Five Ways To Worship When You Are Weary

It’s not easy to keep going when you’re tired. Fatigue zaps us of our strength. Weariness wears on your soul like a rung-out dish cloth. How do you keep going when you’re all out of “go?” What’s the secret sauce to getting your spiritual fervor back?

I think it’s different for everybody. You and God are the only ones who know exactly what you have gone through and what you’re currently going through. Even the people going through difficulties with you don’t fully understand because they aren’t you. They don’t have your perspective, history, etc. Your perception and experiences are unique to you.

But let me offer you five strong ways to worship when you are weary. These aren’t magic bullets, but they do work if you work them. Why? Because…

Worship is a weapon.

Worship does spiritual warfare.

Worship is a nuisance to the enemy.

Worship is not just about God....

Extraordinary in the Ordinary

All of us love hearing stories of miraculous healings. Our hearts are stirred when we hear about impossible situations being beautifully restored. We get inspired by people exhibiting supernatural strength and endurance when pushed to their absolute limits.
 
Truthfully, I’m a junkie for these kinds of things. Being a writer, I’m always on the lookout for powerful, moving stories for inspiration and ideas.
 
When we read about the miracles Jesus performed while He walked among us, they fuel our faith and give us hope when things seem hopeless. 
 
But we have to remember that not every miracle was accepted or celebrated. Remember when Jesus healed on the sabbath and got the religious leaders all riled up. And when the disciples carried on His healing ministry, sometimes those miracles got them into trouble as well. 
 
Today I read the story in Acts 14 where Paul and Barnabas healed a man in Lystra who had...

Choose Faith

Hebrews 11:1, 6  “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

They say that faith is believing without seeing. In the book, Choose Joy: Finding Hope and Purpose When Life Hurts, My sister Sara said that she believes that faith is believing without seeing, but it is also believing without feeling.  It’s believing in those moments when our hearts ache and our tears betray us by spilling over when we know better but feel the pain anyway.

It’s not about always being in a happy place, as much as we should try to live there. It’s about believing even when the happy place isn’t ours to have. It’s about those times when we can’t see or feel the promise, but we...

Some of you may be wondering about your personal calling in life. Being married or not being married can indeed be a calling. So can having children or having no children, working outside the home or being a full-time mom, traveling on a job or staying in an office, working out of your home or being president of something, sewing drapes, cooking at the school cafeteria, finding a cure for cancer, or creating a better meat thermometer. Dare I say, your calling in life lies not in what you do but in who you are?

Remember this. Scripture says God created us for the express purpose of giving himself the joy of loving us. In being loved, we return that love. That is who we are: persons loved by God. When we return his love, we do it in a spirit of response that produces service to him. That is what our relationship with him is all about. If we do things for God because we are trying to pay him back, we miss the point of the relationship. We are not asked to earn the...

Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. —Proverbs 21:23

Women of Faith is a global ministry, providing digital media, resources and events to encourage and equip women to experience a deeper relationship with Jesus.  Initiatives and programs allow women to be reached with the Word of God. Various media and events are utilized in delivering the message.  Women of Faith's Foundational Voice is Alita Reynolds. 

“My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be.” Psalm 42

I remember sitting in my daddy’s lap while we watched Bo and Luke Duke outfox Boss Hogg on The Dukes of Hazard. Yee-haw! I recall my parents moving me into the dorm and saying to my mom, “Well, you aren’t just going to just leave me here, are you?” Yes. I think that was the general idea. I remember the first time I talked to my husband on the phone while sitting on my parents’ bed, twirling the phone cord in my fingers. And I can still hear my babies’ first cries and think back upon weeping as I held their tiny bodies. I recollect times when I felt so close to Jesus that I was literally surrounded by Him.

Warm, fuzzy memories are great. They usually bring a smile to our face and a little pep to our step. But oddly enough, there are times when remembering the good ol’ days can also break our hearts. Can you relate to this part of Psalm 42: “My heart is breaking...

It is amazing how a movie can touch your life. I remember watching the powerful film Rocky just after I graduated from the University of Notre Dame, followed by Rocky II a couple of years after that. I remember that overwhelming feeling as I left the theater of just wanting to go run up some stairs somewhere and throw my hands in the air. That feeling that I could do anything. That I could conquer the world.

The funny thing was, I had conquered the world—or at least a small part of it. I already had a Rocky moment in my real life. I had already accomplished more than anyone else ever dreamed I could. Like Rocky Balboa, I had proved all the naysayers wrong. I won. In my own way, on my own path, I won. Me! A stocky, messed-up kid from Joliet, Illinois, whom some people doubted would graduate high school, had gone on to play for the University of Notre Dame football team and to earn myself a top-notch college education.

And I was just getting started.

Watching Rocky,...

All of Scripture is God-breathed; in its inspired voice, we hear useful teaching, rebuke, correction, instruction, and training for a life that is right so that God’s people may be up to the task ahead and have all they need to accomplish every good work.—2 Timothy 3:16-17

Psalm 119 describes God’s Word as a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Below you’ll see some options for Bible studies that will help light your way along life’s path. Some are books, some are videos, and some are a combination of the two. There are even some free online options for you to check out, including Christian blogs with Bible studies as part of their posts. You’ll find studies you can do alone and studies you can do with a group. Many (but not all) were written by our lineup of Christian women speakers; some are specifically Bible studies for women while others are studies men would enjoy, as well. Some studies have versions for adults, teens, and children so...

A group of us from Good News Church got together to go to the 2014 Women of Faith conference in Orlando, FL. It was a very mixed group—from as young as teenagers to women in their seventies; from first-timers going to a conference to veterans who had been to many. We weren't a very large group and so we were able to connect with ladies that we had never previously connected with even though we went to the same church every week. If that wasn't enough of a blessing in and of itself, what continued to happen really impacted me, a veteran of women's conferences and studies.

First was the seventy years-plus first-timer who sponsored a child before the end of the conference and is stillon fire with a burning for volunteering and inspiring others to volunteer that came from Matthew West's performance of "Do Something."

But the story doesn't end there: You see, here at Good News Church we have a Women's Prayer Group that meets every Friday, which I facilitate. I had already...

You’ll Get Through This

by Max Lucado

You’ll get through this.

It won’t be painless.

It won’t be quick.

But God will use this mess for good.

Don’t be foolish or naïve.

But don’t despair either.

With God’s help, you’ll get through this.

You fear you won't make it through. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. In the pits, surrounded by steep walls and aching reminders, we wonder: Will this gray sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten?

God Will Carry You Through is the gift book version of Max Lucado’s bestselling You’ll Get Through This. It includes an abridged version of Max’s You’ll Get Through Thismessage plus personal testimonies by everyday people who discovered that “God had carried them through” as well as quotes and Scripture passages for meditation. This special Women of Faith Edition includes a...