Dianne Barker

Dianne Barker here with encouragement for your journey.

I don’t love disappointments, delays, or detours. Life would be sweet if we could just go our well-planned way, checking off finished projects one by one. But unwelcome interruptions are reality. I wasted a lot of life fretting and grumbling, allowing circumstances to disturb my peace and steal my joy. Not any more!

Here’s my survival kit for desperate places.

• Keep a teachable heart. Ask: Lord, what are you trying to teach me through this? He said, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8).
• Seek the Lord with all your heart. Friends may assure us everything will turn out all right; a good Christian book may also assure us. But when God speaks through his written Word or his soft voice in our heart, we can rely on it. “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (1 Chronicles 16:11).
• Cast every care on the Lord. In a hard place, I cried out, “Oh, Lord, I can’t bear this!” He answered, “You don’t have to.” Then he spoke to my heart, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

• Encourage yourself with truth: Nothing is too hard for God! “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).

• Rejoice while you wait on the Lord. If we rejoice today, we rejoice in these circumstances. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Dianne Barker is a speaker, radio host, and author of 11 books, including the best-selling Twice Pardoned. She’s a member of Christian Authors Network, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and Christian Women in Media Association. Visit www.diannebarker.com.