"I cling to Jesus with every fiber of my being because He is unfailing, He is absolute, He is steadfast and His grace is deeper and wider than my imagination can even fathom. In Him and Him alone is where I’ve discovered a hope more bright and beautiful than words can possibly describe."

(Source: owlcityblog.com)

My best friend of 15 years is getting baptized this summer! She sent me a very rough draft outline of the public testimony she’s going to share in front of probably more than a thousand people, and it made me cry. I have prayed relentlessly for her for years, and now my heart is so full of joy.

“We have all been down similar dark paths and the only thing that’s important is that we were lead to the light.
I have been tested and failed, I have ran so far I got lost, and at one point blamed it all on God because I couldn’t grasp how one person could lose so much. Back and forth between church and long nights spent in a haze, I was torn and divided. After my best friend’s many attempts to pull me back, I heard Chris Pasik say that suffering shows what our hope is in and that God plans for our suffering so that we cling to Him and in that moment every wall I worked so hard to build, crumbled. I gave it all to the One that laid down His life for us.”

Here I am, one year later. I am alive and I am well. I am strong, though I had once crumbled. I have grown, but I am still growing.

One year ago, I was paralyzed by fear, anxiety, and worry over my health. I literally could not function normally. I barely got out of bed for three weeks, couldn’t go to work, couldn’t eat, couldn’t carry on. I lost ten pounds in two weeks, the anxiety and worry made my stomach so sick and consumed so much of my mind that I had to force myself to eat bread or whatever I could tolerate every day or so.

I was making weekly trips to different doctors, getting whatever I thought was a terminal illness or cancer checked out. I would wake up in the morning so ridden with anxiety that I would immediately call off work and go to the doctor. I missed so much work, in fact, that I made $11,000 less last year than I had the year before that.

I was put on anxiety medication, and I honestly only remember bits and pieces from those few months. My head was in a constant fog, and I still worried consistently. I thought I was dying, I thought something was wrong and that the dozens of doctors and emergency rooms I had went to were somehow missing it.

Here I am, one year later, one year after this all began. I am stronger. The devil is trying so hard to kill me with worry and anxiety again. Even though I doubted, prayed, screamed at God for a year, He was always there. He held me in His hands when I truly could not move.

I barely made it through last year. But this year, I am fighting back. Fighting the thoughts, ignoring the devil, dealing with my issues and concerns, which there are way less of, and moving forward. I have not been dwelling on them. I am moving forward. I am learning. I am growing.

I am almost me again.

"If you ultimately long to be holy, hope to be holy, hate the sin in your life, and are struggling to get there but keep falling short, and you’re in this kind of weird cycle where you kind of run to God for a season, then you run away to clean yourself up, then you run back to God, then you kind of run away when you screw up, and then you run back… If you have yourself in that cycle, I’m telling you, you’re walking in a fear-based religion that does not quite understand that God has already decreed you as holy and blameless. He has, in his adopting work, decreed to the universe that you are his and he delights in you, is proud of you, loves you, and cherishes you. You are a co-heir with Christ of all he has.”
— Matt Chandler"

"God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns."

(Source: afterhisheartt)

(Source: unbrokenbygrace)

1burstofcolor:

jcluforever:

Amen! #jclu_4ever

For sure.

But sometimes He wants you to bust through the walls!!

"Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of the enemy and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved."

(Source: lanevinny)

"Mercy triumphs over judgment. Love casts out fear. Peace surpasses understanding. For Christ Jesus has promised them all, and not one of His promises can be broken. There is hope in this world. Always, forever, and for always - hope in a dying world, for it will be made new."

Andrew Dixon (via earthstranger)