At our recent Nourish Retreat we looked at the Book of Joel. I was reminded that, with our God, it’s never too late – there is hope.

Prior to coming into relationship with Jesus, I was broken! A painful, sometimes violent childhood had taken its toll, and had left me with trust issues; I would never allow myself to appear weak, I would never show vulnerability and I put walls up. This made it very hard for people around me to love me. I just wouldn’t really let anybody get too close. At times, although I was surrounded by family and friends, I felt alone, and misunderstood.

Instantly, after entering into a relationship with Jesus, I started to heal. My heart started to feel whole, little by little the walls came down, and I felt “safe” enough to show the real me.

Through His teachings, I have learnt to trust, that it is ok to be vulnerable – for when I am weak, He is strong. I feel protected, safe, understood and never alone. Most importantly I have Hope. Hope that I can break the cycle and bring light into the dark areas around my family.

I can’t speak for all of you, but my relationship with God has felt like a rubber band.

On one end is God, around which the band is securely fastened. On the other end is me. At times, I stretch the band to its limits, but it never comes unfastened from God. This is where I feel tension, stress, anxiety, overwhelmed, and I feel a lot of fear. Other times, it is so close to God that there is no tension in it at all. This is where I feel the most fearless. It seems as though I go back and forth a lot.

But no matter how far I stretch, it is the “tension” that is created by not listening to God, or being disobedient, or not surrendering my burdens that reminds me that I need to “let go” of my ways and turn back to God.

We’ve all had days (and maybe even years) when life just doesn’t seem to be going our way! You can feel like you take hit after hit. Struggles in life are inevitable, but destruction is optional. Remembering the following can make all the difference.

1. Remember that your Character should always be stronger than your Circumstances.
We can’t always control what happens to us, but we can always control how we choose to respond. In those moments when I choose to stop complaining and instead give thanks to God for the good in my life, the parts that seem bad start to seem much less significant. Choose to keep a positive attitude and thankful heart regardless of what you’re going through.

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

2. Remember that your Struggles always lead to Strength.
Every difficulty in your life, whether big or small, is something God will use to produce more strengthand faith in you if you let Him! All your pain has a purpose.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

3. Remember that God’s timing is always perfect.
God’s plans are almost always different from our plans, but His plans are always perfect! Have the patience to wait on His timing instead of forcing your own.

“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

4. Remember that God will never leave your side.
You may feel like you’re going through this struggle all alone, but from the moment you ask Jesus to bring you into God’s family, He will be by your side to the end so never lose hope!

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

To finish, I just wanted to encourage you that, It’s never too late to turn to God, and it’s never too late to build your faith. He doesn’t destine us to be dammed. God created us for glory, for greatness.

Tash Ellis

“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”.
John 8:35-36

I’ve always been slightly uncomfortable with the idea of divine healing, not because I don’t believe that God can heal, or that He does (I’ve seen Him do it plenty of times), but because He sometimes does and sometimes doesn’t. I can’t explain that. However, the more I am at home in the presence of God, the more I have to make peace with things that I cannot explain.

On this occasion, my tendency to avoid the topic of healing has been thwarted, because it happened to me. Two Thursday nights ago, I arrived at the opening night of our state ACC Conference in terrible pain from a slipped disc in my neck. Even greater than the pain, however, was the restriction I was feeling.

Every movement was carefully considered to accommodate my newfound limitations. Each moment was a decision to push the boundaries set by my pain, or submit to it.

As I walked into the service, I was thinking that I should probably be a bit careful, given my tendency to forget that I am a grown up (allegedly) and jump around with the youth! At this point, two things dropped into my spirit. I definitely don’t always hear this clearly from God, but on this occasion there was no room for doubt; firstly, the Holy Spirit was laughing at me!
“You don’t do anything carefully.”
This is, of course, true, as the paintwork on my car will testify.

Secondly, and this is where He got serious with me, He said “I am not careful in the way that I love you. I am not careful in the way that I bless you. I was not careful to preserve myself when I came to rescue you.”

In that moment, I realised that my preoccupation with my pain and limitation was preventing me from meeting with my God as I was created to:

“Let us come boldly to the throne room of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most”.
Hebrews 4:16

As the team began to lead us in worship, I decided to just go for it. Before we got to the first chorus, I was healed. I was free, no longer limited.

And that would be a great place to end this story, wouldn’t it? However, God had another lesson for me that night; He must’ve realised that I was listening more than usual and decided to capitalise!

As I got back into my car, my mind went through a familiar transition: from the Heavenly to the mundane. I stopped thinking about who God was and the implications of that for my life and started thinking about the logistics of my life: dropping home the people I had invited, picking up my son, the mountain of washing, some issues at work…oh I could go on!

In that moment, something very strange happened; as I became buried in the worries of this world, my pain returned.

What? That’s not right! Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, right??

And again, I felt the words of the Holy Spirit cutting through the mundane: “that depends which kingdom you choose to belong to.”

As I refocused on God, and submitted my mind and body to His kingdom, not my own, not this world, I found that I was I. Fact healed. I just couldn’t expect heavenly results if I was preoccupied by worldly things! By submitting to my limitations, I couldn’t live in God’s freedom.

It made me wonder how much of our time we spend submitted to this world and the limitations it brings with it? What makes us careful in the way that we approach the throne of our gracious God?

What worldly preoccupations are limiting your freedom today?

Written by Jen Grubb

I love memes. They make me happy; I look at them almost daily. You’re probably wondering what memes have to do with prayer? Not much haha… but there is this one you’re all probably familiar with that goes…

I don’t know about you, but I’m 30 and I still do this and I realise it applies to other areas in my life as well. Like prayer. James 5:16 says that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. In the Amplified version is says that it makes tremendous power available.

Yet, if I am honest, I have stood in church and looked around and felt like I needed someone more righteous than myself to pray for me. If you had asked me, I might tell you I am no expert on prayer as I am just a Mum who prays – mostly of a night before bed, or when I’m in hard times and I’ve been known on occasion to ask God to help me find my missing shoe. I realised long ago that I am incredibly time poor and getting up for 5am prayer meetings is no longer part of my repertoire. In fact, I hope so much that the kids sleep through so I NEVER have to see 5am again.. ever!

However, I’ve realised I am selling myself incredibly short. My first mistake was I have forgotten the very words God has spoken over me, spoken over every believer: righteous, powerful and effective. Just because I don’t have a proof of righteousness card, like my license that states my age, does not mean I am disqualified. However, not having a firm grip on who I am, might.

Secondly, I think it’s important to pray with others (Matthew 18:20). I realised again recently how important praying together is. It raises faith. It has raised my faith. Being vulnerable with people makes room for God. My testimony to this is the house that I am now living in. We recently moved to a bigger house after praying for one. It’s been at the front of my mind for weeks now that God, who knows what we need, provides just like he says in his word (Matthew 6:25-34). It’s not that we got a house, we got just the right house for us. In fact, the house we wanted was gone and it was seemingly impossible, but by a miracle, we received a phone call to say that THE house had become available and we watched the rest unfold. God knows what we need and he will provide over and above.

So after contemplating answers to prayer, I started thinking about prayer in general. Alone and together. Why have I never before considered it to be tremendously powerful and importantly available? I mentioned I have prayed for lost shoes, yet I realised I probably prayed for lost shoes and car parks more than lost souls. My prayers have been selfish. I am just being honest. Before I shifted my thinking, I had to think about what I had been thinking. I am not just a mum who prays. I am righteous woman; my prayers are powerful and effective. When I speak to God he listens. He knows. When we come together to pray, He is there.

Most of the time, when I am trying to practise being righteous, I do what the bible says; I go into a room and close the door. I try to make it private and BAM: fingers under the door. Everyone is knocking, wondering where I am. I can’t catch a break, no wonder I am standing around wondering where all the righteous people are. Then I realised, this is everyone. We are all busy. We all have distractions coming at us under the door. Just because the season I am in means my children are needing me ALL the time, doesn’t mean when they’re grown ups and won’t be needing me so frequently that I won’t find myself asking the same things.

So how to get around this? Hebrews 4:16 says to approach the throne of grace with confidence. The amplified says, FEARLESSLY, CONFIDENTLY, BOLDLY! So this is what I will aim to do. I will stop feeling guilty and start recognising that my conversations with Jesus result in stuff being done. On earth, as in Heaven and all that: that’s what I am aiming for. So, what is your prayer level? I begun this journey thinking I was just a mum who prays; God has challenged and shown me so much more.

Written by Tenille McNamara

Have you ever put something in the ‘Too Hard Basket’ simply because it takes a bit of effort? Surely there has to be a quicker and easier way, right? Unfortunately, this happens to me more than I’d like to admit.

However, even for an avoider like myself, there are the times where there is no other way, and you have to draw on every bit of your strength and motivation to get it done.

I was a kid once. Yep, true story.
I have a vague memory from my childhood of when I was in England, on holiday with my family. During our time there we stopped by to visit some friends who owned a farm. It was winter, so I’m guessing there would have been gumboots, rain and mud involved. In fact, it was probably something quite similar to a scene out of Peppa Pig. As my parents most likely sat down to some tea and scones, my six-year-old self and newfound friend of a similar age wandered off to explore the great countryside of the Mother Land.

Throughout our adventures, I’m sure we crossed vast fields, scaled the mightiest of mountains, waded though the boggiest of marshes and fought off the occasional troll. However, at one stage we came across a small weir (a low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow) in a near by creek. I, of course, was curious, having not seen one before and wanted to check it out. On my observation I could see that on one side there was water circulating and surging up but on the other side, a muddy trench that would have only had its thirst quenched by the passing showers. I could see that there was a problem; it was right there in front of us. The problem was that the only thing in the way of the water flowing from one side to the other, was that the lever needed turning for the gate to open up and let the water pass though. So as the young, curious and intrepid explorers that we were, we thought we would have a go and try and open it.

It was a hard task, even for a six-year-old. We could have just left it, but we were not going to be beaten. We had conquered so much already and we were ready to take on the world! We started out taking it in turns; probably because of the fact that whoever’s parent came out and caught us at any moment, that particular child would get into trouble. But anyhow… We were unstoppable! With each turn we both had a little bit of movement, but it wasn’t enough, so determination to succeed overwhelmed the risk of getting into trouble.

We joined forces and with every bit of strength we collectively channelled our inner super powers; we pushed, twisted, grunted and groaned! Then eventually, after all the elbow grease, blisters, blood, sweat and tears, we caused a shift. A shift that created enough momentum to see the gate open and see the water released. Everything that was once dammed on one side was set free, abundantly flowing out across what used to be a muddy trench. What used to be a place where things were malnourished, mouldy and struggled to survive in a bubbling cesspool that only some kind of amoebic colony would call home, would now have life! It would now be able to grow, see it’s full potential in flourishing life… And all it took was a little determination and perseverance from two kids who wanted to see a river flow.

The Apostle Paul writes;

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:14

Paul wrote these words when he was most likely in, or on his way to prison, which would then be followed up by a death sentence. So he doesn’t just say these words lightly, he was as actually keen as mustard to see what God had for him, despite his circumstances.

The Oxford dictionary explains that the word Press as to move, or cause to move into a position of contact with something by exerting continuous physical force. Other ways to read it could be to; Thrust, Squeeze, Compress, Pulverize, Embrace, Clutch, Grasp, Swarm, Advance insistently, Soldier on and Persevere.

God is after tenacious and eager people. He so desperately wants us to be fascinated by Him. He wants us to see what happens when we push on the lever of the floodgates of Heaven. He is stirring and motivated and so should those that love him be stirring and motivated.

“Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter.” Psalm 24:7

Words by Lance Cooper

“If one falls down, his friend can help him up.”
Ecclesiastes 4:10

I could hear the frustration in Mark’s voice from the other room and immediately thought “he must be using the computer”. Sure enough, when I entered the lounge room, there he was, bashing away at the keyboard. I asked if he wanted some help and his response was “why doesn’t it just work?”
“I don’t know, would you like me to take a look?”

Mark is one of the most patient men I know, but like all of us, he has his limits. When other men would throw their tools down in disgust, Mark just keeps going until he gets the job done. I would love to have his patience.

Wait a minute, I do have his patience.
You see I can happily spend hours trying to work out what is wrong with the computer, but five minutes behind a driver going 60 in the 80 zone, then 110 when you have the potential to overtake them, does my head in. If there’s one thing I have learned after seven years of marriage, it is this: we both have strengths and weaknesses in different areas and it’s what we choose to believe about each other that makes all the difference.

I could get frustrated with Mark when he insists on trying to fix his computer problem instead of letting me help him. And I could get frustrated with him when I try to show him what he is doing wrong with the computer and he refuses to learn, (he says he doesn’t need to, apparently that’s why he married me), but I don’t (well most of the time anyway). He could get frustrated with me when I tell him how to drive, but most of the time he simply points out that he’s done alright so far and doesn’t need my help.

There’s a fine line between ‘just wanting to help’ and ‘nagging’ and between ‘showing someone grace’ and ‘making them feel stupid’. On the other hand, if we keep in mind what the other person’s intentions are, we would avoid many problems. Ask yourself, “are they really trying to make me look stupid? Or are they just trying to help?” “Are they questioning my competence? Or are they suggesting a way to make life easier?” When we choose to believe the best about one another, we walk away feeling grateful for their help and not inadequate and misjudged.

I wonder how many times we have felt resentment towards someone who is just trying to help? I wonder how many times we have let our egos dictate what flies out of our mouths, without taking a moment to consider what their motive was? Sure, sometimes people are trying to make us feel stupid and inadequate, but isn’t it better to believe the best about people and, if we are wrong, then at least we are being humble and not haughty. Being a friend means helping someone when they fall, let’s try and think about that the next time we see someone struggling.

Written by Jacqui