Beautiful Things - Gungor Lyric Video

Beyond Suffering

http://media.willowcreek.org/

Blessings - Laura Story (with lyrics)

Blessings

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the achings of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

Song lyrics by Laura Story

Broken Places

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure." 2 Corinthians 4:7a (NLT)

I knew there were secrets. I pressed gently, but she shied away. I prayed she would tell me when she was ready.

The phone call finally came.

"Can you come get me?"

When I arrived I found her battered and we drove to get medical help. On the way she spilled her secrets. Her mother was often beaten. She and her siblings were secondary targets. Leaving home had been her only escape. She had returned to visit, only to find her brother being abused. She stepped in and crushing blows followed. Her father finally stopped when she begged for her life.

Shana came to live with us until she found a safer environment. In those two months we often stayed up late talking. Her greatest fear was that she would always feel broken.

We prayed together that she could move beyond her father's actions.

Paul, an apostle in the Bible, also knew what it was to be bruised and battered. He was imprisoned unfairly. Beaten.

He once described himself as a chipped clay jar, saying, "We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed." Paul had discovered something valuable. There was a light inside that fractured jar healing the hurting places on the interior, then shining through the broken places so that the world could see.

That treasure, nestled in the center of the clay, was Jesus.

As time passed, Shana began to see herself through that light. She wasn't just a battered daughter; she was a woman with purpose. The wounds inflicted by her earthly father took time to heal, but as they did she was led to share her story.

Her message, one she would shout from every mountaintop, is this:

You are loved.

You are made for more than this.

God can and will heal the broken parts of your heart.

Today Shana is a mom and a wife. The treasure inside of this woman illuminates through the once-broken places in a powerful way. She has adopted a son and fostered other children who came to her home with their own broken places, her hope to love them to wholeness. Children trust her because she understands their pain, but also because of the light and love they see inside of her.

Maybe, you were bruised by an earthly parent's words or actions. Can I tell you something? Those words, those actions, they do not define you. You aren't limited by the chips and cracks in the outer shell.

There are thousands, like Shana, like me, who were once chipped and broken. God blazed His light through those cracks, not just healing us, but allowing that light to lead others straight into His loving arms and these truths:

God sees you.

He loves you.

He's reaching to make you whole again.

Dear Lord, I can't change another person's actions or the past, but I can open my heart to the treasure of You. You are the light in the darkness. You are reaching for me today and I am reaching back. Thank You for a fresh beginning inside of me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Reflect and Respond:
Your family may have been far from perfect, but Christ offers a family tree, one with a new and beautiful legacy.

Read Ephesians 1:18. Make this paraphrased scripture your prayer today:
I ______________ pray that my heart will be flooded with light so that I can understand the confident hope Christ has given to me, for He has called me as His own to give a rich and glorious inheritance.

Bible Verses:
Psalm 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds." (NLT)

Psalm 34:18, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed." (NLT)


Excerpt from Proverbs 31 Ministries. Written by Suzie Eller
www.Proverbs31.org

Lindsay McCaul- If It Leads Me Back

If It Leads Me Back Lyrics by Lindsay McCaul

Left in pieces
walking through a world
 that grieves us.
Don't let all my pain and weeping be in vain.

Down in the valley,
here where You found me. 
I'm holding on for every breath.
Cause You are all that I have left.

I will face the storm.
And surrender all I have.
If that's what I have to do.
If it leads me back to You.

I would walk a thousand miles.
And crawl if I have to.
If that's what I have to do.
If it leads me back to You.

Leads me back to You.
Leads me back to You. 

Here's my heart
with every broken part
I give You.
Here's my fear when all my faith is wearing through.

Here in the valley, put Your arms around me.
Not gonna walk away, I know
You'll never let me go.

I will face the storm.
And surrender all I have.
If that's what I have to do.
If it leads me back to You.

I would walk a thousand miles.
And crawl if I have to.
If that's what I have to do.
If it leads me back 

And where You go.
I will follow.
I will come with You.

And where You lead.
Where You take me.
I will come with You.

So I will face the storm.
And surrender all I have.
If that's what I have to do.
If it leads me back to You.

I would walk a thousand miles.
And crawl if I have to.
If that's what I have to do.
If it leads me back to You.

Leads me back to
You.

Lindsay Mccaul, Take My Hand, Lyrics..

If God Loves Me, Why....?

"'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 (NIV)

Soon after I surrendered my life to Christ, I started struggling with painful things from my past that made me doubt God's promises for my future. I wondered: If God loves me, why has He allowed so much pain in my life?

If He loved me, why did God allow my family to be broken by adultery and divorce, shattered by confusion and chaos, shaken by alcohol and drug addictions and so much more? And why didn't He stop me from the pain I brought on myself, or keep me from the darkness of depression?

One afternoon I found the courage to tell my friend Wanda about my doubts and questions. I was surprised she didn't give me a pat answer, but looked at me with understanding in her eyes and told me she was sorry. Then she shared her story, which included many disappointments and heartbreaks. Yet, I didn't sense doubt or pain in her words. Instead, I sensed confidence and hope.

Turning the pages of her Bible to Jeremiah 29, Wanda read today's key verse as a promise to me: "'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.'" (v. 11)

She then told me God wanted to heal the pain of my past and use what I'd experienced to pave the way to His plans for my future. But I didn't want God to use my pain or my past. How would any of it do anything good for anyone, especially me?

Have you ever felt that way about your pain or your past? Have you ever asked: "If God loves me, then why...?"

These are the kind of questions that can linger in our hearts when we've been wounded and disappointed. And hurts that aren't healed can lead to bitterness and bondage.

Yet, in the security of a relationship with Jesus, God invites us to ask hard questions and look for answers that usher us into the depths of His redeeming love and healing power.

Can I whisper some hope into your heart today? If you are living and breathing, your purpose has not yet been fulfilled. No matter what you have done or what has been done to you, God does have a plan for your life.

So, how can you discover those plans? Let's read the premise that follows the promise in Jeremiah 29. After God declares He knows the plans He has for us, He says, "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (v.12-13)

We find God's plans when we surrender ours to Him each day. It's a moment by moment process of coming to Him, talking to Him, believing He listens and letting Him love us into a place of hope and healing.

God's love is not a quick-fix for our wounds, but it has the power to redeem and restore us into confident hope. When we allow the Holy Spirit poured out like Living water to go deep into our pain, He can heal our hearts from the inside out.

As we process the pain of our yesterdays and live through the disappointments of our todays, doubts may still creep up, threatening to steal our hope. But each time that happens, we can stop and seek God in that place. We can ask Him to show us His purpose by revealing what is true about who we are and what we have been through to make us start doubting.

Then we can ask Him to help us re-define our future, not through the filter of our past and pain, but through the power of His life-giving truth. And do you know what happens when we do that moment by moment, day by day, doubt by doubt? God tells us in Jeremiah 29:14, "I will be found by you...and will bring you back from captivity."

We find Him again and again. We find the One who longs to lead us out of captivity to our doubts into a place of freedom and hope. I know this is true because I have walked it, wrestled with it, resisted it and finally surrendered to it.

God's love is not only unfailing, it redeems and restores. His Truth cuts to the core of our struggles, bringing purpose to our pain, redemption from our past and hope for our future!

Lord, heal my hurts and give me hope as I learn to trust the plans You have for me. I'm coming to You and seeking You with all my heart today. Please set me free from my doubts and lead me into a place of confident hope. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Reflect and Respond:
"If you are living and breathing, your purpose has not yet been fulfilled. No matter what you have done or what has been done to you, God does have a plan for your life."

Bible Verse:
Psalm 71:5, "For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth." (NIV) 

Excerpt from Proverbs 31 Ministries
Written by: Renee Swope
www.Proverbs31.org 

Hiding My Tears

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Psalm 56:8b (NLT)

For years I kept my tears far from the eyes of anyone else. I simply refused to cry. Hiding my tears started with one little tooth.

"Just tilt your head back, close your eyes and I'll yank it out on the count of three ... ready? 1 ... 2 ... 3!"
I was only six, too little for that sharp surge of pain that rushed through my mouth. So of course it was only natural I burst into tears.

"You big cry baby!" That's my dad for you. The big heroic tooth extractor laughed.

All I could do was whimper amid muffled sobs, "But it hurts!" I nursed the gaping hole in my gums with a soggy paper towel. My historic moment of bravery turned into one pathetic flop. I had proved myself an official wimp.

That day sealed the deal. Crying became a strictly private and pretty much non-existent affair ... even into my adult years. Any time I felt tears coming, like a dam about to burst, I forced them to stay where I thought they belonged: hidden deep within my soul for no one else to see.

When I stumbled across these two treasured lines my perspective on crying changed: "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Psalm 56:8b (NLT)

I couldn't believe it. Someone else wanted to store my tears! And in a far better place than the corners of my heart. Isn't it amazing to think each droplet we've shed over our years of experiences {including losing our first tooth} has been collected in a precious bottle? Held near and dear to our Father's heart.

You see, God doesn't laugh when we cry. He doesn't tell us to toughen up or turn the page on our tears like they don't exist. Instead, He picks us up on His lap and wraps us in His loving arms as we pour out our hearts to Him. Our Lord loves for us to let Him in on our deepest felt emotions.

I wonder what might cause your tears to flow right now—unanswered prayers ... unmet promises ... uncertainties of life—they are seen and saved by the One who comforts and cares for your every need.

Whatever is holding you back, may I encourage you? Open the floodgate of your heart and release your tears, sit quietly with the Lord and listen. Journal. Or take a walk and give your tears to Him. His arms are open and He is waiting for you to come to Him.

Dear Lord, thank You that You created me with tear ducts and all. Keep me from hiding my emotions out of fear of what others might think. Grant me the courage to cry, knowing that You will be there to comfort and console my heart in all of life's circumstances. Your love never fails and I am so very grateful. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Reflect and Respond:
Was crying an acceptable thing in your family growing up? Reflect on ways in which your perspective on tears was shaped based on your upbringing.

What keeps you from expressing your emotions fully and freely around those you love? Ask God to show you what might be blocking or hindering your ability to be vulnerable.

Bible Verses:
2 Corinthians 1:3-4, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." (NIV)

Psalm 62:8, "Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." (NIV)



Excerpt from Proverbs 31 Ministries
Written by Ali Smith

www.Proverbs31.org