The Better Things God Wants for our Blank Spaces

What if we knew God had better things for our blank spaces than we ever imagined?

Better than what the world has to offer. Better than the things we attempt to fill them with.

He does!

We all deal with blank spaces because seasons of life bring loss or lack in areas such as relational, spiritual, mental and emotional.

My story certianly includes blank. Blank spaces nearly succeeded at branding my childhood. They attempted to steal my joy.

And blank often overstayed its welcome and threatened to hold me hostage to the emptiness.

So I used to wonder if the God in heaven received memos from people on earth. One memo in particular from a girl wondering why He allowed her life to have blanks. Why He didn’t give her answers. 

Therefore, I grew into a woman who became obsessed for any and every blank to be filled in with something—anything. 

Like as a college student it bothered me to leave an unknown answer blank on a test. Even now, whether it’s a class or online training, I frantically search for what goes in the blank. 

Or the need for all the lines filled in on my Bible study book. Seeing blank lines with missing answers triggers memories of a life devoid of answers. 

Blank Spaces in All Shapes and Sizes

Blank spaces come in many shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common. They are void of the better thing God has for them.

5 Ways People See Jesus in Me

Do people see Jesus in me? 

This is a question I often think about.

And I pray this as a request to the Father. 

Perhaps this is a desire you hold and pray. Lord, let others see Jesus in me!

Lately, this hope and prayer stays at the forefront of my mind.

So I completed my own soul-searching, looking in the Scriptures, and asking the Holy Spirit to open my spiritual eyes to how others truly see Jesus in me. 

Because when Jesus lives in us and we allow the triune God to transform us from the inside out, everything about Him radiates in us and our life.

Then, people see Jesus in us.

Others See Jesus 

(1.) In my salvation. 

It all begins here. Once we have a salvation experience and personal redemption story, we are new creations (1 Corinthians 5:17). Christ is our Savior.

In Galatians 1, the Apostle Paul recounts his life before Christ. He shares an impressive religious resume and all that he attained. Yet, look at how he ends the chapter.

“And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, ‘He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.’ And they glorified God because of me.” Galatians 1:22-24 (ESV, emphasis added)

Notice how Paul never wrote that others glorified me because of me. No, God received the glory for the saving work of Jesus in Paul’s life. 

We have a story to share, a personal testimony of Jesus saving our soul and giving us eternal life.

(2.) When the Word lives in me.

Living Free from Worry and Fear

Maybe you want to stop worrying and start trusting, or just relax and enjoy the moment. Please welcome my writing friend, Doris, as she shares an excerpt from her new free eBook, Find Your Path to Peace of Mind. Perhaps living free is something you desire.

By Doris Homan

Find Your Path to Peace of Mind: Living Free

Have you ever thought, “If only I could have peace of mind”? If so, this may be the most important report you read all year. Here’s why…

Have you ever said any of these things?

• I don’t know how to stop worrying and start trusting…
• I don’t know how to relax and just enjoy the moment…
• I don’t want to be so paralyzed with this fear…
• I’m tired of being stressed out all the time…

If you can relate to any of that, then this is going to be life-changing for you.

Living Free from Worry and Fear

First, it’s important to understand what is at the root of worry and fear, then practical ways to overcome.

Priceless Treasures to Make Your House a Home

What makes a home…a home?

Within the first eight years of my life, I moved multiple times.

I went from living with both my parents, to living with my mom, then living with my mom and grandparents in a new state, and living with a new stepfather and a new last name. 

No matter where I called home, something always felt missing. Like an emptiness went along inside heavy boxes and heavy hearts.

As a kid, I never knew how to define home. Then I watched The Wizard of Oz and heard Dorothy’s famous line, “There’s no place like home.” 

The Security of Home

It’s also said, Home is where your heart is.

I learned it’s more than brick and mortar with a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in. Instead, it’s where you go to escape the uncertainty of the world. And where you find security and certainty. 

But what if your home is uncertain and lacks the attention you need? Your body might be sheltered and protected from outside harm, while your heart isn’t. Exposed hearts are vulnerable to inside harm. 

So when I married and started a family, I was determined to make every dwelling place a place filled with the most important things in life. Not a perfect place, but a place where our hearts are fully alive.

Since we were in full-time ministry for over thirty years, we lived in many different dwellings and towns.

But you can have a house filled with beautiful and expensive treasures but be missing what your family needs most.

“By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” Proverbs 24:3-4 (NIV)

Priceless Treasures of Home

Let’s look at four priceless treasures that help us make a H.O.M.E.

15 of My Favorite Things About Spiritual Freedom

In America, we’re gearing up for the fourth of July to remember and celebrate liberty as a country. But sometimes we take our spiritual freedom for granted. 

So when I read a letter John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, about Independence Day in 1776, I found this interesting.

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” (Wikipedia, emphasis added)

Like Adams, many of our founding fathers looked to God for “the day of deliverance.” Likewise, we looked to God for our day of deliverance—our spiritual freedom.

My day of deliverance happened at sixteen-years-old; the Lord delivered me from sin and spiritual death giving me eternal life—something worth remembering and celebrating. 

Accepting grace became my first act of devotion to God Almighty.

So let’s look at 15 of my favorite ways we are free in Christ.

Spiritual Freedom in Christ

(1.) Jesus frees us from spiritual captivity. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)

(2.) Real freedom comes when the Son sets us free. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 (ESV)

(3.) True freedom means nothing masters us. (see 1 Corinthians 6:12)

(4.) Seeking God’s precepts helps us walk in freedom. “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” Psalm 119:45 (NIV)

(5.) Called to freedom to love and serve. “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.” Galatians 5:13 (NASB)

Freedom For Holiness

4 Reasons Our Hope Lies in Christ Alone

There’s something I want you to know. You are never far from hope.

In tragedy, it is there. During dark moments, it covers with light. It soars above despair.

Life brings hurt, heartache, and disappointment. Hard places can dissolve every ounce of faith. 

But in an uncertain world, there is an undeniable hope, an unshakable anchor for our soul.

So, there’s a reason I named this blog community, Hope is Among Us. Why? Because I encourage a fresh perspective on hope based on biblical truths.

“For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4 (ESV)

As the unexplainable happens in life, there are promises that bring hope near. Hope that’s real. And it’s only found in One, Jesus Christ.

Now let’s look at 4 reasons our hope lies in Christ alone. 

H – Hope has a name, Jesus.  

Hope’s birth took place in a lowly stable. Hope grew into a man and carried out the heavenly Father’s will.

Jesus came to die for me and for you—for our salvation and the salvation of all willing to embrace real Hope in the Lamb of God.

God sent Jesus from the throne room of heaven to take our place. Beaten, bruised, and pierced with nails, His blood spilled on a cross. And He bestowed forgiveness on us to cover our sins.

Jesus saves us from condemnation, wrath, ourselves, other gods, and eternal death. But salvation also brings new and abundant life with Jesus as the Savior of our souls and a spiritual way of life.

Jesus is our hope for this life and the next.

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I Peter 1:13 (ESV, emphasis added)

Someone Worth Finding: A Father Who Found Me

“I love you.” His voice reassured as he tenderly kissed my forehead. He had found me.

Hopeful imagination of my biological father. A time he was absent in my life. A girl can dream.

My being so young and the passing of time had a way of causing memories to escape. I had forgotten what he was like. I knew he was out there somewhere. And I hoped to be found by my father.

My mother’s hands were full with me and my twin sister. So, she scooped everything up—including us—and moved from Texas to her hometown in Virginia.

Soon we were fortunate to have a wonderful stepfather come into our lives. A man who cared for and loved us as if we were his own daughters. To this day, I’m grateful for him.

But I’d seen my birth certificate.

The document contained everything, with no empty spaces or blank lines. Every section complete and filled in with facts and x’s: names and numbers, places and times, signatures and dates. 

Yet sometimes x’s only mark the spot where hurt dwells.

Line seven of my birth certificate held a name. But my life held a blank space and my heart an empty place. The place meant for a biological father.

And something caught my attention when comparing my birth certificate to my kid’s certificates years later. My children’s certificates of live birth list the mother’s name first, directly following child’s name.

However, my birth certificate from The Bureau of Vital Statistics, Texas Department of Health, lists the father’s name first, directly following my name.

To Know a Father

I wanted to know my father. Would I be a daddy’s girl? I wondered if I could sit in his lap or if he wore cologne. Maybe he would hoist me to his shoulders so I had a better view of animals at the zoo.

7 Truths From the Bible to Know Jesus Loves Me

Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so. 

Love is one of those hard to define terms we overuse and misuse. Instead of like, we use love for everything from possessions and food to our favorite sports teams and celebrities.

Honestly, I use love to describe my affections for cinnamon rolls, pasta, Chai tea lattes, boots, the Hallmark Channel, and sunsets. 

And in life’s hard moments, we may lose the loving feeling. For me, abandonment extinguished the emotion when my dad vanished from my life for a few years.

Sometimes love fades when hearts break. My heart broke after friendships dissolved and family members died including a baby in utero. I lost hope in love.

Jesus Loves Me

And all the moments I felt unlovable? Now I know how much Jesus loves me. If you know my story, then you know I felt unlovable for years. Watch the short storyline video on my home page.

But the love of Jesus brings us out of the darkness and into God’s marvelous light. We find hope for true love in the kind of love that goes to the cross.

Maybe, like me, at some point you questioned if anyone really loves you. But the greatest love story ever told is also our love story if we know Jesus. 

So, put to rest, once and for all, any doubt about God’s love, never question if Jesus loves me.

Scripture gives us the truths about the love of Jesus.

1.) I am loved: Jesus Loves Me

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)

Receive God’s truth:  I am loved. The Bible tells me so. 

Not Separating God’s Goodness From His Holiness

Do you hear people separating how God is good from His holiness?

During college, I worked at a jewelry store in a local mall. So I learned the cuts and facets of diamonds and other gems. The multi-faceted parts of these stones make each one brilliant and stunning.

In the same way, God bears many characteristics as God. But we often only focus on the feel-good parts of God’s character. Like how God is good and loving, but not how He is also holy and just.

Yet, all the attributes of God working together are what make Him God. Each fascinating facet of the Almighty makes His glory brilliant and stunning.

When we practice separating His goodness from His holiness or His love from His justice, we lose the full nature God. 

In essence, we detach who He is from what He does. But the two are one and the same. 

Good and loving and holy and just are not only who the Lord is, but also what He does! 

Not Separating God’s goodness

Since the beginning of time, God’s goodness is weaved throughout the chapters of His-story. It started with creation when He saw everything He made was good. 

Goodness is seen when God rescued His people. It’s revealed in Bethlehem’s stable and narrated in Jesus’ ministry. It’s told at the foot of a bloody cross and reported as a victor in an empty tomb.

Now, we see His goodness in our lives through every blessing and promise of Scripture. We are living testimonies to God’s goodness.

“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” Psalm 27:13 (ESV)

God is good and does good. (Psalm 119:68)

Letting God Heal Your Wounded Heart

A team of nurses and doctors cared for my dad’s failing body. I prayed day and night that the Lord would touch his body and heal him. But after thirty days in the hospital, he breathed his final breath.

Losing my dad brought a heartache I’d never known. The grief threatened to swallow me alive. When your heart seems to shatter in a million pieces, you wonder if it can ever be put back together. 

Do you relate to this kind of wounding to your heart?

Wounded: Heal Your Heart

Afflictions can not only attack your physical body, but also your heart—grief, loss, despair and other heart-wounds. Both your outer body and inner self need care and lots of it.

Sure, you are responsible for part of this care like desiring a healthy body and guarding your heart from the wrong influences.

But the ultimate care-giver for your heart is not your spouse or best friend. It’s God himself. And it’s not reading a self-care book on healing your own heart or a religious or human meditation practice. It’s God himself. 

God’s Heart Care

Who better to tenderly and lovingly watch over your heart, care for your heart, and heal your heart than the God who created you. Just as the Lord transforms your spiritual being from the inside out, He heals you from the inside out. 

Because let’s face it, a wounded heart affects so many things about a person. Things like your countenance, outlook, relationships, peace and hope.

Inside-Out Healing: Heal Your Heart

So let’s look at each of these areas our troubled heart affects and the ways God brings inner healing. 

Countenance. Maybe you’ve heard these sayings. The pain was written all over her face. His face said it all. 

Our face often reflects our heart. 

When your heart’s broken or sad, smiles never come easy. “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” Proverbs 15:13 (NIV)