Can you hear The Cry? The cry of the human heart? It’s calling as you pass the bus stop. It’s looking through the eyes of the girl across the counter, the guy across the room. It’s contemplating the alternatives...
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Life is hard. Relationships can be messy. Pursuing your dreams can be a challenge. The work to “make ends meet” can test your strength and endurance.
Try again. Peter James and John were fishermen in Israel. Hard workers, their livelihood relied on each night’s catch. And sometimes the catch just wasn’t there... Typically I look forward to the new year. A time to hope and dream. A time to toss the old and embrace the new. But this year was different. I’m facing uncertainties in 2024 and I realized there was an element of fear in my heart.
Can I meet the challenges? Dodge the potential punches? Ride the roller coaster that “new” and uncertain sometimes brings? Instead of excitement, I was reluctant to dream too much, hope too big... What do you see when you look at the nativity? A tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, vulnerable and weak? In a society where injustices abound and the long-held values of the Bible are in question, perhaps you should take another look...
Is it worth it to go the extra mile? Does God – or anyone else for that matter – really notice when you go above and beyond? Extra hours put in at work to complete a project, volunteer work at church, even the sacrifices you make for your family can sometimes seem ignored or unnoticed. Is the extra effort worth it?
Doubt is a funny thing. It can masquerade as justified concern or prudent cautiousness. It can be the OCD force that makes you line up all your ducks before you act on what God has called you to do, right here and right now.
Doubt can hold back the strongest of us when it dresses as an imposter syndrome... There are times for quiet prayer. Heartfelt whispers do reach heaven. But there are also times to pull your spiritual sword out of its sheath and brandish it with everything inside you. To fight the good fight of faith...
Are you afraid of snakes? I used to be. But something’s changed. I’ve changed. I was helping my daughter move a blueberry bush this week. Hiding in the roots was a snake. Granted, it was small, but still—a slithery snake.
Normally it would cause me to run for the hills... “The Lord... is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 NKJV
The air was chilly and we grabbed winter coats to ward off the cold between takes. It was 2 am in the French quarter of New Orleans, and hundreds lined the street shooting the Jack Reacher film “Never Go Back” featuring Tom Cruise. My husband Sam and I were among the crowd of background actors bringing this film to life... It was at the height of the pandemic with all its uncertainties. Driving home from an evening church service, I pulled up “The Blessing” song by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes on YouTube. As I drove, I poured out my heart in prayer for my children and their families, utterly absorbed in the moment, the anointing, the presence of God that was inhabiting my praise and my prayers. And then I saw the lights in my rearview mirror...
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Laura WoodworthWhat’s your dream? I pray you will be inspired and encouraged to pursue all God has for you. Now, more than ever, we need people of faith to go, do and become the light for the world. Archives
May 2024
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