Tag: God will never leave or forsake us

New Year Hope Breathers

Trudy Den Hoed30 Comments

Were you devastated from heartaches or losses of one kind or another as you closed out 2022? Has it continued into 2023? I’m so sorry. No matter what you’re suffering, I pray God strengthens you with His measureless grace and pours His peace into Your hurting heart.

🦋 “God has a heart. And it hurts.
Not with just a few drops of ache,
not just with a slow drip of sadness —
His whole massive heart fills, swells,
burns with this raw, relentless pain.”
~ Ann Voskamp

God’s Grace Is Immeasurable

❤️❤️❤️
“So here’s what I’ve learned through it all:
Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord,
and measureless grace will strengthen you.”
Psalm 55:22 TPT

As I look back to 2022, God truly has been generous with His boundless love and His all-sufficient grace. Does that mean it was free sailing without any struggles? Not at all.

There will always be trials on this earth, but God has promised His measureless grace to get through them. I am such a worrier and feel so helpless to “fix” things, but God is infinitely patient with me. I continue this life-long learning process of more deeply trusting God and leaving all worries and troubles in His Hands. To repeatedly surrender my heart and past, present, and future life and that of others to Him and His faithful love and infinite and powerful grace. To remember to relinquish the things I can’t change and to believe they are better off in God’s hands than mine. But also to seek His wisdom, guidance, and strength to have courage to make a difference wherever He places me.

❤️❤️❤️
“The Lord Himself goes before you
and will be with you; 
He will never leave you nor forsake you. 
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.“
Deuteronomy 31:8

Nature Retreat

I’m so grateful to receive photos from warmer climates during these cold and snowy winter months! The first 6 photos are of Arizona birds from my brother. 🙂 The rest of the photos are ones my niece took recently on her trip to Hawaii to visit her daughter who lives on the Big Island and studies and rescues sea turtles. 🙂

American Robin
Bridled Titmouse
Hermit Thrush
Arizona Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker
Burrowing Owls
Love this view with the lighthouse!
Another Ocean View
Sea Turtles
Green Sea Turtles
Waimea Canyon

August Hope Whispers

Trudy Den Hoed34 Comments

The Ultimate Resting Place

Before I published this post, I listened to a song a blogging friend, Lois Flowers, shared. God knew exactly what I needed to be reminded of. Do you have questions that don’t have answers and tears that just keep on running?

“…When your questions don’t have answers and you just can’t understand it
When your mind just won’t stop running and the tears just keep on coming
You don’t have to explain it
He hears you before you can speak
Come with me, let’s take it to Jesus
This is the place you can rest for a while
If you need to just fall apart
Lay down your worry, He’s not in a hurry, take all the time you need
This is the place you can rest for a while…”

God Promises Streams In the Desert

“Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.”
Isaiah 35:6

Are you feeling downhearted with no hope in sight? Here is a powerful video to watch as you read Isaiah 35:1-7 & 10. Imagine yourself in this waste-howling wilderness and the joy you will feel as God sends streams of joy to quench your parched soul.

God Knows & God Cares

“When God sends no answer and “the cloud remain[s],” we must wait. Yet we can do so with the full assurance of God’s provision of manna, water from the rock, shelter, and protection from our enemies. He never keeps us at our post without assuring us of His presence or sending us daily supplies.” – Lettie B. Cowman

“The matters we or the world might consider trivial, He cares about and wants to remedy. He longs to relieve our worries and has promised to supply our most fundamental needs.” – Charles R. Swindoll

“God knows what each one of us is dealing with. He knows our pressures. He knows our conflicts. And He has made a provision for each and every one of them. That provision is Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit, indwelling us and empowering us to respond rightly.” – Kay Arthur

Nature Retreat

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder ~

First of all, my brother shares some bird beauty. 🙂

Elegant Trogon
Western Kingbird and Ant Lion
Lunchtime!

It was so dry here that even sprinklers couldn’t keep the grass green. Then one day God blessed us with 4 inches of rain! The next day we went to the Falls. What powerful sights and sounds to see and hear as the water rushed over the rocks and pooled out into some dry areas!

“But the most celebrated water in ancient Palestine did not come from wells; it rose in the natural springs that fed enduring streams and rivers and communal reservoirs. In the Old Testament, flowing or “living” water stands for God’s faithful and lasting provision for His people.” – Sarah Ruden

I’m amazed how God speaks straight to my heart by sending butterflies to cross my path, whether I am in the house looking out a window, sitting on the patio, walking, or riding in the car. He whispers hope, “I am with you always, My child.”

Sometimes there are situations out of our control in which we hurt for and with someone who is hurting so deeply. But God… God is still with us, even when it doesn’t feel like it, and He has the power to heal and restore anyone and to change the hardest of hearts.

How has God spoken to you this month? What has brought you hope in the midst of the hard?

God Is Still In Control and His Love Will Never Leave Us

Trudy Den Hoed36 Comments

Discombobulated. A word that has often bounced around in my head and invaded my life lately. It’s a fancy word for being disoriented or confused, not knowing which way is up or down. I think it’s how many people are feeling these days.

So much is happening in this world that we can’t understand. Honestly, I feel physically, emotionally, mentally, and even spiritually burned out at times.

As I sat at my desk and looked out the window, I told God how burned out I feel and how I didn’t know if I can return to blogging. The words just weren’t there. Then a butterfly fluttered past the window and He whispered, “My child, I am with you.”

Yes, God is always with us, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Whether or not we have words to write. Even in the midst of all the chaos and confusion in this world. As He promises in Romans 8:38, NOTHING can separate us from HIS LOVE.

Over the past couple of weeks, God has been nudging me with some more truth reminders:

❤️ God’s Plan Is Always In Order and His Love Never Leaves Us

No matter how discombobulated we may feel and how out of control the world seems, God wants us to place our hearts and lives and anyone else’s life into His hands and trust He loves us and is still in control.

❤️ We Need Connection

There are so many people who feel the same way we do and need to feel less alone and more understood. So it doesn’t matter if our words sound discombobulated. We just need to speak from our hearts. He wants us to share our stories so others feel less alone and to encourage them to remember His love never fails, even in the midst of pain, heartache, and devastation in our own hearts or in all the chaos of this world.

❤️ God Wants Us to Go at Our Own Pace

We don’t need to keep pace with others. We don’t have to pressure ourselves to regularly write a post like other bloggers can or do. Sometimes other needs are begging for our attention, whether it’s those around us or our own bodies and minds. Sometimes we just don’t have the energy to do it all. And that’s okay. Yes, it’s good to write posts to encourage others, but God also wants us to encourage each person He has placed in our lives outside of blogging. God just wants us to “be”, not to be consumed with “doing” more.

❤️ God Wants Us to Pursue Beauty and Share It With Others

“Because while escaping reality may be tempting right now, that is not the life we are called to in Christ Jesus. Rather, we are are called to be Light in the darkness.

The very act of pursuing beauty ignites a spark.

Now, more than ever before in our lifetimes, is the time to fling beauty far and wide. To engage in the divine work! Whatever gifts He has given you, now is the time to use them. Plug your spiritual umbilical cord into the Holy Spirit and get down to business!”

Read More at Inspired by June

Prayer of a Prisoner In a Concentration Camp

“In me there is darkness,
But with You there is light;
I am lonely, but You do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with You there is help;
I am restless, but with You there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with You there is patience;
I do not understand Your ways,
But You know the way for me.”

“Lord Jesus Christ,
You were poor
And in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.
You know all man’s troubles;
You abide with me
When all men fail me;
You remember and seek me;
It is Your will that I should know You
And turn to You.
Lord, I hear Your call and follow;
Help me.” 

 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

A SONG TO INSPIRE

🎶 LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE 🎶
by Danny Gokey

“…Gotta keep it real simple, keep it real simple
Bring everything right back to ground zero
‘Cause it all comes down to this
Love God and love people (People)
We’re living in a world that keeps breakin’
But if we want to find a way to change it
It all comes down to this
Love God and love people…”