Tag: encouragement

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Reader’s Question: Overcoming Difficulty

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Here is a question I get from young and old alike: how can we overcome difficulty? Failed marriages and broken relationships. Financial strain and poor health. Disappointment and shame. We will never rub shoulders with someone who hasn’t experienced some kind of pain or struggle in life. Knowing that we each carry burdens and sorrows, the question deserves careful thought.

How can we overcome difficulty? I think of a time in David’s life that roiled in pain and trouble: returning home after several days away, he discovered his city burned and all the women and children carried away. (See 1 Samuel 30:4) “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep.” Have we ever cried until we couldn’t cry anymore? If this wasn’t bad enough, the people then talked of stoning David because of the tragic loss of their homes and families. Everything David knew and cared about was gone-his house burned down and his wives and children kidnapped and then his own people wanted to kill him! How did David overcome this tragedy? “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” (v.6)

He strengthened himself in the Lord. David got with God. In the middle of confusion, weeping, and pain, David turned his broken heart toward God. He reminded himself of the goodness of God. He remembered all the times that God provided for him and protected him. He fed his heart with hope in God. David then asked God a very direct question: should I pursue this troop? God answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” (v.8) David trusted that he heard God right and he went after his enemies and recovered all that had been stolen.

Do we have difficulty in our life? Are there broken relationships and discarded dreams? Are the struggles of daily life sometimes too much to bear? We must strengthen ourselves in the Lord, dear friend! How do we do that? Just like David, we remember the testimony. “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart! Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.” (Psalm 119:2,24) Do we see it? Blessing rests in keeping His testimonies. The testimonies of God are a delight and our counselor. Remembering all the good things God has said and done throughout our lifetime as well as throughout history will strengthen our heart in the day of trouble.  Our hopefulness anchors in the God stories we share and remember. They will be our delight and they will give us strength to follow what God says.

Do we have a testimony of God’s goodness in our lives? If not, take someone else’s! That’s right, take someone else’s God-story as our own, because if He did it for them, He will do it for us. Let the testimonies in scripture become delightful counselors. Relive those God encounters—remembering who God has been and what He has spoken —and we will be strengthened in the Lord. God alone has the encouragement, strength, and direction we need to overcome our difficulty.

*A personal side note to this: Psalm 119 WRECKED me this week. I cried my way through this psalm as God opened my eyes to His wonderful truths hidden in these verses. This psalm is an alphabetic acrostic divided into 22 stanzas with eight couplets in each stanza. All the couplets in the first stanza begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph; the couplets in the second begin with the second letter, beth; and so on to the end of the poem. This appears to be an expansion of David’s Psalm 19:7-11. Wow, God’s Word never gets old. I hope you get wrecked by His love this week!

For more good stuff, check out my book, Gracious Living, creating a culture of honor, love, and compassionanywhere books are sold. Keep those questions coming and feel free to share my blog with anyone who might need an encouraging word!

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Growing with God

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Do you remember planting seeds for science class in elementary school? The classroom window was lined with hopeful little pots, waiting for green life to spring forth. There was always that smug girl whose plant shot up first and remained the biggest plant in the window. Then there was me, the girl with knee socks slumped around the ankles, pulling her little green stalk out of the dirt to see exactly what was going on under that soil!

Growth is almost always a subtle, hidden process. A tree’s growth is registered in its rings. The actual growing or adding of woody fiber happens quickly over a few months. The rest of the year is a slow solidification process of the green timber. Our spiritual life can feel the same way. God will bring bursts of revelation and insight or conviction and tenderness of heart.  Big decisions leap forward and new directions and habits forge ahead. God is so close we can almost feel His smile on us. But He also brings seasons where we must press in.  Weeks or months feel quiet and uneventful. We are solidifying our relationship with Him. To enjoy God’s presence is one thing; to be established in Him and manifesting His goodness daily, is another. Fruit ripens slowly with subtlety. It takes time to grow into His representation here on earth. 

“I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Phil.1:6) I’m glad the Apostle Paul was so sure. I have to fight the compulsion to pull it all up from the roots, impatient to see what’s going on in the soil of my heart. Am I becoming more like Christ? Why does it seem so hard to change? These are the questions rumbling around in my head, but I remind myself a squash only requires months to grow while an oak tree needs years. Which do I want to be? I can take the fast and easy route which has an appearance of spiritual growth, or I can settle into the steady and certain process with Christ directing my steps.

What does spiritual growth look like for you in this season? Are you being called into greater levels of obedience and listening? My friend, be encouraged: God will finish what He has started in you. The Bible says it this way: “the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10) He’s got you! Partner with Him in every way that you know to do and then trust that He’s got you.

Many times, we strive and worry. We get into our flesh and work at religion. God will perfect what He started in you. He will confirm His work in you, strengthen it and establish you as His representation here on earth. Keep soaking up those nutrients in scripture, prayer, and God-encounters. Follow and obey Him. Let your roots go deep into Christ as His love blooms into new life. 

*This blog was originally published in August 2020. After spending the last few days with a beautiful group of college kids at Kaleo PCB, I felt it was relevant to share again.

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Does your spiritual life need nurturing? Get my book, Gracious Living, creating a culture of honor, love, and compassion anywhere books are sold. Sign up for the blog at www.MargaretAllen.org at the bottom of Mondays with Margaret. 

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Inspired by Meekness

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I want to brag on someone today and it’s not to exalt them but to instruct us. Recently I heard an inspiring talk from my friends Jeremy and Debora Anderson. A little bit of context might help: they are campus ministers at UC Santa Cruz and they oversee all the Chi Alpha campus ministers in Cali, Az, Nevada and Hawaii. They also send teams into Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Many of you will recognize their name from the foreword in my book. Debora had a dream that I wrote a book called Gracious Living. She was so impacted by this dream that she had canvas bags made with Gracious Living printed on them and gave them to me as a gift. Her prophetic dream focused my journey of writing and was the reason I titled my book, Gracious Living.

Hearing Jeremy and Debora speak; shoot, just being around them brought something to life inside my heart and mind. I became more sensitive to what the Holy Spirit was saying. Psalm 19:12 spoke to me: “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.” This resonated for me and it led me to James 1:21-25 “therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” When my eyes fell upon the word “meekness” I stopped. Receive with meekness the implanted word. Jeremy and Debora are my living examples of meekness. Right in front of my eyes, they live and love from a pure heart. They don’t spend energy protecting and defending. They just give and trust that God will protect them and fill them. They don’t try to argue anyone into the Kingdom of God; they simply bring an experience with God’s holy presence that is winsome and inspiring. Jeremy and Debora are parenting the next generation of college students to love Jesus and to follow Him. They mentor grads on how to run their business with joy and humble hearts; they instruct young couples to walk out their marriages with service and gratitude. Just being around their precious family brings peace!

I realize you can read this and think well what a nice couple, I’m happy for them but I guess I’m wanting to stir up something more than that. Let me ask the questions I’ve asked myself after time with them: Can people come to us for prayer? Do they? Are we leading people to Christ through our words and lifestyle– or are we simply ‘nice’ folks? Do we carry the power and anointing of a holy life? What I find striking is that the meekest couple I know has the most impact on the Kingdom and on me personally. When I heard them speak, they didn’t talk about sin at all but I was convicted of sin. When I’m around them, I just want to be a better person—more of who God made me to be. 

Matthew 11:12 contains a fascinating verse that sums up what I’m observing in Jeremy and Debora: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize].” Students at UC Santa Cruz are seizing the Kingdom of God, pursuing Christ as a precious prize because Jeremy and Debora are representing Him well. And I want to do the same!

Who’s inspiring you lately? If you are looking for something significant to give toward, please consider investing in Jeremy and Debora’s ministry at UC Santa Cruz and beyond. Learn more about them at www.WCXA.com

Remember to go to www.MargaretAllen.org for free resources and to sign up for the blog. Just scroll to the bottom of Mondays with Margaret to get this blog in your email every Monday. Have a great week everyone!

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One Year

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2 Cor 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves”

In our ever-changing world consistency is surprisingly unique. Pop icons discuss in detail the way they brew their tea or fold their clothes. Why do we read that stuff?  In our fluid way of life perhaps we long for some hard-core consistency. Think about it a moment, what’s one of the hardest things you’ve done recently? Isn’t it just showing up? Doesn’t it involve staying under something, being consistent, doing hard things day after day? People around us may not even realize we are working to be consistent in our marriage, job, health, and habits.

Most of my life I’ve just kept my head down and done my work. I don’t complain much when I’m in a tough spot and I don’t celebrate much when I have a breakthrough. But I’ve realized there is a vulnerability in being honest and inviting others to collaborate when the road is just too hard alone. If you’re like me, talking with others about what you’re learning helps you to process it all. So, I would like to share about a milestone in my life this week.

One year. I am celebrating one year of publishing a weekly blog and one year since my book came out. If you haven’t read through my book with a friend, I hope you will invest in your inner world and get Gracious Living, creating a culture of honor, love, and compassion. As many of you know, I agonize over writing. But time and time again I feel God show up as I show up! In the past year, the words would flow some weeks, but other times I felt I had absolutely nothing to say. And those were the hard times to dig deep and search out, well, what has God shown me recently? Consistency in writing built some muscle for me as an author. It helped me hone my voice and lean in to God. Consistently showing up forced me to battle procrastination, fear, and shame.

In 1 Timothy 4:14 the Apostle Paul exhorts Timothy, a young pastor in training, “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you.” Then, in 2 Timothy 1:6 Paul instructs him to “fan into flame the spiritual gift with in.” Do not neglect it and fan it into flame–these two exhortations indicate our natural tendency is to neglect or rest passively with our gifts either from fear, shame, resistance, or just laziness. Is it possible that where we encounter the greatest resistance could be our area of greatest giftedness? Paul tells Timothy, “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.” (1 Timothy 4:15) 

Rather than just keeping my head down and doing my work, never complaining and also never really celebrating, I want to meditate on these things with you. I want to celebrate showing up consistently for a year while also confessing it was hard! But I made it, and I’m a better writer because of it and hopefully more dependent on the Spirit of God than ever before. Where do you struggle with consistency?

We all are working toward something in the coming year. What are the hard choices we need to make right now to land where we want to be next year or five years from now? Consistency really matters in the small things of life and it builds the road that leads us into the big things. Self-discipline, honesty, thoughtfulness- done over a long period of time, pay off. Clearly, we are merely earthen containers; it is the extraordinary greatness of God that fills us up.

Have a great week everyone! Go to www.MargaretAllen.org for free resources and to sign up to get this blog in your email every Monday. 

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Coming Home

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When many of us return home for Thanksgiving, we quickly revert to old family patterns and expectations. We’ve all seen it, the one labeled sensitive in junior high is still thought of as delicate. The favored one still gets the best seat at the table. The responsible one is still expected to do all the dishes and so on. Sometime we have to take a step back from what we think we know about each other and allow curiosity and openness to reveal what’s new.  Of any year in our lifetime, 2020 is surely the year to bring a fresh approach to our family time.

Believe it or not, Jesus went through this same scenario with His family. In Mark 3 we get the uncensored version of how some families respond to change. A multitude had surrounded Jesus so that He couldn’t even get a bite to eat. “But when His own people (His family) heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.””  (Mark 3:21) It’s almost as if his family was saying Dude, you are a carpenter not a rabbi! What the heck, man? The brothers of Jesus later grew accustomed to His new position and encouraged Him to go to Jerusalem for essentially a publicity hype to boost His popularity. Scripture doesn’t sugar-coat it by summarizing: “For even His brothers did not believe in Him.” (John 7:5) Jesus later defined family as “whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)

Jesus spent the majority of His life in His family household. But His family only knew Him in the flesh. The did not know Him in the Spirit. They didn’t know His purpose or calling. They had to grow and process new information about Him just like everyone else. Many people He grew up around could not accept Jesus for who He became. They questioned, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son?” The passage concludes, “So they were offended at Him.” (Matthew 13:55-57) Is there offense in any of our gatherings?

In our homes over Thanksgiving, people we have known in the flesh will be gathered around our table. Instead of looking at them in the flesh- the way they speak and interact, the ways we’ve always known them to be, why not look at them with spiritual eyes? Ask God to reveal His calling on their life.  Ask God to give a glimpse into HIS heart for our families. We can ask God to give specific scripture for someone at our table. He alone knows what encourages us and reminds us that He sees our heart. This Thanksgiving, allow the Holy Spirit to usher in a refreshing presence of curiosity and acceptance. Surely this is the heart of creating a culture of honor, love, and compassion.

Next week I will share five tips for hosting a loving and beautiful holiday gathering. I’m excited for new ways of creating the culture we long to possess! Thanks to everyone who has been sharing my blog and remember you can sign up to receive it in your email by going to www.MargaretAllen.org and scrolling to the bottom of Monday’s with Margaret. We just started the second printing of my book, Gracious Living, creating a culture of honor, love, and compassion.  Get it anywhere books are sold.

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Unlikely Comfort

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My college kids headed out in the boat for the last run of the day. Lake Shasta had not disappointed in a day filled with wakeboarding excitement and laughter.  As the sun was setting, my daughter Nicole took a hard fall after jumping the wake. She fell forward and her board popped up, hitting her in the back of her head.  She was able to climb onto the boat, unaware of the blood flowing down her neck.

The kids raced for the marina to get cell service to call 911 and to let us know what happened. As Nicole was lifted into the ambulance, she instantly had a feeling that she would be prayed for on the way to the hospital. Whether she was seeking distraction from her pain or just curious how prayer would happen, she asked Ashley, the EMT, how he handled seeing trauma every day.  He replied, “Honestly, it’s Jesus.” Nicole smiled and said, “Do you go to Bethel church?” He replied yes. They talked about their church and healing experiences.  As they pulled up to the hospital, Ashley prayed for her healing.

Listen to these words from the Apostle Paul: “We were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.  Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus” (2 Corinthians 7:5b-6) Where do you receive comfort when you are hurt or afraid? Who can you turn to when you need healing and help? God sends us comfort, sometimes in unlikely places. One minute you can be jamming on a wakeboard and the next you’re in an ambulance but God knows all about it. He sends encouragement and faith through a Titus, or in our case, an Ashley. Outside are conflicts, inside are fears, but God finds us.

In every difficult situation you encounter, God offers help. Maybe it’s a neighbor who is praying for you, a friend who pays your rent, a co-worker who reaches out. Maybe it’s a huge lit-up cross on the side of a hospital to remind you that God knows all about your pain. No matter how that comfort comes, take it as a wink from God. If you encounter opportunities this week to be that help, that unlikely prayer warrior, healer, encourager-BE the provision sent by God. You never know how God may use you to bring encouragement, healing, or transformation in someone’s life.

After an agonizing five hour wait outside the emergency room of (no joke) Mercy hospital, Nicole emerged stitched, bandaged, and cheerful. She told us about Ashley’s prayer, confidently assuring us she would not have a concussion.  The next morning Nicole was not concussed. She didn’t even have a headache. That was God’s wink for her. 

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I love witnessing the tender ways God encounters regular folks like you and me! I share these stories in my book, Gracious Living, creating a culture of honor, love, and compassion. Get it today at www.MargaretAllen.org  

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Easing into Gratitude

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Did you know when people are feeling positive they are 30% more creative and productive than they are at negative, neutral or stressed? I don’t know about you in 2020, but I’ve been straining just to get to neutral. Goals of creativity, productivity, positivity are melting into a coronavirus ooze of Netflix, Zoom calls, tired cooking, and boundaryless life-work tension.  Like me, are you searching for ways to lift your mental health

We learn to scan the landscape of our lives for good. My daily gratitude practice is outlined in my book, Gracious Living. Gratitude begins with posturing our heart toward God. Here’s a starter: “I take a few minutes to turn my affection toward God. Some days, I have more time, but at a minimum, I spend five minutes loving Him and celebrating His friendship in my life. It can simply be turning my face upward toward the sun for a few moments; dancing when a song comes on; or cherishing the sweetness of a moment in prayer.  Every day I also jot down three things for which I’m grateful.” (p. 43) You see, telling God thanks helps us to relive those good moments along with all the positive feelings. It’s way more productive than reliving every negative conversation or thought.

Besides my gratitude list of three every day, I practice another habit that has significantly impacted my life. Again, from my book, Gracious Living: “I send an encouraging text or email to someone every day. Whoever comes to mind, I take that as a sign from God.  I send them a Bible verse, tell them why I’m grateful for them, or share what I’m praying for them.  You might ask, ‘How does this help you, Margaret?’ If I consistently speak life over others, it will stand out as incongruent if I speak poorly to myself.  If I’m better to others, I will be better to myself, plain and simple.” (p. 43) Try it out: send an encouraging text or email a few mornings this week and see if your mood is lifted!

The Bible is a plumb line for me. When my thinking starts to spiral toward negativity, I review this honest word from Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8) So my friend, when you walk into the kitchen, what do you dwell on? When you interact with fellow employees or family members do you dwell on what is true and honorable and worthy of praise?

This attitude of gratitude will ripple outward into every area of your life. Let the goodness of God shape your thinking so that you can be positive in this present moment. If you need some inspiration, find my book Gracious Living, creating a culture of honor, love, and compassion at MargaretAllen.org. The kindle version is on Amazon. Thank you for reading my blog today and let me hear how your gratitude practice is going!