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Author: Mari-Anna Stålnacke @flowingfaith

Sitting before the Lord

Sitting before the Lord

Are you stressed out and running around like crazy trying to get everything ready? Take a pause. Sit still and be renewed in God’s presence. You never regret time spent in God’s presence. Why is sitting before the Lord so important? When we abide in God, our batteries are charged. And we can forego panic attacks by recognizing God’s powerful presence in the world. Be still, and know that I am God! (Psalm 46:10, NRSV) Why is God calling us…

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Grace for Self-Blamers

Grace for Self-Blamers

Do you blame yourself for some things you’ve done? Do you go over and over again some things you’ve unwisely said ? Do you chastise yourself for things you’ve left undone? Don’t worry. There’s plenty of grace for self-blamers! “Deliberately punishing ourselves with blame and shame, instead of turning toward the epic grace of God, never produces anything good”, writes Kurt Bubna in his book Epic Grace, Chronicles of a Recovering Idiot. Kurt continues “Don’t listen to the accusing voice…

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Walking in Love

Walking in Love

We are called to be one in Christ…but we are not succeeding very well, are we? Living in unity seems like a balancing act sometimes. How can we who are so different live in harmony? How can we respect everyone and allow each other freedom in Christ? These are the questions I’ve been mulling over lately. Blessedly I learned five things about walking in love from Romans 14:13-23. 1) We need to stop criticizing at once. Everyone we meet is…

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Four Steps to Faithful Living

Four Steps to Faithful Living

How are your Christmas preparations coming along? Are you stressed out about what to wear or how to get everything done on time? Maybe it is time to take time out. Maybe it is time to see what really matters. Maybe it is time to make sure we’re not oblivious to God. But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze…

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Not a Game, But a Battle

Not a Game, But a Battle

Life is not a game. But it is a battle. How come? Life is not about smelling roses or walking into sunsets. Neither it is about playing hard or finding your rightful place in the world. Life is not just about growing older and doing something meaningful before dying. Because the physical world is not all there is. We can’t forget about the spiritual realm. And that’s why life is not a picnic or a game. It is a battle….

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Are You on the Way?

Are You on the Way?

Are you on the way to meet Jesus? Like the wise men? Without waiting for 100% proof? The wise men must have been on the road to pay homage to the new born king for quite some time now.  They most likely had known about the prophecy of Daniel and were familiar with the astronomy. But they were on the way to meet Jesus by faith. They did not wait for 100% proof before starting their journey to Jesus. It…

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How to Reflect God’s Glory

How to Reflect God’s Glory

I love how God talks to us through daily occurrences and divine coincidences. I usually read some chapters from both the Old and the New Testament but I am not right now using any specific reading plan (other than reading the Old Testament chronologically). Today I was reading from Ezekiel and Romans. You would think they have nothing to do with each other. But they both talked about people “who have eyes to see but do not see, who have…

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Celebrating Despite Hardships

Celebrating Despite Hardships

We’ve all been in situations that seem hopeless. We just can’t see how things can ever work out again. And sometimes this period of fogginess lasts weeks, months, even years. Kurt Bubna writes about this in his new book Epic Grace, Chronicles of a Recovering Idiot “Our perspective is so limited. Our vision is so imperfect. Our ability to see the bigger picture is incredibly restricted and inadequate. We live so often in a fog. The hills are still there,…

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Flow and Flowing Faith

Flow and Flowing Faith

Have you experienced Flow? I have to admit that when I am writing I can burn all the cooking even if I am just 10 feet away! The writing process is so exhilarating that I can’t help it. My husband knows this and he calls me on my cell to wake me up from Flow when I need to tend to some everyday stuff in the midst of my writing time. According to Wikipedia “Flow is the mental state of…

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Just Like Leah

Just Like Leah

Somehow I had always felt sorry for Leah because she was the unwanted bride. Her relationships with her father, her sister, and her husband were difficult to say the least. But as I dug into the story of Leah little deeper, I found out that there was no need to be sorry for her. Leah was quite a woman of faith despite of all the rough circumstances in her life. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened…

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