Even now if you read any of the headlines plastered across any of the news websites, you will see mostly doom and gloom and negativity. You’d think that 99% of what happened around the world was bad.

But bad news isn’t necessarily the majority of the news. It’s just what sells and what draws ratings and what garners website hits. All the good that happened today will most likely slip under the radar because the PTB (Powers That Be) don’t think people will buy good news.

But you can make your own headlines and write your own story. You can show love and spread kindness. You can pay it forward with acts of generosity. You can be a visible display of the grace and mercy of God for the world to see. You can be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are lost and hurting.

You may not can change the world, but you can make a difference in at least one person’s world.

Have you ever been inspired to pray for someone’s salvation but it seems like day after day nothing changes? Have you ever prayed for a loved one for healing and the healing hasn’t come yet?

It can be discouraging to send up prayers that seem to bounce off the ceiling and never make it into heaven. Sometimes, it seems easier to quit than to persevere.

But remember the widow in the Bible. She kept going to the judge demanding justice. She refused to take no for an answer. Her determination and desire were stronger than any denial so she persevered until she got what she was after.

Maybe you prayed 99 times and stopped. What if the answer was waiting on the 100th time? If the Israelites had marched around Jericho six times and stopped on that final day, would they have seen the walls fall?

I think the way to not lose heart is to keep your eyes not on the physical circumstances that don’t seem to change but on the God who is always at work, never resting and never tiring. It’s to remember the God who still makes miracles happen in the midst of the most unlikely places and people. It’s to keep your eyes fixed not on the person you’re praying for but on Jesus.

Here’s a short prayer for anyone battling anxiety:

“Almighty God, We bless you for our lives,
we give you praise for your abundant mercy and grace
we receive. We thank you for your faithfulness even
though we are not that faithful to you.
Lord Jesus, we ask you to give us all around
peace in our mind, body, soul and spirit.
We want you to heal and remove everything that is
causing stress, grief, and sorrow in our lives.

Please guide our path through life and make our
enemies be at peace with us. Let your peace reign in our family,
at our place of work, businesses and everything we lay our hands on.

Let your angels of peace go ahead of us when we go out
and stay by our side when we return. In Jesus’ name, Amen”

Man, I can’t love this enough. So many people are fighting hidden battles and carrying around unseen burdens, all while putting on a smile and pretending to be fine. You’d never guess anything was wrong.

Sometimes, you see people and wonder why they act the way they do. Maybe they seem friendly and then they seem suddenly cold to you. I think with just about everyone you meet that there is one fact about that person that if you knew that information it would completely change the way you looked at them. It could be a painful divorce or an abusive past. It could be their own deep-seated anxiety or insecurities.

It costs literally nothing to be kind. You don’t have pay even a penny to pray for someone in your sphere of influence. After all, it could be your kindness that opens their eyes to the goodness of God. Remember that it was God’s kindness that led you to repentance in the first place.

Be kind and pray for opportunities for gospel conversations. You never know what may come of that kindness. The Bible says to always be ready to give an answer for the hope you have — and possibly the reason for your kindness.

I think we make idols of all sorts of things when we expect perfection out of them. When we expect a perfect spouse or a perfect job or a perfect family, we’re putting something else in the space that only God should occupy.

When the Bible says that God is a jealous God, it doesn’t mean He’s petty. It means He knows that filling that God-shaped hole with anything else other than God won’t satisfy us in the long run. Putting anything else on the throne where only God belongs will never give us the peace and contentment we’re longing for. Only God can fill that God-shaped hole.

I’m thankful for a perfect God who steps into my imperfect life at every moment to remind me that chasing after idols of possessions and relationships and status will only bring heartbreak while God is the only one who can bring healing.

Maybe the best place to be isn’t found in the “I’ve got it all together and know my Bible and have my walk of faith down pat,” but in the “I’m a big hot mess who screws up every single day but who knows a deep need for Jesus.” The first is the one who prays and thanks God that he’s not like those other sinners whose sin is different from his. The second is the one who prays, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

That’s exactly what Paul meant about boasting in weaknesses because that’s where the strength of Christ is perfected and manifested in your life. It’s not beating yourself up, but being honest about who you are apart from God and about who God is in spite of you.

I think brokenness being made into wholeness is one of the most beautiful things I know of and God is the best at that.

“But underneath all our emphasis on successful action, many of us suffer from a deep-seated, low self esteem and are walking around with the constant fear that someday someone will unmask the illusion and show that we are not as smart, as good, or as lovable as the world was made to believe” (Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude).

I think for many the greatest fear is that people will find out who we really are, and when they make the discovery, they will shun us and leave us. So many of us live in constant fear that who we really are deep down inside really isn’t good enough. We think people will see us the way we often see ourselves, thus the deep-seated fear. Thus the metaphorical masks (and sometimes real ones). Thus the playacting and pretending and bravado and bragging.

But maybe if we could learn to see us the way God sees us. He sees it all — even more than we can see. He knows all our flaws — even the ones we’ve not allowed ourselves to admit or acknowledge.He loves us as we are, not as we should be. All He asks is that we receive that love.

I think if we could ever see each other as God sees us, we’d see things very differently. We’d act differently. We’d be better people. In fact, we’d be more like Jesus.

As I write these words, I’m definitely feeling it. I’m tired. It wasn’t a bad week, just a long and taxing one.

Have you ever been tired to the point where it affected your thinking and caused you to see things in a more negative light? I remember times back in the day when I thought I had screwed up jobs and relationships beyond repair only to wake up the next morning and everything was fine. The problem was that I was overtired.

Have you ever been tired to the point where you can’t sleep? It’s almost as if you want sleep so much that you try so hard to fall asleep and defeat the very purpose you’re trying to accomplish?

One thing I’ve learned is that feelings are deceptive, especially when you’re hungry or tired. You can’t trust how you feel to guide your decisions, otherwise you will end up making poor decisions based on faulty information. You’ll do and say things that you will later regret.

At these times, Jesus says, “Come to me and find real rest. Not just sleep, but rest where you let go of trying to fix and control and manipulate your circumstances all the time. Lean on me and let me take your burdens and give you Mine. Then you’ll find a peace that allows you to cease striving and truly know that I am God.”

I’m praying that you who are weary and overburdened will know not just sleep but true soul-rest and a peace that surpasses all human understanding and comprehension.

I can’t love this enough because I can’t emphasize enough how true it’s been in my own life. I major in talking about my trials while I minor in speaking about how blessed I am. In fact, I take so many of my blessings for granted, it’s a wonder that I still receive any. But God remains faithful.

I think we miss the point of trials. God doesn’t allow them just so we can have something to complain about but so that we can build our character to receive better blessings. Most of all, trials make us look and act and sound more like Jesus. Sometimes, blessings are to prepare us for future trials so that we can look back and remember the faithfulness of God. It’s not an either/or but a both/and.

I guess I need to remember to write those trials in sand because they don’t last. I need to carve those blessings in stone because those are from the eternal God who never changes and remains constantly true to His people and to His promises forever.

The best part of stained glass windows is when the light shines through. That’s when you really see every detail and every nuance.

It’s the same with God’s people, really. When we’re doing our own thing apart from God and in our own strength, we’re nothing to look at. We’re nothing special. There’s nothing that would make people take notice.

But when we place ourselves where God’s light can shine through us, that’s when people pay attention. That’s when they see something in us that they don’t have in themselves. That’s when they want what we have. That’s when they see God in a new way and see their great need of Him.

Also, the great thing about stained glass is that you take broken pieces of glass and make something beautiful. In the same way, God can take broken pieces and broken people and turn them collectively into something glorious that reflects the light and glory of Christ in a way nothing else can. That’s the Church at its best. That’s us at our best.