Overcoming

How do we persevere like Jesus? We allow God to be our strength and do the impossible in and through us. Read more from my latest post for iBelieve.com.

“You’ve almost got it, Lily!” I cheered, putting on my best coaching face. “All you need to do is keep those feet together and remember to kick from the hips, OK?”

The 9-year-old watched as I demonstrated the butterfly kick one more time.

“Yeah! Got it, coach!” she shouted and smiled.

One, two, three deep breaths she took before pushing off the wall. But her enthusiasm and focus weren’t enough to correct her stroke. She was still kicking with her feet apart, and she knew it.

“Coach, I don’t think I’m cut out to swim butterfly. I’m just not any good at it, and it’s really, really hard,” she said after touching the wall.

“Oh, Lily, that’s not true. Your stroke is looking so much better than when you first joined the team,” I reassured her. “I know you’re going to be a great butterflyer someday. It’s just going to take a little bit of time, patience and perseverance,” I reassured her.

But my pep talk only made her brow furrow further.

Her frustration reminded me of the struggles I faced when I first learned how to swim. Let’s just say if you watched my swim lesson tapes, you’d never believe I was a record-setting sprinter in high school. As a matter of fact, I vividly remember my mom asking me if I was sure I wanted to join the swim team when I brought home the flyer in sixth grade.

I’m not a swimmer anymore, but if I’m honest, sometimes my disease makes me feel like I’m not cut out to be or do much of anything.

It’s hard to persevere when the task before us feels too great to overcome.

Maybe you’re in (or have been in) a situation where you want to throw in the towel. You’ve tried everything and you still haven’t been able to conquer the mountain that’s in front of you.

When we reach a crossroads in trials of endurance, we have a decision to make. Do we stay the course or do we let things go? Do we stand and fight or do we raise our white flag in surrender?

In these moments, our first step is to pray — to take our requests, thoughts and fears before God and ask Him to help us make sense of our situation. We can run to Him and know that we are heard and that He will speak to us, because, as Scripture tells us in Luke 11:9, when we faithfully ask for something in prayer, God promises He will answer. The response might not come overnight or be as clear as we want it to be, but I believe that the Holy Spirit does speak to us in a matter of time.

I don’t know what your situation is. Maybe you’re trying to be the light in a family of unbelievers. Maybe you’re working tirelessly to get that job you’ve always wanted. Maybe you’re longing to catch the attention of the cute guy at work or school. But whatever hard thing you’re facing, this I know for sure:

If God has called you to it, He will help you get through it.

Please join me over at iBelieve.com to read the rest of this post.

Congratulations, we made it to mid-January! The holidays are over. Daylight hours are few. Temperatures are freezing. Sickness is running rampant. And, for many areas of the US, the sun has seemingly vanished.

Happy New Year to us! Or maybe … not-so-happy new year.

Blue Monday is a name given to the third Monday of January, which is reported to be one of the most depressing days of the year. There are many conflicting opinions on the validity of the study that determined this, but regardless of its scientific accuracy, I think it’s still an important thing for us to talk about.

Because for a lot of us — myself included — winter is hard.

A few weeks ago my husband and I were waiting in line for an event. As if my frozen toes weren’t enough evidence to prove it was too cold to be standing outside, one glance at my weather app confirmed my suspicions. I reloaded the app just to make sure it was reading the temperature right, but a second glance proved it was in fact only 7˚ F. Not too far in front of me, a little girl started crying.

“Mommy, I’m cold. Can we please go inside? Please!” she shouted. “I don’t want to be out here anymore.”

My heart felt the weight of her desperate plea, and for a moment, I saw a glimpse of myself in her distress. Because I’ll be real with ya, sisters — this past month has not been an easy one for me.

Maybe you can relate. Maybe, like the little girl standing in the freezing cold, there’s a part of you that’s begging God to come to your rescue right now. You’re crying out, “Father, I’m miserable. Can you please get me out of the mess that I’m in?” But all you’re experiencing is silence. If that’s you, here’s what I want to say to you today:

There’s still hope for life, and there’s a hope that can help you through your hardest days.

The name of that hope is Jesus Christ — the fulfillment of God’s promises and perfect plan. The risen King who proved once and for all just how deeply the Father loves and cares for us. The Savior who gives us a reason to trust and believe.

No matter what we face, we always have hope, because God’s promises will never fail us. 

“We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:1-20 (MSG)

Another version of this passage reads, “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (NIV). Hope is the anchor. Jesus is the anchor. And we don’t have to do the hard work of securing that anchor to the ocean floor, because Jesus has already secured it there for us. All we have to do is tether our souls to the rope and never let go. Piece of cake, right?

At this point you might be wondering, if it’s so simple, then why does life feel so hopeless sometimes?

If you’ve ever been to a church service, you might’ve heard or sang the old hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Written in 1757 by 22-year-old Robert Robinson, there’s a section of the hymn that I think captures why it’s so hard to stay tethered to the hope of Jesus. Robinson writes, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.”

God’s Word is full of hope. Jesus himself is full of hope. But in our human nature we are full of sin, and that sin makes us wander away from the source of hope. As Paul describes in Romans 7:

“I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway … I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (19, 22-25).

The remedy for our hardest day is and always will be Jesus. He wants to be our hope. He’s asking for us to come to Him so that He may give us rest and restore our weary souls (Matthew 11:28-30). But we have to choose Him first. What does that look like in life’s hard seasons?Read More

After 2015 left me sitting on the floor in a heap of tissues and chocolate wrappers, I was bound and determined to make 2016 a better year. So back in January, I wrote a New Year’s post called “How to Take Your Life Back In 2016.”

In that post, I wrote about the question I had asked myself several times in the weeks leading up to 2016, and that question was — How can I move on from the rubble and take my life back this year? After weeks of prayer and reflection, here’s what I landed on and wrote in that post:

“Want to know how to take your life back in 2016? Make a promise to yourself to fight whatever you are facing with courage and never give up. There will be bad days where we feel like we can’t go on, but we will keep hope alive. Starting this year we will choose joy. Starting this year we will choose to focus on what is good. Amen?”

Sweet friends, today I stand before you with a big smile on my face because, with the help of Jesus, that’s exactly what I did in 2016! I took my life back by choosing courage over fear. I chose joy by launching the Finding Joy Podcast. I chose to focus on the good things in my life by answering God’s call to ministry and launching this new website. I kept hope alive.

And I’m ready to make 2017 an even better year. How about you?

This is our chance, friends. This is our chance to map out a new year — a new adventure full of beauty and opportunity.

We don’t have to let another year pass us by. We can be intentional with our lives. Together, I believe we can dream, grow and experience abundant life in Christ! And the first step we can take to make this happen is set some time aside to get inspired and motivated for the new year.

That’s why I’ve created the 2017 Positively Lovely Inspiration Book, just for you!

This book is packed full of scripture, reflection questions and guided journaling that will help you jumpstart your faith walk this year.

We’ll talk about lessons learned in 2016, how we can grow closer to God in 2017, dreams we have for the future and goals that can help us get there, etc.

I hadn’t even started unpacking my suitcase yet from our trip visiting family in Indiana, and he was already getting ready to head out the door again.

“I don’t want you to go,” I cried. “Please, can I just come with you?”

My husband looked at me with a sadness I’ve only seen a handful of times in our marriage. “Sweetie,” he said. “I wish you could. You know I do. But you also know you can’t.”

He was right. I had a job to go to and a dog to take care of. But that didn’t stop the loneliness from creeping in whenever he left to go on a business trip. And it certainly didn’t stop the tears or sleepless nights from coming.

It’s funny — I’ve always been a very independent woman. The kind of woman who traveled to live in far-off places for internships. The kind of woman who worked diligently to become the editor and chief of her campus magazine. The kind of woman who planned a wedding 100% on her own. And yet, since I’ve been married, I repeatedly struggle with loneliness when my husband has to travel for work. It’s something I remember experiencing when I was younger. Back when I wondered if anyone cared about or actually noticed me. I don’t wonder those same kind of thoughts anymore, but what I’m realizing is that even though I am highly independent and know that I am loved and valued, I just don’t like to be alone. Because I have found that the opportune moment for the enemy to strike is when I’m all alone.

A fellow Christian writer recently wrote that the ache of loneliness can be so intense that it immobilizes us and keeps us stuck in our sadness. And she’s right. The chains of loneliness are one of the enemy’s go-to weapons. His desire is for us to feel abandoned. His desire is for us to feel forgotten. His desire is for us to feel like we’ll never escape our past. His desire is for us to feel like things are pointless or hopeless. But none of those feelings are Biblical.

The honest me will admit that, no, I don’t like to be alone. There’s a part of me — a part of my past — that fears the silence. And there’s parts of my past and present that God is still redeeming and healing. But if I had to guess, I think God gave me a traveling husband for a little while so that I could practice claiming His truths and taking shots at the enemy. So that I can learn to rely on Him and Him alone. It’s painful, but no doubt needed.

So amid the dreaded goodbyes and tear-stained cheeks, I’m making a choice. A choice to embrace the lonely nights as a chance to dive deeper into the Word. Deeper into my Father’s arms. Deeper into the truth. Deeper in grace, love and wholeness.

In our loneliness we can either let the enemy win, or we can claim God’s truths over our lives.

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Hey friend! Before you read this blog, I’d love to personally invite you to the She Found Joy Retreat that I am hosting in Spruce Pine, NC from July 19-21, 2024. Learn more and apply online. If you’re looking for refreshment in your faith journey and longing to experience fresh joy and healing among a company of faith-filled women, this retreat is for you, and I would love to meet you there! Love, Lauren Gaskill

With two hands, I touched the pool ledge and quickly lifted my head to look at the clock, smiling with delight over what I saw. I’d hit a 12-second split and had 18 more glorious seconds before I needed to push off to swim my next 25-yard butterfly sprint. But this was the first of 50 laps, and I knew not all of them were going to be this easy.

With Christmas just a few weeks away, our team was at the peak of high school season training. If you’ve ever known a swimmer, you know that this is when practices can make someone want to hang up their cap and goggles for good.

Halfway into the series of 25-yard sprints, I began to feel discouraged. Maybe I can’t finish this set. Maybe I won’t break that school record after all. I thought to myself. Then I looked up at the team banner hanging below the record board. It read:

Dream. Believe. Achieve.

Our coach loved these three words … so much that he made them our team motto. Almost every day he reminded us that in order to achieve great things and live the kind of life you want to live, you have to first dream and believe.

We can’t get to where we want to be — or be who we were created to be — if at first we don’t believe what God says about who we are and who we were created to be.

There was a time in my life when I didn’t believe God’s word for my life. I believed in God, I just found it hard to believe what God had to say about me.

He called me lovely — more precious than rubies (Proverbs 3:15), adored, treasured and worth dying for. I called my self broken, not good enough, pathetic and helpless.

He said He had a beautiful plan for my life (Jeremiah 29:11). I said my life was destined to be miserable.

He said I didn’t have to worry about a single thing (Philippians 4:6). I said that worrying was my middle name.

You can imagine I wasn’t the most positive person to be around in this particular season of life. But that all changed the day I finally chose to believe God’s word for my life. Like a hurricane, His love came crashing into me one day, and suddenly I realized that I could believe God because He was good. Not only was He good but in 1 John I saw that He was love. This changed everything for me.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.             -1 John 4:16 ESV

I learned that I could also believe God because His Word said I could believe Him. Luke 1:37 tells us that no word from God will ever fail.

Suddenly I saw myself through His eyes. I saw that He really did love me — flaws and all. And for the first time, my soul felt like it could fly.

It was like going from living a black and white life to living a life in technicolor. Believing God brought color and new life into my world.

On Oct. 4, 2016, I drove to Missouri to attend the Designed for Life (DFL) Conference after receiving an invitation from the conference’s founder, Debbie Lindell. The conference has a different theme every year, and the 2016 theme, She Believes, felt like it was created just for me.

There is power in believing God. There is blessing in believing God. In Luke 1:45 we are told that “blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.” In Mark 9:23 we learn “everything is possible for one who believes.” Believing changes everything.

Back in high school, the second I chose to believe I could finish that grueling swim set, I knew deep down that I was going to finish — no matter what. And with that same attitude and determination, the second I chose to believe God for my life, I knew that I was going to be alright — no matter what. Because God loved me, and because of His love and goodness I could trust Him with my life. Maybe at one point, you’ve had an encounter that inspired you to believe that, too.

The reality is, life gets busy, and sometimes we forget or grow weary of believing God’s promises, don’t we? When life gets hard, we start to think maybe His promises, goodness and blessings are reserved for other people. When we watch the news headlines reel across our screen, we figure He has bigger fish to fry.

Dear sisters, this is what I want to tell you today: Don’t stop believing — not only who you are in Christ, but also who your Father is. God calls you by name, and He is able to do the impossible in and through you.

Once I arrived at the DFL Conference, I knew why God had wanted me to be there. He wanted me there because He wanted to strengthen my faith and confirm in my heart what He’d been asking me to believe: that He is still the God of miracles; that I will see healing manifest from all of the physical challenges I’ve faced; and that His timing really is perfect.

I don’t know what God is asking you to believe in this season of life you’re in, but I know one step is all it takes to build your faith. And you can take that one step right here, right now.Read More

This post is part of the devotional I was asked to write for a recently published devotional book called “Let Your Light Shine.” More details below.

Several months ago I woke up in the middle of a nightmare with a traumatic flashback fresh in my mind. My heart was racing, my chest was tight and my body was drenched in sweat. I tried to shove the memories playing in my head to the side, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of sheer panic. In my delirium I struggled to catch a breath and got up to splash some water on my face.

The cold water refreshed me as it washed away my beads of sweat, but seconds later I felt tears taking their place. Usually I would have stopped the water works from getting too out of control. You know, stuff the tears back where they came from. But this time, as the rolled down my cheek, I didn’t try to stop them. Like a rushing river I just let them flow.

I looked at myself in the mirror and scowled. What’s wrong with you? Seriously … you’re pathetic. You should be ashamed of yourself right now. I knew these thoughts were lies from the enemy, but the longer I stared at myself the more I started to consider them. Sure, there is always hope in Jesus, but part of me felt hopeless, like a Humpty-Dumpty who could never be put back together again.

Darkness has a way of making us question who we really are.

If you’ve seen any of the Star Wars movies, you’re probably familiar with the Force. There’s the Living Force (i.e. Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi) but there is also a Dark Side (i.e. the Sith and Darth Vader). Here’s the thing: Vader didn’t always belong to the Dark Side. Like so many of us he began his journey as an innocent, wide-eyed child of the day. But somewhere along the way the darkness found him, and it made him question who he was. Suddenly he was lost and confused — fighting a battle against light and dark while forgetting his true character.

Friends, we too face a similar battle each and every day. There is an enemy. There is darkness. And it will do everything it can to blindside us and steal our joy and identity in Christ.

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