Expressions of Hope - Blog for grieving parents by GPS Hope

September 9, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

Are You in a Surprising Time of Transition?

I can’t even begin to tell you how many people I know who have either recently been, or are right now, hanging in limbo while in a place of transition.

They know they have completed a season in their life (most of them being shocked with this information, thinking they were in a life-long calling, job, or ministry) but not knowing yet where God is taking them.

I had this exact experience a year ago. I cried for several days when I was blind-sided by the realization God was calling me out from a ministry I had been a part of for a full decade, and was deeply involved in leadership, (including international traveling and being the first administrator of its correspondence school). I knew I was to step out fully into becoming Crown of Glory Ministries, but had no idea what that was, much less how to do it.

I recently had an exchange of messages on this exact subject of surprise transitions with a young lady I have had the blessing of imparting into spiritually for a few of her childhood years.

Friend: Hi Laura,

I am in need of some spiritual advice/guidance and I was hoping that you might be willing to help

Me: What’s up?

Friend: We feel that God has asked us to do something but we are second guessing ourselves. There are signs and things that God has shown (my husband). He has given him a dream, but I guess we haven’t been “hit upside” the head with a direct answer. I don’t want to delay with God because his timing is always right. Why are we second guessing? Dreams are a sign from God.

I hope that makes sense. I don’t know if I’m/we are waiting for a sign “to go”.

Me: Well, my experience is to take a step of faith. If it is the wrong step or the wrong timing, as long as you are seeking God, He will be faithful to either cause you to lose your peace, or put up a road block. He is a loving Father, and if you are wanting to follow what He has for you or is instructing you to do, then He is going to guide you as you step out in the process.

Friend: Thank you. God gives us desires for a reason and I know he speaks in dreams. It’s just this is a big big leap of faith and it’s a little scary. Everything seems to be lining up but then I put a “but” in there and think well maybe it’s a stretch. I just keep hearing here are the crossroads…walk out…

Me: If it’s bigger than you, chances are pretty good that it’s God! And I agree those big leaps of faith can be scary.

Friend: Thank you so much! Between you and me, God has asked us to… (she told me the specifics, which I do not have permission to share publically).

Me: Wow girl! That is pretty big… So do you have a peace about it? Has God confirmed it.to you personally? Something like that you both need to be in 100% agreement on. If you have any doubts, the enemy can use it as a wedge between you when you hit any rough patches of pushing this through.

I believe if you are in agreement and step out to do it, even if you missed God in faith He will use it to do big things!

Friend: Well, we just got “smacked in the face” this morning spending time with God. haha now we just need to know exactly when. Thanks for listening and all your advice.

Me: You are more than welcome. I feel blessed you would reach out to me in this way. Love you and am praying for you. Ask God for divine connections and divine appointments. I have been amazed at what God does and how He leads me in that way!

Friend: How do we know when to go? We have been praying and fasting. Is God just going to give us a date? Or is going to be like Gideon and the fleece? We feel like we are at an impasse. Do we wait for a job do we go believing? I know he wants us to go and he would supply all we need but what if it’s not his timing? I don’t want to start feeling discouraged.

Does that make sense?

Me: Transitions are really hard. You know you are done where you are, but have not been shown details of where you are going. I personally think you are in that waiting period. It feels like you are hanging in limbo and should be doing something but not sure what. There is almost always a waiting time…I suggest just keep praying for divine connections and keep networking and eventually you will see a path open up.

I am happy to say doors opened for this young lady almost immediately, and they are well on their way to fulfilling the dream and calling given to them by God.

I am also thrilled to share that God has so graciously given me the foundation to Crown of Glory Ministries, and He even helped me write a book about it, titled Triple Crown Transformation. He has been faithfully guiding me since then, and it feels like what He has put in me is now exploding out of me!

But that didn’t mean my transition time is over. A few days ago, my husband came home early from work, letting me know that after 27 years with his company, they are “downsizing”, so his specific IT management position was being eliminated… effective immediately. So here we are, in another transition. We have no idea at this point what God has planned for him next. But not only do we have a peace about it, we are excited to discover what the new season is for us with this change.

It is all about our thoughts and mindset. We see things the way we choose to see them, based on what is in our heart. If we have learned to trust God in the past, we have the foundation to continue to trust Him with our future.

Are you in a transition in your life right now? If not, get ready, because at some point (probably fairly soon) you will be. Trust God to lead you through, even if you don’t know where it is taking you. Make a choice to refuse to be anxious or worry, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you enjoy the trip!

September 4, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

Good Seeds

We will always reap what we sow. What does that mean? If a farmer plants corn, are peas going to come up? If he takes a handful of seeds and tosses them out on his field, can a farmer expect his entire field to be full when he needs it? NO! He will reap a harvest based on the seeds he plants.

What we call “God’s law of sowing and reaping” does not just apply to actual seeds. It is for everything in our lives. We are forgiven as we “sow seeds” of forgiving others. We experience love as we give love away. We are blessed as we bless others. God gives to us, as we give to others.

We can sow bad seeds too. That means it is important to listen to God’s voice, and only plant the seeds He puts in your hands, because He knows what harvest you will need, and exactly when you will need it.

We should be excited about the chance to sow all kinds of seeds in life, because it means there will be a big harvest from God. I encourage you to read Galatians 6:7-9 and start sowing seeds.

September 2, 2015 by Laura Diehl 2 Comments

How Important is it to Know God’s Perfect Will?

One day I got to thinking about “finding God’s good, better, and perfect will” for my life. I realized that if God created someone specifically for me to marry, I probably missed it.

You see, I was enrolled to go to Northwestern Christian College, which is where I would have/should have met my husband, right? I ended up getting pregnant my summer out of high school, and didn’t go to college. I met my husband Dave shortly after that, and we got married when my little one was 2 years old. He adopted her, and we eventually had 4 more children.

OK… so… was Dave the man God made specifically for me, or not? Did God cause (or allow) the pregnancy to make sure I stayed home to meet him? If I hadn’t stayed home because of being pregnant and gone on to college, how would God have kept me from falling in love with and marrying the “wrong” person, and gotten me to come back home to meet Dave?

Maybe God’s original “perfect” plan was that I was supposed to go off to college, come back after 4 years, meet Dave, and get married a year or two later (but my getting pregnant and staying home just sped up the process). Although in actuality, Dave would not have been around by then because he was offered a job to work for the Pentagon after college, which he didn’t take because we were dating and he decided he wanted to stay put and ask me to marry him. So, if he had not met me and taken the job, would God have brought him back here somehow for us to meet?

OR does that mean my sin and getting pregnant caused me to not go to the college where I should have met the man God made just for me, and Dave was actually God’s Plan B for my life? So that caused Dave to miss the woman created for him to marry by not going out to DC, which means I was also God’s Plan B for him?

And now there is a woman who was created for Dave that is living out God’s Plan B for her life, and the man I was supposed to marry is also living out God’s Plan B for his life, since I never went to college to meet him. That also means the woman my “perfect Plan A” husband eventually married, is also living out God’s Plan B because she married a man who was created for me to marry, but I missed it. Do you see how crazy this can get?

If that were the case, it would mean my entire adult life has been lived outside of God’s perfect will for me because I missed marrying the man He created for me whom I probably should have met at Northwestern Christian College! It would mean my children and grandchildren are alive on this earth because I missed God’s perfect plan for my life.

I have come to learn from our teacher, the Holy Spirit, that so often we put too much pressure on ourselves to find God’s “perfect” will for our lives, forgetting the blessing He gave us of free will to choose!

The person you marry is your choice, with the only requirement not to be unequally yoked spiritually. If you are in love with God and walking out your relationship with Him, He will direct you in a choice that will be a wonderful life-long partner, best friend, lover, and soul mate for you. (I am quite happy to say that is the blessing I have!) If you don’t bring Him in on your choice, there will probably be things in your marriage that will be much rougher than it would have been with God’s guidance, but once you are married, God can still work in your life within the choice you made!

In so many circumstances we pressure ourselves to figure out the exact choice of God’s absolute perfect will, like which job to take? I believe most of the time He is saying, “I gave you a free will for a reason! Pick the one you want, and I will work in your life within that choice!” Does He already know what we will choose? Yes, of course, but He gives us free will to make those choices.

Are there times He has something specific for us? Yes, I fully believe so, and if we are seeking Him, He will guide us in the necessary direction.

But to say God has created one specific person for each of us to marry is not scriptural, and it adds tons of pressure to find him or her. It also puts false expectations into a marriage of how wonderful and easy it is going to be, and when things get rough, we can start to question whether or not we married that Plan A person created just for us. (And what if something horrible happens, like our spouse has an affair? God knew that was going to happen, and yet that is the person He created specifically for me to marry?)

What about the unsaved? Does God create a specific mate only for Christians, and the unsaved are left in the dark to marry whomever they want? Or are they forced to use luck to find that one person, since they don’t have God directing them?

I can’t imagine anyone more perfect for me than Dave. God has so wonderfully given us the desires of our hearts in each other! But I don’t believe God is honoring that because He created Dave with the specific purpose of being my husband, or vice versa. It is because we allowed God to help us choose each other over 30 years ago, and we continue to choose each other throughout this life, staying committed to God and to each other in our marriage.

If you are struggling with a choice, and have been waiting for God to reveal His perfect will, I encourage you to use the blessing of choice, and choose a direction based on what you prefer. Then take a step in that direction, continuing to seek Him for guidance. If it is something He does not want for you, He will be faithful to let you know in some way. At that point, you can stop and take a different direction. If it truly is a matter of God saying, “Pick what you want, and I will work in you through that choice” then taking that step means you will be on your way with His blessing.

How about you? Is there a time you can look back and see where God allowed you to choose?

August 26, 2015 by Laura Diehl 2 Comments

Do You Lack Joy in Your Prayer Life?

There are Christians who have strong opinions about what our prayer time should look like. I have come to realize that if I spent my time praying for what everyone else tells me I need to pray for, I would hardly ever leave my prayer room!

Someone who has a heart and anointing for missions will tell us we need to pray for missionaries daily. Someone who has a burden and calling for evangelism will tell us we need to pray for the unsaved every day. Others will try to open our eyes to the burden of praying daily for our schools and the students in them, or the government, or tell us we need to get more serious about spiritual warfare in our daily prayers, or pray a specific scripture every day.

And it doesn’t end there. We are told by those who are early risers that it is best to get up early to spend time in prayer. (Yes, I know the Psalms refer to that.) Some offer their thoughts about how much time we should spend in prayer each day (at least an hour, right?). And don’t forget to make your prayer list…

It often seems that since we can’t meet all these requirements put on us by the spiritual people around us, we pretty much give up on being able to do it right, and find ourselves fighting a heaping load of discouragement. And instead of being excited about spending time with the One who is head-over-heels in love with us, we allow ourselves to come under condemnation of what others say we should be praying about, which often causes us not to set time aside to pray at all.

Prayer itself is not supposed to be a burden. It is simply communication between God and the human beings He created and loves; with a deep love more than our finite minds can comprehend.

God used the darkest circumstance in my life to set me free in this area. I wrote about it in my book When Tragedy Strikes.

For me personally, over the years it has been easy to feel guilty in my quiet time with the Lord. I am either not following someone else’s pattern, or I’m not doing what I have been told by other Christians I should be doing. I “should” be reading my Bible for thirty minutes every day, or I “should” be on my knees praying for an hour, etc.

But during this time of learning how to rest in God’s presence, I was actually set free from that kind of guilt. In trying to “just be” with God, I never followed any kind of formula. If I wanted to pray, I prayed. If I wanted to sleep, I slept (usually with “soaking” music that would surround me with His presence). If I wanted to cry, I cried. If I wanted to praise Him with my voice or by lifting my hands, that’s what I would do. If I wanted to spend time reading my Bible, I would open it and read. I learned to just have times of intimacy between myself and my Lord, and that has become a permanent part of my life.

I rest in the love of my God, and we spend time together, just the two of us in the privacy of my prayer room. I don’t let what others do, or what others insist all Christians should do, dictate the intimate time set aside to be with my God, nor do I feel a need to tell others what they should be doing in their time of intimacy with Him.

I have come to learn that when I spend my times of intimacy with the Lord being led by the Holy Spirit in this way, what I should pray for and how long I should pray is naturally taken care of.

Here are seven things I have learned over the years about prayer, which have greatly increased my desire for spending time in communication with my Father.

Don’t use what others tell you to pray for as your prayer guide. Ask God what He wants you to pray for.
Keep it simple. Just pray your own words from your own heart.
Don’t get caught up in loud or wordy prayers, thinking you have to get God’s attention. He came to Elijah in a still small voice, and it is okay to come to Him in the same way.
You don’t have to come to Him at the same time every day. There is much to be said for routine and discipline, but many of us don’t have that luxury (such as mothers of small children).
Don’t base the length of your prayer time on what others think it should be. Base it on your own needs and desires, which can change through the seasons of life.
If you are praying a promise from the Word of God, speak it out loud. There is power in the spoken word. Use “voice activation” to put the power of God’s Word at work in your life and those you love.
Realize the more time you spend with Him, the easier it is to hear Him speak to you.

Here is another excerpt from my book When Tragedy Strikes about the subject of prayer.

Thankfully, prayer is more than just time set aside every morning before starting your day, or a set gathering at church. Prayer is an ongoing conversation with God that can take place at any time, in any place. Talk to Him from your heart throughout the day, and then listen for His response. He is there, and He wants to be in communication with you. As you become more and more aware of His presence, you will occasionally hear Him initiate the conversation. You will be amazed at the healing that happens in those beautiful random moments of prayer.

When prayer is based in your own personal relationship with God, it becomes a joy. My relationship with my earthly father is different than my sister’s relationship with him. The same is true of our heavenly Father. As His children, we each have a unique relationship with Him, and our prayer life should be a reflection of that individual relationship.

Which of the seven thoughts about prayer spoke to you directly? I would love to hear from you in the comment section below.

August 19, 2015 by Laura Diehl 4 Comments

How Do I Know What Decision to Make?

God says perseverance is a sign of maturity. Sometimes that perseverance means to stick it out where we are, and sometimes it means we need to inconvenience ourselves to shift our position. So how do we know what to do in this type of circumstance?

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” James 1:4. The next verse answers the question on how to know what to do. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” Pray for God’s wisdom and His guidance. He will show you if things are going to settle down soon so you can stay where you are, or if there are some steps you can take to move you where you need to be to get away from those distractions. He knows exactly where you need to be, and when you need to be there; and He is not going to be upset with you for asking Him for directions.

As Christians, we love to quote James 1:5, claiming God promises to give us wisdom. Some of God’s promises are unconditional. In other words, we don’t have to do anything on our end for God to follow through. However, James 1:5 is not one of those promises, and yet it is very rare to hear Christians claiming God promises to give us wisdom with His conditions attached.

Verse six reads, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

Raise your hand if that describes you at times. I am raising mine! The condition to receiving the true wisdom of God is to believe and not doubt that God is giving you direction, and follow through with it. Take that step of faith, (or stand your ground in faith if God is telling you to stay put).

I am reading Enjoying Where You Are on the Way to Where You are Going by Joyce Meyers. Here is what she has to say about this scripture. “Double mindedness is confusing, yet decision-making can be simple…indecision and double mindedness not only bring confusion and complication, but, as James noted, they also bring condemnation.”

In other words, we should not believe something in our hearts, and then allow our minds to talk us out of it. Make a decision, and move forward. Don’t get caught in the trap of indecisiveness.

I like how the Philips translation words it. “But he must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts as to whether he really wants God’s help or not. The man who trusts God, but with inward reservations, is like a wave of the sea, carried forward by the wind one moment and driven back the next.” We have to truly want God’s help, and then act on that inner voice of the Holy Spirit, without doubting.

We need to stop living in fear of making the wrong decision, which causes us to be paralyzed and not move forward. That is exactly what James was saying, when he talked about being double minded and unstable.

God is faithful. If you are truly seeking His will, go ahead and take a step of faith in obedience to what you believe you are hearing. If it is the wrong step, He will lovingly change your direction, getting you on the path He has for you.

In the natural, let’s say you have a child who is looking for something, and you know where it is. When he asks you, you will direct him to it. If he misunderstood you, and starts heading in the opposite direction, you wouldn’t just think, “Oh well! Too bad he didn’t hear me,” and let him keep wandering. You would get his attention and make sure he understands, sending him in the right direction.

God is a good and perfect Father. If you want His perfect wisdom, He will give it to you, just for the asking, as long as you are asking in sincere faith without doubting as to whether or not you really want His help, or doubting your ability to receive it.

The results of not believing God will give you the wisdom you are asking for can be found in verse eight. “That sort of man cannot hope to receive anything from God, and the life of a man of divided loyalty will reveal instability at every turn.”

I am sure this is not the result you or I want to have. So let’s believe when we ask God for wisdom and direction, He gives it to us, and will make sure we hear Him clearly. And then let’s be sure we take a step of faith, trusting He will continue to guide us if we take a wrong step. After all, He is not only just a good Father, but a perfect Father!