Tag: mercy

Depression and Anxiety Help and Hope Resources

Trudy Den Hoed30 Comments

“Seeing the people,
He felt compassion for them,
because they were distressed and dispirited
like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew 9:36 NASB

“There are seasons when
doubts and fears abound,
and so suffocate us with their fumes
that we cannot even raise a cry,
and then the indwelling Spirit
represents us, and speaks for us,
and makes intercession for us,
crying in our name.”
~ Charles Spurgeon

” In the same way the Spirit
also helps our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we should,
but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words.”
Romans 8:26-27 NASB

Trapped In My Own Mind: Three Lies Depression Loves by Sarah Walton

Depression does not mean God is punishing us, does not mean God is absent, and it does not make us useless.

“Depression of spirit is no index of declining grace. It is Christ and not the absence of depression that saves us. So, we declare this truth. Our sense of God’s absence does not mean that He is so. Though our bodily gloom allows us no feeling of his tender touch, He holds on to us still. Our feelings of Him do not save us. He does.”
– Spurgeon’s Sorrows, 38–39

Anxiety in Children: How to Recognize Symptoms and Help Anxious Children by Dr. Michelle Bengston

“In recent days, anxiety has been at an all-time high not just in our country but across the world. Think your child hasn’t been anxious? Don’t be so sure. On the podcast, we’ve recently started a series on how to defeat anxiety during times of crisis. I recently recorded a podcast episode with my son taking his “emotional temperature” in the wake of spring break being extended, school-going online instead of in person, and being unable to socialize as normal with peers (Helping a Teenager with Anxiety). After talking with him, I knew we needed to have further discussion about how to recognize anxiety in children and help them.”

The Story of the Oyster and The Butterfly: The Corona Virus and Me

Bonnie Gray offers this soul care resource from a therapist who helped her through healing from emotional childhood trauma – “This free book written by a psychotherapist and author Ana M. Gomez will help children understand and process their feelings about Covid-19. A wonderful tool to spark conversations with your child. Great for adults too!”

Rebecca Hastings offers a simple guided journal.

“I have been struggling with my feelings during the Coronavirus Pandemic our world is facing. That is expected. What I didn’t expect was to struggle with PRAYING through it. I know that God is here, even in this. But sometimes it is hard to find the words when our emotions are all over the place. That’s why I made this journal for us.”

On the guided pages, there are spaces to write who God is, what we’re grateful for, what we’re honestly feeling that day, what we ask God to help us with, and a place to write out a verse from His Word.

American Psychological Association’s COVID-19 Information and Resources

Resources relevant to our mental health during this pandemic and continually updated by APA for psychologists, health-care workers and the public

Crisis Hotlines and Resources

“Need to talk to someone? Specialists are available for confidential telephone counseling.”

Covid-19 Resource and Information Guide

Helpful guide from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) – simple actions to aid our mental health and calm our anxiety, preventing and addressing social stigma, questions answered, helplines, and more

“I often feel very grateful to God that I have undergone fearful depression. I know the borders of despair and the horrible brink of that gulf of darkness into which my feet have almost gone. But hundreds of times I have been able to give a helpful grip to brethren and sisters who have come into that same condition, which grip I could never have given if I had not known their deep despondency.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

Blessings
by Laura Story

Grieving and Giving Chronic Illness to God Who Cares

Trudy Den Hoed26 Comments

I don’t write about it much, but I’ll admit I do get so weary sometimes of chronic illness… Shortness of breath, persistent coughing, tight and sore bronchial airways, aching in my bones, draining energy, brain fog, and recurrent bronchial infections that flare up my sarcoidosis, a multi-system inflammatory disease primarily affecting the lungs.

Through all losses, we need to go through a grieving process, don’t we? Even when we have health limitations. Sure, it helps to look at others we feel have it so much worse, but I’m learning that only leads us to dismiss or minimize our health issues. Then we start to do more what others expect of us than to care for ourselves. We end up draining ourselves.

We need to allow ourselves to believe we have a problem so we can do what will help, not hinder, our well-being. We need to work through any feelings, like anger or depression, that detriment our health. To mourn the things our hearts long to do, but our bodies don’t agree to. To grieve over the pain of others not understanding us. It’s okay not to feel okay.

God invites us to unburden any and every hurt in our hearts, even when we feel upset at Him for not healing us like we want. He desires for us to allow His grace-filled arms to hold us up, His compassion to console us, and His unconditional love to release the pressure we put on ourselves.

No matter what we suffer from, Jesus empathizes with us and cries with us. He has experienced every kind of suffering imaginable, so He understands. Because He suffered for us, we don’t have to be alone in our suffering.

It can be so hard though, right? It’s a process that recycles over and over again. But God is not going to abandon us, even when it feels like it. His character is the very essence of love and faithfulness. His mercies are new every morning.

“Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,
for His mercies never end.
They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness!”
Lamentations 3:22-23

I have not posted this to gain any pity. I’m just trying to be real. It’s something I really need work on. I usually have this automatic answer when most people ask me how I am – “I’m fine! How are you?” I try to be strong in front of others, and I end up paying for it. I’m not meaning we should wallow in a puddle of self-pity and expect everyone to sit there with us. We can be honest about how we feel but still, through God’s grace, seek the beauty all around us.

I know there are many who compare their suffering with others’ and feel their suffering isn’t worth mentioning and think they should just be thankful for what they have more than others, myself included. I write this with a prayer that even one reader will feel less alone and will realize Jesus deeply cares and understands. He doesn’t measure one suffering to be worse than another. He waits with open arms and ears to hear each of us pour out every pain of our hearts, minds, and bodies.

“Praise You In This Storm”
by Casting Crowns

 May God give you strength and hope for each day!

God’s Plan Is Greater Than Ours

Trudy Den Hoed25 Comments

God's-Plan

The back of a tapestry can be jumbled up threads that don’t make sense at all, but if we turn it over, we find a beautiful picture. We can’t always make sense of God’s plan for us. We cannot always understand, but we just have to trust He has a beautiful picture in mind.

That’s so hard to do sometimes, isn’t it? To trust that God knows best? We may have big plans in our lives, but often God has another plan. Our plans are not always God’s plans. He has a plan for each of us before He even created us, and each of those plans fit into His grand design. He knows what He’s doing.


“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

If we look back on each of our lives, how many times did God have another plan than we did? Seasons of pain and suffering. Times of loss and heartache. Days of darkness where we wondered if God was really with us at all.

In the past I have wondered – If God loves us and all things are under His control, then why doesn’t He stop others from hurting us so deeply? How can all that pain be in God’s plan? But I realize now that God never wants to hurt us, but as humans we have a choice to choose, and some people choose evil towards us. Yes, God has the power to stop them, but sometimes He allows struggles in our lives so we will learn deep lessons and grow more into His likeness. We can’t always see it at the time, but in the end God always turns evil into good. He has plans to prosper us, not to harm us.

“For I know the plans I have for you,”
declares the Lord, “plans to
prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11

Back in the Old Testament times, Joseph never planned to be sold as a slave by his own brothers or later to be cast into prison for years for something he did not do, but God had plans for him. Joseph clung to God and His promises and became a blessing to many wherever he was at, and in the end he even became a ruler who was the means to save people from starvation during the years of drought. That included his brothers. Joseph forgave them and told them how God had planned all this.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good to accomplish what is now being done,
the saving of many lives.”
Genesis 50:20

In the New Testament, Mary was engaged to a different Joseph. Never did she expect God to conceive a seed in her that would be Jesus. She opened her heart and said “yes” to God’s plan even though she knew it would mean she would be slandered and scorned. And wow, look at what happened as a result! It was all a part of God’s plan to save us. Jesus who is God came down as a man so He could suffer in our place the punishment of our sins. God’s great plan of love, mercy, and grace to us.

However messed up or painful our lives are, God has a plan of love towards us. We will suffer troubles on this earth, and often we will not understand. But He is never going to leave us in them. He will help us through them. And when the pain is so deep, He can go to those deep places in our hearts and heal those broken, hurting places. The incomprehensible suffering He went through for us and His triumph over all evil will get us through whatever suffering we must go through in this life. And someday we will see the bigger picture and see how God’s plan is the most beautiful design we could ever imagine.

“No healthy Christian ever chooses suffering;
he chooses God’s will, as Jesus did,
whether it means suffering or not.”
~ Oswald Chambers

“All God’s plans have the mark of the cross on them,
and all His plans have death to self in them.”
~ E. M Bounds

“God will not permit any troubles to come upon us,
unless He has a specific plan by which
great blessing can come out of the difficulty.”
~ Peter Marshall

“When God Has Another Plan”
by the Greenes

Lord, please help us
to trust Your plan.
Please help us to say “yes”
to Your plans for us.

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Holley – Coffee For Your Heart 

Jennifer – Tell His Story 

Kelly – Cheerleaders of Faith