Discernment | Laurie Coombs

Archive for the ‘Discernment’ Category

Is God Really Faithful? AND Some News

Posted on: October 15th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

I’m super excited to share some incredible news on the heels of the article I recently wrote called, Living Victoriously in the Messy Middle. What I’m about to share serves as an example to what was written in that article, particularly the point I made about doubts. So anyway, here’s the news! The Coombs Family adoption has taken a bit of a twist. Just under a month ago, my husband Travis said, “If God wants us to adopt, He’s gonna have to drop something in our lap.” Famous last words, it seems. Not more than a few days later, it happened. A wonderful little bundle of joy was dropped in our lap. A baby girl, only a few weeks old, in Uganda. For those of you just tuning in, we’ve been pursuing an adoption in Ethiopia for the past five years, not Uganda. Hence, the twist of this incredibly wonderful, yet immensely difficult, faith-testing journey….

Paradigm Shift: What We Need More Than Answers

Posted on: October 1st, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

Life sure has a way of throwing us curve balls, doesn’t it? I recently heard someone point out a significant dichotomy that exists in our world that I found interesting. At any given moment throughout the world, this person said, and even in our own lives, we see and experience incredible beauty and extraordinary evil all at the same time. Herein lies the tension of life. In one moment of time, we can hear the joy of a baby’s laughter while reading of horrible atrocities committed against children around the world. We can relish a beautiful moment with our family only to be interrupted and left stunned by the latest tragedy seen on the nightly news. We can take time to soak in the beauty of God’s creation only to receive word that an unexpected tragedy happened that will effectively change the course of our lives forever upon our return home. There is joy and beauty and…

He Gives to His Beloved Sleep: The Discipline of Rest

Posted on: May 28th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

Have you ever looked at your ever-increasing to-do list and thought, How in the world am I going to get this done? Or even, Okay, if I work every moment of every day over the next several months, I might be able to do this? That has been my life lately––or at least that’s been my most frequent temptation. But what’s incredible is that, despite the temptation, God has continually given me grace to resist giving in to this toxic way of thinking and has regularly realigned my thoughts with His. Now, that’s not to say thoughts like these don’t come, but when they do, I’m reminded of the truth. God has been teaching me many things about time management, but I’d like to focus on one of the most overlooked elements of time management today, and that is rest. At first glance, taking moments of rest seems counterproductive to achieving our…

You Don’t Have to Do It All

Posted on: May 11th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

It’s essential to keep our focus on what truly matters. On the things and the priorities we’re called to pursue. When confronted with a busy season, or even just the complexities of life, it’s easy to unintentionally drift away from the things that are most important. Pastor Andy Stanley once said, “We don’t drift in good directions. We discipline and prioritize ourselves there.” I believe he’s right. We can’t drift through life, thinking it will arbitrarily work out in the end but must be intentional instead. Now, I know it’s incredibly easy to allow the demands confronting us day in and day out to dictate what we do with our time. In our modern cultural, we’re pulled in so many directions. One demand after another cries out for our attention, and if we’re not mindful, we will lose proper focus, thinking all things before us are the things we ought to do, thinking every opportunity is…

A Strange Dichotomy

Posted on: January 21st, 2015 by Laurie Coombs 3 Comments

There’s a strange dichotomy that goes on in this head of mine. The moment I gave my life to Christ, I felt a strong, relentless desire to abandon myself to God’s call to ministry. A desire to proclaim the excellencies of God to this world. To shout His praises from the highest of high mountains that all may know and see that Jesus is who He says He is. So that, as 1 Kings 8:60 says, “all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God.” I wanted to lift my voice and proclaim boldly, “Behold your God!” (Isaiah 40:9). I had been plucked out of the mire, out of a deep dark pit of despair, and I wanted others to know what I had come to know. “People need to know this,” I’d say. “God is who He says He is. He is real. And He actually does, today, what He…

Making Your New Year’s Resolution Stick

Posted on: December 30th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 3 Comments

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16 I once did a 40-day Bible reading challenge. The challenge was just as it sounds––read through the Bible in 40 days. Yep––the whole thing! For 41 days (I got behind a bit), beginning in Genesis and ending with Revelation, I read an average of 30 chapters a day. This challenge was crazy, but let me tell you: it was absolutely amazing! When first presented with all this craziness, I was intrigued, but I didn’t think I could do it. After all, I have children who need their mommy and a husband who needs his wife, but God made it happen. Day in and day out, I was given the time needed to soak in the truth of God’s Word. And when God’s truth continually washes over…

Sometimes It’s Just Hard

Posted on: November 13th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs

I was following Jesus into the unknown––into my scary places. Places I did not want to go. He was calling me to walk on the water with Him––to do things I did not want to do––but I knew those very things would bring me to the place He intended, a place of blessing. Still, I was scared. It was hard, laying myself down like that. Ridiculously hard. I knew my God. I knew who He is. I knew His heart toward me. And I knew where I’d end up if I followed, but what I did not know is what that narrow rocky road would look like along the way, and quite honestly that scared me. “I feel like I’m falling apart,” I wrote in my prayer journal, sometime during this season. “[The girls and I] have been sick, my emotions are all over the board, I feel weighed down by…

Is Your Truth God’s Truth?

Posted on: September 8th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

A sea of tissues––crumpled up and used––littered the ground around me. Hours had passed since I had first sat down with that blue binder, praying for God to allow me to see, and it seemed my prayers were beginning to be answered. More than nine years had passed since Dad was murdered, but in all those years, I had never once read through the contents of the binder in its entirety, let alone in one sitting. But now, I needed to. God had called me to forgive the man who murdered my dad. I had just received my first letter from him that afternoon, which I certainly did not welcome. But after having read the letter––after having cried out to God for what seemed like hours––it occurred to me, for the first time, that perhaps my truth was not God’s truth. And in that moment, all I knew came into…

Trusting God to Fill in the Gap

Posted on: February 25th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

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“If we could just get this stuff right,” I said to my husband, “our lives would be amazing.” I had just finished listening to Pastor Andy Stanley’s Breathing Room sermon series, which addresses the importance of the way we spend both our time and money and argues that life is simply better with breathing room. Relationships thrive when there’s breathing room. We experience greater joy and peace when there’s breathing room. And ultimately we have more opportunity to grow in our relationship with God when there’s breathing room. Now, I realize this message may seem like common sense. We know this stuff. It’s nothing new. But I question how many of us still live our lives to the limit. We live in a fast paced world––in a society that makes productivity and “success” top priority. As Americans, we’re called to work hard and achieve the fallacious “American Dream.” But I don’t believe this…

Why Do You Cry Out To Me?

Posted on: December 10th, 2013 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

God’s people were hard pressed. Slaves to a foreign king, the Israelites cried out to God to intercede on their behalf. Their cries were heard, and scripture tells us “God saw the people of Israel––and God knew” (Exodus 2:25, emphasis mine). He knew their distress––knew their pain––and would soon come bringing deliverance along with Him. We all know what happened next in the story––Moses, the burning bush, the plagues on Egypt––all resulting in Pharaoh’s reluctant release of God’s chosen. The Israelites were free. Set free by the heavy hand of God upon an unbelieving ruler. The story is familiar. So familiar, in fact, that we often miss treasures––hidden just below the surface––that are intended to bring greater depth and richness to that which has become commonplace. I just love how God’s Word is inexhaustible––there are always more treasures to be found. A few months ago, I sat reading Exodus 14…