Tag Archives: pain

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Your Promise Land Is On The Other Side Of Your Pain

You must persevere to get to the other side

promise, 145:13, God is faithful, God's promises

Fresh into our first year of marriage, my husband and I were arguing over laundry, dishes, the dog, and everything under the sun. Fight after fight, fear had me questioning God and His promise for my future. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that God wasn’t doing what I assumed a good God would do.

Have you ever had your hopes dashed, a devastating thing happen, or a situation never seems to get better? Fear has an awful way of exaggerating our reality. Worry can snowball a small situation into a much larger problem.

“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

God designed a place for His children to prosper. It’s a Promise Land where you and I can experience the most abundant life in store for us; a renewed marriage, restored health, a refreshed calling, released from the chains of addiction. God’s desire is for His children to dwell in this Promise Land free from fear, anxious thoughts, or negative thinking.

Just like the Israelites who stood at the cusp of Canaan, their Promise Land,

we might be standing one step away from our Promise Land and fear has us thinking of turning back.

They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.” Numbers 13:27-28 NIV

It took 40 years of walking the wilderness to find this Promise Land and now God’s children are letting fear make them want to throw in the towel. The Israelites are fearful of what they’ll find on the other side of this one last mountain to climb, but they’re soooooo close!

Isn’t it crazy what fear will have us doing?

Concerns overworked in our minds become worry. Worry digs up doubts that this situation will get better or that God will intervene. Doubts morph into dread and unbelief as we stand at the foot of our Promise Land. 

You might be ready to cash in 40 years or even four months of marriage. Maybe you’re thinking of running back to life as a slave to sin because you haven’t seen the harvest of your hard work just yet. Panic will produce all kinds of irrational thoughts as an attempt to control the situation.

Don’t give up yet, you’re almost there!

It takes perseverance to step into the Promise Land.Psalm 145:13, God is faithful, God's promises

It’s difficult to see from where you’re standing, but the situation isn’t as big as your fear wants you to believe. God is much bigger and your Promise Land just on the other side is much better. You’re at the foot of your Promise Land, don’t turn back now.

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. Psalm 145:13b NIV

When we open God’s Word, we’re assured He’s working out His purpose here for our ultimate good and His glory. Fear may have you facing a delay or even defeat, but this is not your final destination. Your Promise Land is just on the other side of the mountain.

Whether your circumstances change or not, hold onto this eternal hope: Jesus is still on the throne, our Father is faithful, and His promises are true for you today.

I promise you!

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The single worst day in history and God said it was good

death, sting, King, Jesus, His death brought goodGod wrote “good” on the single worst day in history. There is not one day, or week, or month, or year of suffering… not one trauma, loss, or pain with which God cannot write “good” over you in Christ Jesus too. All it takes is the belief that His blood covers all of you; in the past, the present, and what is to come.

In God’s presence, pain has no place, sickness has no place, weariness has no place, depression has no place.

At the cross, we find all our answers.

In what Jesus lived for, in what Jesus died for, that is the meaning to life.

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The Richness of Your Life

richness in your story, difficulties produce character, trishakeehn.comHow often are you thankful for even the hardship in your life? It’s difficult to emulate a spirit of thanksgiving when the storm is raging through your situation but here’s the truth about the wind and the waves wreaking havoc in your life: they all had to pass through the palm of our loving Father before they could touch even a hair on your head. No matter what kind of chaos is swirling about, every ounce of hardship went through God before it was allowed in your life.

A broken relationship. Sickness. Loss of a job. Financial woes. No place to call home. Rebellious children. Loneliness.

Don’t give the devil any credit for even the pain. That pain is tempering a soul, breaking a hardened heart and softening all the edges to lean in to others facing the battle, to lean in to the Almighty for a miracle you cannot fathom, to lean in to even the questions you often run from in your own mind. I’m sorry that it hurts so much at times. If you let it, this pain will produce such rich character and flavoring that seasons your story. This is what makes you set apart and unique in a land of 7 billion people. We need your story and your pain. Praise the Father still. Give thanks always and for everything.

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Your Destiny Can’t Collect Dust

Even the pain works for your good

Every time God gives you a way out, you find a new way into a mess. Don’t let the fear of failure keep you from trying. No one has all the answers.
 
There’s nothing on your resume that should make God choose you, but He did.
 
Ignore the voice in your mind bringing up your flaws because no matter how many times you fail, no one can stop what God has your name on.
 
Your daddy owns the company. Nobody can apply for your position. You don’t have to be afraid of the competition. You can walk right in with the failures of your past and before you even speak, your Father in Heaven, the God of the universe says, “You’re Hired!”God's goodness, destiny, pain
 
Your destiny can’t collect dust. Even your pain will work for your good.
 
Not because you are good, but because God is good.
 
He is working behind the scenes right now. The heavens are shining up their edges because God knows you’re going to make it!
 
It’s time to let some things go. Where others are judging you, God justifies you. Don’t let their view of your circumstance keep you tied up.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison… (2 Corinthians 4:17).  Tell yourself what you’re facing today is just some light work. Let God take the heavy load by trusting when you pray that He’s got this one.

I’m praying in the power of Christ’s blood, that God’s power is working out the next phase in your life. May He restore in you the joy of your destiny… your salvation! In the end, you win!

God, finish what you started in us. Thank you for the pain, because only then did I realize how much you loved me. When others were throwing me away, you still loved me right where I was. Even when I was giving up on myself, You never did.

I declare nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. There’s nothing I can do that will make my God walk away and stop pursuing me. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. He loves me in my mess, even still!

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Strength through the struggle

trishakeehn.com, be immovable, 1 Corinthians

Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you’re already surrounded by problems and pressures that are left over from the night before?

 

You may be overwhelmed with needs, uncertainty, hurt, burdens, to-do lists and regrets and you haven’t even thrown back the covers yet.

 

What if the strength you’re searching for is in you already and you just can’t see it yet?

 

As long as your focus stays fixated on the issues and obstacles, you’ll miss the opportunity to let courage control your thoughts.

 

The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, has already gone before every one of your battles and equipped you with armor you’ll need for the attacks coming.

 

And He’s bracing you from behind too. He’s got your back.

 

Your struggle is less about your own maturity and more about what you believe.

 

Your help is here. Your supply is here. Your strength is here.

 

Can you see it?

 

Though you’re tired by all the trouble, close your eyes and rub the seeds of doubt and disbelief from the corners of your mind. Now look again. Let your gaze fall upon the hills, where your help is mounted up and surrounding the very things that surround you.

 

It would be nice if God’s help was to keep us from hardships and prevent the problems from ever happening in the first place. But let’s be honest. As long as you strain hard enough, your success will point to your own efforts.

 

Pride tells us we have all the power and strength and there is no purpose for faith or trusting in a God we can’t see. Yet, the scriptures are stacked with stories rooted in human weakness, soaked in the supernatural strength of God.

trishakeehn.com, pain, compassion, hope

Allow your problems to humble you, refine you, and use you more effectively. The places where we are pressed can most likely be where God wants us to plant hope. Compassion permeates from our pain.

 

You have a Defender who will deliver you with the very thing the devil meant to destroy you. When the enemy has a strategy to take you out, God always has a plan to keep you in and moving forward.

 

Let God pummel the enemy by bringing so much good from the bad that Satan will regret ever having taken you to that wilderness in the first place.

 

God wants to show you His faithfulness through your failures and strengthen you through the struggles.

 

But you may have to see it through your weakness.

 

So look again! There is potential in your problems and purpose through your pain. You can have confidence in the chaos and confusion. God downpours a great supply in the drought of your need.

 

You can’t control the circumstance but you can believe in a Father who loves you… still. In the darkest of hours, He is the supply of strength standing on a ground of grace.

 

Keep trusting. He’s already given you all you need.

 

It’s our faith that activates God’s power. If you’ve been standing and believing for a while, don’t give up! Press through. Keep praying. Keep asking. Keep seeking, and He’ll meet your faith with favor and His miraculous power.

 

Often times we’re surprised by our struggles. We can even be caught off guard when it’s the same stuff we’ve been wrestling with for so long. We give the enemy credit for being clever when he throws the same punch to our weak spots. Why?

 

What if we weren’t surprised?

 

What if we really did come to expect these kinds of ordeals, not as pessimists but as the prepared?

 

What if we did come to expect that life was going to push us with pressure?

 

What if we were ready in advance for things like temptation and oppression?

 

Plant your feet solid and bend your knees to brace your body for the impact, because I’m warning you from the Word, its coming. If you’re not prepared when the push comes, you will be shoved into a sinkhole of despair.

 

Let us not be prepared for only the pressures but also for the divine power.

 

Although we feel alone in our afflictions, I’m here to remind you we’re all in this together. As the persecutions mount and the pressures pound, remember God has already given us victory through Jesus. None of these struggles and trouble will be wasted. They will all work out for our good. We are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Romans 8:37). Our perseverance will be rewarded (Hebrews 10:35)trishakeehn.com, be immovable, 1 Corinthians 15:58

 

Therefore, my dear [friend], be… immovable” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

 

I pray that God opens your eyes so that you may see the strength that is already in you. Keep an open and humble heart so that His peace can help you press through to pain and find its purpose and His plan.

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Breaking through and not breaking down

When God has a breakthrough for us, the devil brings a breakdown. The more faith you live with, the more fear the enemy stirs up.

Essentially, the enemy releases resistance to hold you back, but God uses that resistance to strengthen the heart muscle for an increase. When you are met with push back, this is the time to push through the burn and work that faith muscle to exhaustion.

Hold out your hope! Rest is around the corner.

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’ Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

Exercise doesn’t evoke excitement from many people. But we push through to build endurance. We burn out muscles til tiny tears break into the deeper fibers of our strength, and repair themselves when we rest. This is what produces results! Here’s where we see the increase.

Here’s another truth about breakthroughs: You can’t live out today on yesterday’s faith.

As your strength increases, so must the weight of resistance and level of endurance. As you stretch those muscles to reach new goals today, it will require heavier lifting and longer distances to see the benefit and growth tomorrow.

Yesterday’s routines won’t work on what’s required of you today.

You may need the edge of additional experience or education. Perhaps it’s an increase in peace or  prayer. Maybe it’s more like-minded relationships or intentional living.

If you’re ready for the rise, it’s time to press into the pain and prepare for a gain.

Here’s a final story I want to share with you.

Last week, I woke up the morning of an important meeting that would circle the completion of a book I’m writing. Locking up my house before dawn even broke the horizon, I stood stunned in shock. It appeared as if a violent storm took place within the confines of my car. invitationsOpening the driver side door, I noticed a mess in my passenger seat; a scattering of invitations to church that once sat neatly in the console.

Is it strange my heart smiled with compassion at this?

It reminded me that God meets us all no matter where we’re at or how deep we’re in it. We could be making a mess of a situation and He’s there in it, reaching out to invite us back to Him.

Naturally, my hope is that one of these invitations to church made it into the burglar’s bag of my belongings and in this moment is nudging him/her from a nightstand. Not because I care about getting my stuff back (although the RayBans would be nice), but moreso that a hurting heart who felt there was nowhere else to turn that night would find Jesus is all he/she ever needed.

Maybe your heart is breaking over a lost dream or relationship… God is meeting you there. Maybe you are breaking through… He is on the other side waiting on you.

Lean into the resistance to see results. Whatever you’re facing, just remember a showdown with the devil is God’s opportunity to show off; He is the one and only, great I AM.

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The Risky Right Thing

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The next best thing is the wrong thing and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” That’s from Theodore Roosevelt.

Have you ever heard Roosevelt’s story before He moved into the White House?

His bride died after giving birth to their daughter… just hours after his mother, who lived in the same house, died of typhoid fever.

Historians say Roosevelt wrote a large ‘X’ over February 14, 1884 in his diary and then penned, “The light has gone out of my life.”

Though this pain wore at his heart for a season, I think it may have actually fueled his strength to persevere in unexpected circumstances.

Twelve years later, in 1898, Roosevelt was elected governor, and in 1900 vice president, and then upon McKinley’s assassination in 1901, at forty-two years old Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest president of the United States.

Be encouraged in your struggles and pain today that God has given you the ability to overcome. Do something with the choice you have. And if your decision brings even more hardship, step back and start again.

riskyThe more mistakes you make means the more chances you took. A life of chances is what creates courage to carry out success.

Take chances in your career.

Get ridiculously risky with love.

Embrace vulnerability and expose the raw truth.

Strength for future favor can come from your circumstance if you press through the pain and persevere.

Allow the unexpected to fuel a life without regrets. Do something.

May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. 2 Thessalonians 3:5

…because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:3

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The Outpouring Mercy In Our Pain

We stand on the dusty road of our circumstances, and experience tells us the clouds will roll in soon and we’ll be left exhausted, knee deep in the mud. The humanity of it all is that we will find whatever we are looking for. Yet, the mercy of God’s hand reaches down to shield our hearts from the calculated pain, and offers something better for each of us than we could ever imagine for ourselves.

dusty road, trishakeehn

 

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Reconcile Every Relationship

One of my dearest friends today is my ex-husband.

I don’t have words to describe the pain I’ve felt in the awareness of my faults that led to our separation but I can tell you what Jesus asked me to do next.

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24

Reconciliation doesn’t mean you rush into the room, yell, “I’m sorry!” and run away… it means a relationship.

I took responsibility for ripping us apart and acknowledged the pain I put him in. I asked for forgiveness in hopes that his hurting heart could begin to heal.

He and I don’t have children together. We don’t work together nor do we live in the same town. BUT, reconciliation means every relationship!

As believers, we don’t realize how much the enemy plays a part in setting up roadblocks to reconciliation, in hopes that we will continue living a life of excuses, instead of one that radiates love and forgives everyone, as He forgave us.

What does this look like for you? Who do you need to seek out and help in the healing process? Not because you have to, but because God wants you to. Where does your heart need to reconcile?

Father God, you see our hearts and know the truths we’ve been hiding from. Those we’ve been running from. Reveal the relationships that need reconciling in our lives. Soften our spirit to accept what you’ve asked us to do. Give us strength to walk through the pain and accept responsibility with no more excuses. I ask this in the name of love, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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His Results Through Me Exceed My Expectations For Me

It’s late in the day and I’m determined to get one more mile in before the sun goes down. My muscles are a bit weak from medicines I’ve been taking, particularly my hips are throbbing with pain. I’m pretty sure they hate me as I strive for 10,000 steps a day; that’s what I was told is the minimum we should reach daily to stay healthy. I sit behind a desk most of the day, so I have to be very diligent about reaching this.

As I step up to the treadmill, I enter in a 9:30 pace/mile and pant for the first half before my body finds comfort in it’s stride. I’m nearing a mile and I hear His voice, ‘you can do it Trisha. One more mile. Faster this time.’ I’m not denying that I could do a little more, so I settle on running another half, increasing my pace to 8:57/mile. But He pushes me past my own boundary and says, ‘8:30’. I’m a bit taken aback, ‘Woh! That’s a minute off my time!’ But my hand reaches out to bump up the speed, believing and reciting ‘as long as you strengthen me, I know we can do this.’

The first half flew by and a thought came to mind, His results through me exceed my expectations for me. I didn’t set out to surpass any goals today; I had already hit my 10,000 steps after that first mile. It is quite often God squeezes more from me than I set out to accomplish; He presses my heart to greater heights than I think I can go. And it all strengthens my faith and trust that through Him anything is possible… anything! This has made me think about the goals I have for my life. I’ve heard it said before that if our goals don’t require God to show up in order for them to come to fruition, then we’re thinking too small.

We serve a loving Father who longs to be a part of our lives, a part of our story. Really, He longs to be the story, in and through us. Our minds underestimate the power of an Almighty God, who’s living and breathing Spirit is what strengthens every fiber carefully crafted and sown within us to do the impossible. I should have started out with a stronger goal in mind when I got to the gym earlier tonight. I should have set out to hit 8:30 for that mile. But thank God for His still, small voice that never leaves, and nudges when we’ve set our own expectations too low. Thank God His Spirit is there encouraging us that we were made for more!

Oh, my Lord, you are so faithful to continue speaking these truths in my life, never letting me settle for less than your best. I hear you on the sidelines cheering me on, saying ‘you can do it! You can do it!’ And then you jump in that race with me, leading the way, giving me focus on the prize that will come in the end. My God, you are so real and so wonderful. Thank you for your grace to continue believing in me, even when I’m tempted to settle for less. To you be the glory for any good that comes from this mortal body you’re training up. In the ever present name of Jesus, Amen.