That low lying storm cloud that hangs over you can’t master the light of Christ that raises you.
In these strange days: There is more than believing in God. There is enjoying living in God.
https://annvoskamp.com/2023/04/questioning-believing-in-god-me-too-im-doing-this-instead-2/
The very heart of our pain is the things that keep us apart from God.
https://annvoskamp.com/2023/03/whats-the-answer-to-all-this-suffering/
Nothing wonderful happens in our lives without wonder. Wonder makes this a wonderful life. Wonder nurtures wisdom.
Some lean over gravestones and say: The miracle didn’t happen. And others lean over gravestones and say they got their miracle because she was a miracle, and getting to love her was a wond...
https://annvoskamp.com/2022/09/when-you-pray-but-god-doesnt-answer-with-the-miracle/
Waiting for the right time, can feel like everything is going wrong. The sacrament of waiting can feel the hardest of all. You can bet on it these days, every morning when we rise and look at the...
https://annvoskamp.com/2022/09/essential-secrets-to-how-to-wait-well/
A lady flat-out told me, and I can’t forget it, and I think of her again and again, that she doesn’t know how she’s going to live through what she’s going through. What if you’re lookin...
The details of our hard may be different, but all our need for courage is the same.
https://annvoskamp.com/2022/07/real-hope-ammunition-for-your-hard-battles/
Habits are small gears that leverage your life --- and the habit of hope can resuscitate anything.
We are anxious not because we believe it helps but because we don’t know how not to be.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/10/how-to-deal-with-anxiety-beyond-understanding/
Today’s blog post is special. Many of you know that I’m married to a farmer, and that we live on the land. The Lord so often speaks to me through everyday parables that are unfolding around m...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/10/farming-in-a-tuxedo-finding-the-power-of-place/
Philip Yancey has long been a leading voice on faith and American culture, helping more than fifteen million readers engage some of the deepest questions of life. I have read many of his books ov...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/10/the-least-lovable-and-the-unfathomable-mystery-of-god/
“I wanted to grow up and leave behind everything that made me feel weird, flawed, and broken,” Bonnie Gray confessed to me. The daughter of a mail-order bride and a busboy from San Francisco�...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/10/how-your-heart-should-respond-when-youre-told-you-dont-belong/
John Mark Comer recognized that millennia ago, teachers of the Way of Jesus identified three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Centuries later, these enemies are alive and...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/09/the-problem-isnt-that-we-tell-lies-its-that-we-live-them/
Over the past few years Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel have become dear friends. They are my brothers in Christ, who share with me a deep belief that the Christian life is a cruciform life. This s...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/09/how-weakness-is-the-only-way/
Ashley Hales and I met before the world shut down, in a small conference for pastors and those in ministry, The Way of the Lamb Conference in San Diego. Exhausted from ministry, Ashley shared how...
Denisse Copeland wants women to know that, in Christ, you are enough. After a difficult childhood grappling with the divorce of her parents and often feeling unwanted, she came to Christ and bega...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/08/when-you-feel-like-youre-not-enough/
As a remarried widow, Tricia Lott Williford is closely acquainted with the greatest tension of all: believing God can do anything and yet knowing that he might choose not to. Take a moment to re...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/06/living-in-the-tension-of-he-can-and-even-if-he-doesnt/
When I witnessed this woman’s audition on American’s Got Talent, I could feel it with millions of others around the world — a rare and holy thing was happening. And when Jane Marczewski, a...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/06/how-to-meet-god-at-your-lowest-point/
I was drawn to Sarah Robinson’s story because she speaks so openly about believing the lie that being depressed or anxious made her a bad Christian. How easy it is for each of us to imagine tha...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/05/even-if-finding-hope-in-the-furnace-of-mental-illness/
“It’s not a matter of moving on—it’s moving forward. It’s not a matter of saying time heals. Time of itself can’t heal, but God works through situations to bring joy out of sorrow.”
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/05/how-to-forgive-when-the-unthinkable-happens/
Before there were books for either of us, we were simply two heart-sisters who had a lot in common. We loved words and Jesus. And we were both farm wives married to men who raised crops and pigs....
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/05/how-to-heal-your-hurried-heart/
A contented person understands that the things of this world are here when we arrive and are left behind when we exit this life.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/05/how-to-choose-contentment-by-faith-and-not-feeling/
When you first meet Robert Fergusson, what strikes you is his deep humility, his sincere passion and his uncommon care to to understand — both the heart of each person he is speaking to, and th...
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/04/what-you-need-for-your-desert-seasons-we-all-have-them/
What I wanted my student to hear from me in that moment was that character determines behaviors.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/04/a-three-lettered-word-that-shapes-life/
We often approach suffering as a problem to be solved. We stumble over ourselves trying to assign meaning or purpose to tragedy.
The Lord does not usually give us a full roadmap in life. Rather, He usually leads us one step at a time.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/04/how-young-billy-graham-learned-to-roar-during-his-early-ministry/
The kingdom is already and not yet; living in its tension rather than panicking for release is the only way to be pulled into the trajectory of hope.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/04/dont-put-a-spiritual-bow-over-your-brokenness/
His love repurposes our pain into clarified purpose.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/04/when-grief-and-hope-are-unpredictable/
We, too, can seek to be faithful and obedient in the midst of our deep pain.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/03/faithfulness-when-heaven-feels-silent/
I had tried everything to make my Christian life work.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/03/should-your-heart-be-tested-or-trusted/
Remember this truth when you go through seasons where you’re grumbling. You’ve been set free.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/03/when-you-find-yourself-in-the-wilderness/
Sometimes worry creeps into our prayers. Things seem a bit quiet on God’s end, and we start to wonder, “Does God actually hear me?” And our kids wonder the same.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/03/when-we-are-trying-to-see-a-way-through/
For a multitude of reasons that I may never understand, God used the brokenness of my physical ears to compel me to place the ears of my soul against His heart, desperate to truly hear from Him.
I am learning to trust; however I may feel on any given day, that this daily habit of faith is rooting me deep.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/02/the-dailyness-of-the-dishes-and-a-habit-called-faith/
Thankfully, Jesus is not bound by our broken ways of doing life and He offers a holy invitation freely extended to us whether we’re striving or hiding.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/02/is-there-more-to-life-than-this/
There’s a simpler way of seeing the world. Kids have it. Most grown-ups don’t.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/02/when-youre-yearning-for-the-crazy-happy-way-of-love/
I know that all my problems come with a purpose. A mission. I know that what I’m doing now isn’t just for me. It’s for God.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/02/trading-your-plans-for-a-life-that-matters/
I think that’s how you and I change—not by trying harder to become something better but by being blessed with a vision of who we are designed to be.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/02/when-it-feels-like-others-are-blessed-while-youre-stuck/
We are looking for simplicity, something to fill that spot that has been left by growing up or growing out or moving on.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/02/fun-matters-more-than-you-think-and-heres-why/
Today’s world is full of the same injustice, depravity, conflict, suffering, and hopelessness as the world was in 1815. And yet, the gospel is still just as powerful to transfigure the lives o...
I push myself to work hard and do good rather than enjoying the Spirit of Jesus and relying on His power.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/01/tired-weary-let-this-prayer-renew-your-soul/
I felt betrayed by the One who was supposed to love me most. Pierced by the One who was supposed to protect my heart.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/01/when-you-dont-like-your-story/
It doesn’t matter exactly what my day looks like, but it does matter that I am where God has called me.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/01/their-success-isnt-my-failure/
I repeated the words of sorrow from Scripture until they became my vocabulary.
https://annvoskamp.com/2021/01/how-in-the-world-do-we-adjust-to-constant-loss/
Our objective is to see what life could look like if we live through The Beatitudes' lens.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/12/what-2020-needs-the-beatitudes-project/
Her words took me back to a time of deep-seeded insecurity: a time when all I cared about was how I looked and how others perceived me.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/11/raising-kids-who-know-their-value-and-live-on-purpose/
But over time I have become convinced that God had a script for me to follow. His script is simply to love Him completely, love my neighbors faithfully, and navigate life in light of these two c...
Our commitment to this takes stonewalling off the table and provides a path to healing.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/10/how-the-humility-required-to-apologize-restores-heals/
With the perspective of time, I can see how God has expanded my vision, stretched my faith, and said no to some of my longings so as to make room for His.
Be patient with yourself, be patient with others, and most importantly, be patient with God.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/10/when-exile-seems-to-have-no-expiration-date/
Deeply formed mission is first about who we are becoming before what we are doing.
All I could think of were the countless things that could be taken from me.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/10/whats-really-safe-these-days-these-treasures-right-here/
She didn’t need anyone’s approval to make her worthy. She was born worthy, as an image-bearer of God.
If the God who made the galaxies lives inside you, then you have the power—through Christ—to denounce every destructive agreement that raises itself up against the truth of God.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/10/how-to-punch-holes-in-the-darkness-until-it-bleeds-light/
When I feel overwhelmed, challenged, knee deep in a difficult season, I cling to the things I know to be true.
What I’ve discovered, is that there is a mystery, an unexplainable beauty and a linear story that accompanies our creative gifts when we (with open hands) offer them back to God.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/09/how-to-carry-a-remarkable-story-the-story-of-song/
These capes and masks we wear are not just a barrier that keep everyone else out. They are also a prison of perfection that keeps us walled in.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/09/i-am-the-girl-in-the-red-cape-but-i-am-also-the-wolf/
His native tongue is Scripture, but God also speaks through doors and desires and dreams, as well as people and problems and even pain.
I often find myself grabbing at whatever pieces I can reach, trying desperately to make something beautiful of them and forfeiting the peace that comes from believing He already has.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/08/when-you-think-youve-missed-your-chance/
We get to form a better battle plan by beginning here, remembering and declaring who He is and humbling our hearts to worship.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/08/4-bold-ways-we-actively-trade-fear-for-trust/
Our union with God through Christ is not merely functional (we serve God, and thus prove fruitful), but beautiful (we are pursued at infinite cost to become the Bride of Christ, beloved children ...
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/08/the-psalms-through-the-eyes-of-a-modern-day-poet/
What our community needs is not a perfect standard but people who seek to find Christ in others.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/08/why-now-is-the-best-time-to-stop-seeking-perfection/
Walking is the one physical discipline that the Bible consistently associates with a life of faith. It’s so common it’s almost pedestrian.
When hard things strike, although our natural response is to fix it or flee, God gives us the choice to trust Him with the outcome.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/07/when-hard-things-and-faith-intersect/
We do anything we can think of to alleviate their pain, to remind them they’re worthy of lovingkindness—because God says they are.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/07/your-simple-pot-of-soup-can-be-a-world-changer-literally/
What I was being accused of is not reflective of the type of person I want to be.
For godly people and leaders specifically, pain is often the tool God uses to help us realize our passion and purpose.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/07/discovering-your-purpose-in-the-midst-of-pain/
Sincere believers can disagree on certain matters, sometimes quite strongly, and still maintain deep respect, honor, and affection toward each other.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/07/we-disagree-therefore-i-need-you/
May we show the world whose we are by our love for one another.
I wasn’t hungry, but I was starving for space, for the comfort in knowing that no words are needed to experience the fullness of being wholly alive.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/06/the-gift-of-peoples-presence/
Every single woman I have encountered has battled the same thing.
How do imperfect, frail human beings find the resources to heal from distancing and rejection, to respond to such violence with such love, and to commit to “work on their own healing” instead...
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/06/hate-cannot-drive-out-hate-only-love-can-do-that/
The Enemy is out to steal, kill, and destroy. But we have been given all the tools we need to fight and win.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/06/is-there-more-to-this-christian-life-than-we-have-experienced/
With more than fifteen years of counseling experience, I have learned that both those who follow Jesus and those who do not are longing and desperately searching for happiness.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/06/you-dont-have-to-chase-shadows-anymore/
It’s a relationship that is beautifully flawed, continually worked on, and sealed in sacrifice.
In the lonely moments, I was focusing on the empty feeling of Harold’s not being by my side instead of the fullness of God’s presence with me each step of every day.
To rise out of a defeated and self-loathing place, it also took the tender, tenacious voice of a She to remind me of a grace that says to my limp, 'Rise and walk.'
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/05/why-every-he-needs-the-voice-and-influence-of-the-she/
Do we know that today—the day you are reading these words on this page—is the day we will long for in the future?
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/05/this-right-here-is-our-better-life/
We want Him to take away the trial, but He’s taking care of the even bigger picture: the world our trouble is in.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/05/how-to-cultivate-the-life-you-were-born-to-live/
We can have confidence in our calling because the one whom God calls, He also equips.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/05/when-confusion-over-choices-leads-you-to-the-wrong-destination/
Ultimately, we move toward healing as we learn to steward toward ourselves the profound compassion God has for us.
I support and understand victim groups and classifications, as long as their goal is to eliminate the word “victim” and replace it with the word “victor.”
He asked how he was meant to love and serve the world given his new circumstances.
She said that as she dreamed of the future, she didn’t expect an easy or straight-forward journey to achievement, but she wouldn’t be deterred either.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/04/why-now-is-the-time-to-start-get-ready-to-rise/
In a moment of loneliness in a room full of strangers, God gave me a fresh glimpse of how He saw me: a beloved daughter among a room of His favorite children.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/04/hope-for-the-lonely-finding-your-family-hidden-in-plain-sight/
And in a moment, that bag of bitterness became an actual saving grace.
Adoration allows me to bring all of me—sighing, tears, frustrations, and anger—to Him and His Word and hope that I won’t walk away the same.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/04/how-to-talk-to-god-when-the-world-tilts/
The question surfaces: “Why do I know God loves me in my head, but I don’t believe it in my heart?”
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/04/the-way-hearts-die-an-invitation-to-stay/
Choice is where it started, but prayer was the continual next step to be able to pull it off, especially when things were the hardest.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/03/the-choice-to-love-a-true-story/
Living a life of generosity and selflessness, regardless of the state of the economy, allows the kingdom of God to define our response to the unknown.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/03/moving-from-proximity-to-intimacy-with-christ/
Everyone has been betrayed. But betrayal doesn’t get to destroy your trust in everyone. Just because every betrayal begins with trust, doesn’t mean every betrayal has to end with cynicism.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/03/hurt-how-do-you-forgive-or-ever-trust-again/
Whatever our day holds, nothing in it can compare to a millisecond of His Presence, and we must die to ourselves to live in Him.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/03/what-i-learned-about-knuckling-down-to-measure-up/
The moment you are ready to quit is usually the moment right before the miracle occurs.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/03/when-you-need-to-move-a-mountain/
No one has achieved or married or parented or exercised their way out of the thorns, and no one ever will.
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/03/what-the-labels-we-give-ourselves-cant-grant-us/
The reality is that we demonstrate what is important to us by what we make time for.
When you really want to disappear – is when you really want to be found. When you really want to run away from everybody – is when you really want to be found by just somebody.
Imagination has the power to cultivate empathy when we can picture ourselves inside someone else’s story or situation.
Celebration can be an act of worship and an act of hope and perhaps, in a way, an act of joyful rebellion against fear.
Jesus came for those who sit in the back row crying out, “Be merciful to me, a sinner.”
https://annvoskamp.com/2020/02/when-you-need-to-hear-that-you-are-not-alone/