not in our desires.

Are we devoted to God regardless of whether God has met those desires? Are we willing to give back to God the very things for which we are praying?

I challenge you to lay your burdens on the altar of God and leave them there. Remember, he promises to give rest to our souls if we bring them to Him and let Him do the work.

 

 

Fully Alive Book Review

Book Review: Fully Alive

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NOTE: I received this book at no charge in exchange for writing this review. These words are my own opinion and I have not been compensated to say them. 

Dare to Hope again

Have you been losing your hope lately? What is it that is pulling you down into

despondency?

Dare to Hope Fully Alive

Susie’s Larson’s new book

Sickness?

Fear?

Guilt?

Worry?

Grief?

Discouragement?

Insecurity?

Selfishness?

Look up because there is AlWAYS Hope in Jesus.

Continue reading →

Movie Review: Breathe

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What a beautifully, inspiring movie!

“Breathe” is an inspiring true story. After being paralyzed by polio at age 28, Robin Cavendish refuses to be immobile and with his loyal wife, Diana, becomes an advocate for the severely disabled. “Breathe” is the feature-film directing debut of actor Andy Serkis.

I love to see how others have made their way through trials. And this movie fast became a great biography. Celebrating the lives of ones who made a huge difference for the severely disabled. So many good takeaways from the movie. The first being, “Don’t sell yourself short. Your life isn’t useless.” And then especially the loyalty and commitment of his wife and other friends. We can all learn something from this life.

Deeply Touching

“Breathe” deeply touched my heart by the determination of Robin and Diana to never give up. Even though things seemed hopeless or they had no one backing them, they moved forward and made things happen. In the end, they helped countless severely disabled people have a fulfilling life instead of one of depression with no hope.

This movie also gently spoke of allowing terminally ill patients the privilege of dying on their own terms but not only that but also that a change of venue can bring an amazing change of view on one’s viewpoint of life for the severely disabled. Each life has value and should be treated that way. It isn’t right to put people away from view in a hospital ward just because they are severely handicapped. We should be doing whatever we can to make life better for them.

In the end, Robin chose to end his life because his body could not take any more from artificial breathing. But he lived a fulfilling life for twenty years. His son got to know him and love him. He was able to die gracefully with his family nearby without a traumatic ending.

I was spellbound by this movie, cheering at times and crying at other times. Beautifully done.

Definitely a MUST SEE FILM.

Inspiring Must See Movie - Breathe Click To Tweet

The Solid Rock

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less

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Write 31 Days: Prompt: Hope

If it weren’t for Hope in Jesus I would be lost. Here’s one of my favorite hymn selections

Hymn: The Solid Rock

Author: Edward Mote

Edward Mote was born in Upper Thames Street, London, Jan. 21, 1797. Edward MoteThrough the preaching of the Rev. J. Hyatt, of Tottenham Court Road Chapel, he underwent a great spiritual change; and ultimately he became a Baptist minister. For the last 26 years of his life, he was pastor at Horsham, Sussex, where he died Nov. 13, 1874. Mr. Mote published several small pamphlets; and also:-

Hymns of Praise. A New Selection of Gospel Hymns, combining all the Excellencies of our spiritual Poets, with many Originals. By E. Mote. London. J. Nichols, 1836. The Originals number nearly 100.

As Edward Mote was walking to work one day in 1834, the thought popped into his head to write a hymn on the “Gracious Experience of a Christian.” As he walked up the road, he had the chorus, “On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.” By the end of the day, he had the first four verses written out and safely tucked away in his pocket. Later that week, he visited his friend whose wife was very ill, and as they couldn’t find a hymnal to sing from, he dug up his newly written verses and sang those with the couple. The wife enjoyed them so much she asked for a copy, and Mote went home to finish the last two verses and sent it off to a publisher, saying, “As these verses so met the dying woman’s case, my attention to them was the more arrested, and I had a thousand printed for distribution” (Lutheran Hymnal Handbook). Almost two centuries later, we continue to sing these words of hope and assurance, our declaration that in the midst of all trials and storms, we will cling to the rock that is our Savior.

The Lyrics

1 My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
in ev’ry high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

3 His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the ‘whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

4 When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found,
dressed in His righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

Source: Hymns to the Living God #216

Take a LIsten and Sing Along

 

Other Hymn Favorites

My Faith Has Found a Resting Place

Living by Faith

 

Discover the Meaning in Life

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What Have You Discovered?

It’s Five Minute Friday! I’m joining the gang to write on a specific prompt. Today’s Prompt: Discover!

Discover With the Wisest Man on Earth

Even though he was the wisest man of all time, King Solomon discovered much in his life. It’s kind of comforting to know that the wisest man of all time discovered that life is pretty much meaningless. If it was meaningless for him, no wonder we feel that way!

I’ve been studying along on the FIRST5 app from Proverbs 31 Ministries. We just finished studying the book of Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon. Solomon searched for meaning and documented his findings in this book of the Bible. He realized a lot of things about life. Continue reading →