Category: Encouragement Now

Psalms in March

February 27, 2021

The Bible Challenge is changing up for the month of March!!! Along with our 1 Samuel reading, we will read the Psalm that corresponds with the date and then add 30. Keep adding 30 until you run out of Psalms. We will start together on Monday, March 1st, and I’ll post each day with a reminder and what Psalms to read. We are going to get to know ALL of the Psalms!!!
So, on March 1st we will read Psalms 1, 31, 61, 91, 121
Nothing fancy, just reading to get to know them.
Are you in?!?! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

~Shannon

You have sinned, yet…

February 24, 2021

God is so gracious and merciful. We mess up and find ourselves in sin again and again and this is His message. Always calling, always drawing us back to fellowship, always reminding us that all else but Him is vanity and pious fraud. It should make us forever wonder at the fact that it has pleased the Lord to make such a people for himself. Glory, His mercy is astounding.

Dagon

February 18, 2021

So what’s not working and you keep trying to prop it up and declare it productive religiosity?
What things are you trusting as solutions that keep failing and you keep trying to tweak?

These verses are a perfect picture of so much today that exalts itself above the knowledge of God.

Ask God to show you any Dagons in your life. Is there something you’re trusting in more than in the Sovereign One? Is it more important to you to keep carrying on with what you know and are familiar with, even though it falls short, rather than willingly put yourself under the judgement and care if the all-powerful God?

Anyone want to list a few possible ‘Dagons’ of our day?

~Shannon

Hindsight is 20/20

February 16, 2021

Hindsight is 20/20. Hannah learned some hard lessons through her discontentment, anger, her vow, and following through by giving her son away. She was brought to a place of desperate reliance on the Sovereignty of her God.

So much to ponder as we read her story each day. I read it as a fellow mother and insert myself into her place and can feel her harder difficult feelings AFTER her son is born than any she felt while not conceiving. (If you look up all the descriptive words about how Hannah felt and acted during this time, the concordance definitions use ‘anger, thunder, rage, anxiety, and wrath’! Not how I’ve always been taught she acted! 😜)

Caught up in her anger and frustration of her circumstances it doesn’t seem that she is pondering the path of her feet…. where is the vow leading?
She doesn’t get to keep her baby.
She is promising to hand him over to be raised by what everyone knows to be ungodly men.
She has no promise of more children.

Just think about it all. Ponder the real-lifeness of it all. Hard circumstances, hard people… After experiencing more pain on the other side of her vow than she realized was coming, she makes this statement that we are utterly dependent on our God to work anything out. It is ONLY by GOD’S choosing that we will prevail.

I believe Hannah has been humbled. Such a hard lesson. I want to have a good long listen with her one day in glory. I want to hear her tell me all God did in her despite the depraved humanity of all those involved. All glory to God for working beautiful things out of a story of anger, envy, discontent, and poor choices! God is a God who redeems. We are full of Hope no matter what we see around us because it is not by might that a man prevails!

~Shannon

New Around Here???

February 15, 2021

Hello! I’m Shannon and I’m a lover of Scripture. My friends and I enjoy reading our Bibles in a way that allows us to always be on the same page and able to discuss what we are learning together and ask each other questions to help dig deeper.

📖In a time when I was desperate for hope & stability almost 20 years ago my Bible became my best friend. It changed my life. And because of the power I witnessed in my life through daily choosing to read larger portions of Scripture I started sharing this simple method with others.

📖I know beyond the shadow of any doubt this is the answer you need, no matter what your life is like….
Bold statement? Yup!
True? Definitely!

📖 Our Bible Challenge has created quite a community and life will never be the same. We would love for you to join in as we read our Bibles whole books at a time, the way that I believe it was meant to be read. It changes EVERYTHING.

📖I double-dog dare you to try it for yourself! … Give yourself to the reading of Scripture this way and I guarantee you will notice a huge difference in your life. Hold your hat, it’s quite a ride!

More information on the Bible Challenge HERE. 😉

~Shannon

Take Care…

February 11, 2021

It’s what we are doing!!!
We ARE growing in the grace & knowledge of our Savior!!!
Keep plugging away in the Bible Challenge with us. We are building major spiritual muscles & discernment that’ll be needed sooner rather than later!

Just a couple days left to read & reread 2 Peter.

~Shannon

Your Leash

February 10, 2021

Every moment of every day you are choosing your master. So who’s calling your shots?

Your appetite?
Your emotions?
Your insecurity?
Your fear?
Your pride?
Your traditions?
Your kids?
Your bank account?
Your phone?

Challenge yourself to notice this week who’s got the other end of that leash around your neck. … Then ask God to break the cycle of that dependence and follow only Him as your Master, free & clear.

These lesser masters have to be shown to us through the Holy Spirit, and He alone can break those chains. Maybe this will be a very freeing week for us as we wait on the Lord to reveal things that need to be brought to Him to be subdued.

~Shannon

Don’t Quit!

February 9, 2021

Getting tired? Feel like it’s more of a chore some of those February days to flip that Bible open and get fed?
Take heart and purpose to read it no matter what! You reap huge benefits when you dare to keep opening those pages… even though your body & circumstances are screaming that you don’t feel like it and don’t have time!

Pull up your chair and just look at how much we have already dug into at the table this year!… and we’re just getting started!!!

If you are new to the Bible Challenge it’s important to know that you NEVER fall behind and you are NEVER too late to join in. Check out the link in the bio and pick up with wherever we are. There’s a bunch of us ladies who are getting to know Scripture in an oh-so-simple but life-changing way.

Join us???

~ Shannon

To-do List for Today

February 8, 2021

Want to have a productive day? It’s not about the food made or the cleaned house. It’s not about the prep work for tomorrow or that thing that has to finally get done and crossed off the list from yesterday. Even if nothing on the to-do list gets completed ~ if you get these things done, God considers it an EFFECTIVE & FRUITFUL day!
Ponder these verses a lot this week. Ask God to remind you of the eternal qualities instead of believing there’s more glory in the temporal.

~Shannon