Surrendering Fear. Exercising Faith. Living Free.

This Christian walk is not always easy. Many people think that Christians experience "the good life" and are exempt from suffering but that isn't true at all. Christians live in the same world as non-believers, a fallen world full of sin. The only difference is that we go to God to help us in times of trial, to grant us his grace, his strength, and his faith. We rely on him rather than ourselves, and that changes everything. In times of trial and tribulation, God wants us to stop focusing so much on our circumstances and more on him. If we seek him and approach him with both prayer and thanksgiving, he will help us. That's a promise. And this past week, I really needed some help. Since I gave my life to God I have been made fun of and mocked in his name, which the Bible tells me to expect and actually rejoice in, but this past weekend I was full-blown attacked for it for the first time. I was blasted as "Little Miss God" and attacked for speaking one way a...

God has been teaching me so many things lately. Where do I start?! The Holy Spirit has been witnessing to my Spirit very strongly in the areas of humility and loving others, particularly those who make it the hardest but need it the most. I have been struggling to overcome my sinful tendencies. "For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 2:21). Oh Lord, this has been me. I stumble and fall a lot these days, back into sin, but now I get back up, pray for forgiveness, and ask God to help me do better next time. I don't tell Him I'm going to do better like I used to, because now I know that I cannot. I ask Him to help me, because that's the only way I stand a chance. By His grace. My walk as a new Christian has been very humbling so far. God is really working on getting me to understand that without Him, I am nothing and can do nothing. But "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). Wow, wh...

A little boy named Ben Sauer was just taken home to be with The Lord.  Ben had a very rare kind of cancer, a kind that took him from a healthy, happy four-year-old to death in just a few months.  Most of Buffalo was praying for a miracle, begging God to heal this young boy. His mother Mindy blogged about Ben's trials and her own so eloquently and faithfully that most of us felt like we knew her. Most of us, those who never met Ben, felt like we loved him as our own. I sobbed last night after I found out that he had passed and I cried myself through songs of worship and then to bed, which might seem strange since I never met Ben. But since I am a Christian and so was Ben and his whole family, they are my family. Ben was my brother in Christ and Mindy is my sister, and right now, I am grieving right along with them. Yet even in the midst of such suffering and saddness, I know Mindy is staying close by God, strong in her faith. Her faith in Him is what will get her through this. ...