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Spiritual Reflections When life is hard BY LEE MERRILL
Are you in the middle of a stormy season? Is life not turning out as you hoped? Do you feel like giving up? Hear God whisper to your soul: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10 NIV). When life becomes too heavy to bear, you’re in the perfect position to lay it all in God’s hands. God never intended for you to do life in your own strength. He longs to hold you up and fill your soul with peace. Hear God sing truth over you: “Cast your cares on [me] and [I] will sustain you; [I] will never let the righteous be shaken” (Psalm 55:22 NIV). Even if you don’t see how your situation can ever get any better, know that God is an expert at bringing beauty from ruins. He loves to rebuild, restore and redeem. Hear God speak life into your situation: “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). Hard times are a blessing in disguise because they urge us to look to God for help. Without grief, we’d never experience his comfort. Without questions, we’d miss out on his answers. Without struggle, we’d bypass his provision. Hear God pour hope into your empty cup: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV). Don’t give up. When life is hard, lean into God’s tender embrace. He loves you, he sees you and he cares. A Southern magnolia transplanted in the Arizona desert, Lee Merrill is a Bible study teacher at Heart of Mesa church and a blogger at www.prayergifts.net. Her first book, “Prayer Gifts While You Wait: Grace for as Long as it Takes” is available on Amazon.
Blessed are the peacemakers BY LYNN HARTKE
We sit in a circle, women with ages spanning five decades. We open up the Bible and talk about how the words penned in those pages are a part of our everyday loving, doing and walking-around life. We memorize portions together, whole chunks of passages, because we know living this loving/doing/walking life can take huge chunks right out of us. We who are the image bearers of God need the breath of His words flowing off our tongues, in our minds and bathing our hearts. We are memorizing the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), the first public teaching of Christ, and letting the truth-words percolate into our cracks, tiny splintering places we all have. We study fourteen words in this lesson: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called songs and daughters of God” (v. 9). Fourteen words. Easy to memorize. Difficult to live out. Fourteen words to change a life, to heal a nation, a marriage or a friendship. Peacemakers, not peace fakers: people who actively work at bringing peace into their relationships, into their spheres of influence. It is not for the faint of heart. Women share deep, the cracks where words have percolated truth: peace for a family struggling with unforgiveness, peace while walking through sickness, peace during a granddaughter’s divorce, peace in transition, peace in a struggle with hopelessness. Grandmothers, mothers, sisters, friends—we place hands on shoulders and pray we can make peace where there is chaos and disorder, that we can bear the image of our Father. When we walk into a room, into a situation, into a life, people will know, “Here
July 5 – 18, 2014
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Spiritual Reflections Share your spiritual reflections... The spiritual leaders of SanTan Sunarea churches, temples, mosques and other religious and spiritual gathering places are invited to contribute their Spiritual Reflections in essay format by sending their thoughts, enlightening insights and other writings of a spiritual nature to news@santansun.com. Be certain to put “Spiritual Reflections submission” in the subject line, and keep your articles around 200-300 words, or they may be edited for length. Include your first and last name, title and facility name, address, phone number and website. Spiritual Reflections are printed on a space-available basis, and submission does not guarantee print. The opinions represented in this column are those of the author and not that of the SanTan Sun News.
comes a peacemaker.” Where do you need to make peace? Lynn Hartke blogs at www.lynnehartke. com. She is the wife of Pastor Kevin Hartke of Trinity Christian Fellowship, 50 S. McQueen Rd., Chandler. To learn more, visit www.tcfchandler.org or call (480) 963-7698.
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