Grace | Laurie Coombs

Archive for the ‘Grace’ Category

Grace upon Grace

Posted on: July 5th, 2018 by Laurie Coombs

All through the book of Deuteronomy, the people of God were told to remember. Remember where God found you. Remember His faithfulness. Remember that He spared no expense to deliver you out of slavery that He might bring you into your promised land. Each time I read Moses’ words to the Israelites as they stood on the edge of their promise, I cannot help but hear these same words spoken over me. “Remember.” We are all prone to forget. One moment we stand in praise of Jesus after He did some crazy awesome thing in our life. And the next moment, fear comes when we face uncertainty, and we forget that Jesus had just parted the Red Sea on our behalf. Just like the nation of Israel, we are called to remember. Remember who our God is. Remember His heart toward us. Remember the gospel and the cross. Remember His…

Grace Disguised

Posted on: May 7th, 2018 by Laurie Coombs

I sat with some family members a number of years ago to tell them what Jesus was doing in my life. How He was redeeming all the losses we share. Taking our moments of indescribably pain and using every bit of it for good not only in my life, but in the lives of others as well. My hope was that Jesus would give them eyes to see Himself for who He truly is, to see what He was doing in my life, and to want it for themselves. I told them about it all. How I was bought to my knees when the anxiety and depression threatened to pull me under. How I was quite literally drawn “up from the pit of destruction” and was saved (Psalm 40:2). How my faith ignited the moment I answered Jesus’s call to follow Him and was transformed by the power of His Word….

A Bunch of Dirty, Cursed, Lost, Sick, Rebels

Posted on: October 13th, 2017 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

I addressed the question, “Who do you say that Jesus is?” in my most recent article. This was a question Jesus, Himself, asked His disciples after spending some time with them during His earthly ministry. In this article, I wrote of the importance of this question. How your very life hinges on the answer you give to this question. And that if your response is that Jesus is who He said He was in scripture. That He is the Messiah. Immanuel, God with us. The living God. Our Savior. Our Shepherd. Our Counselor. Our Comforter. Our Healer. Our Peace. Our only Hope. Our very life. If this who you define Jesus to be, then it demands every bit of us. We’re to be all in. Not wishy-washy. Not lukewarm. But all in. Shortly after Jesus posed this question to His disciples, we read, “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples…

Weakness Does Not Negate Strength

Posted on: October 18th, 2016 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

Jesus turned this world on its head. Things people thought they knew crumbled in light of His teaching. The first are the last. The greatest is the least. The rich are the poor. Life is found in death. Strength is found in weakness. Second Corinthians 12:9-10 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” You see, our weaknesses do not negate our strength. It’s not about ridding ourselves of all our weaknesses, but allowing our weaknesses to become our strength. Allowing God to become our strength. I still have weaknesses. LOTS and LOTS of weaknesses….

Something Greater Than Resilience

Posted on: September 22nd, 2016 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

I looked up the word resilience a few weeks ago. I was preparing for a speaking engagement I had coming up on the topic, and this is what I found: resilience noun | re·sil·ience | \ri-ˈzil-yən(t)s\ : the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens : the ability of something to return to its original shape after it has been pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc. Resilience is often prized. I’d venture to say that every one of us would like to be resilient. But what if we could be more than resilient? I must admit I was a bit disappointed with this definition. I had honestly thought resilience was something greater than this. The moment I read this definition, I found myself challenging the notion that we’re to become strong again or healthy again or successful again when something bad happens. I began challenging the…

Bringing Joy HOME!!!

Posted on: August 22nd, 2016 by Laurie Coombs 4 Comments

I finally finished my baby girl’s adoption video! Be sure to watch this incredible story of God’s faithfulness. What a crazy long, wonderfully messy, immensely beautiful and difficult journey it was!! We are super blessed to finally have our baby girl HOME! I pray our story blesses you… Having trouble viewing the video? Watch it on YouTube instead!

For the Love of God

Posted on: December 9th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

Last week, I wrote about how important it is to engage in the pursuit to know God. About how we can use a Biblically accurate understanding of who God is to see the world and ourselves as they truly are. All truth, remember, begins and ends with God. There is, of course, so much to know about our God. Truly, we will never be able to fully grasp all that He is, and I think that’s okay. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a God who is able to be fully grasped by a mind limited by humanity. I love how J.I. Packer put it. He said, “A God whom we could understand exhaustively, and whose revelation of Himself confronted us with no mysteries whatsoever, would be a God in man’s image, and therefore an imaginary God, not the God of the Bible at all.” But God does reveal Himself to both…

Join me on Joni Table Talk today!

Posted on: November 17th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

Laurie Coombs on Joni's Table Talk image

Hello friends! I’d like to invite you to join me on Joni Table Talk today at 2am, 7am, and 8:30pm EST on Daystar! If you aren’t able to make any of those times, be sure to catch it On Demand by clicking here. And, if you’re open to helping me spread the word about the message I’ve been given, I’d be forever grateful if you’d consider sharing this episode on your social media channels or by word of mouth! Thank you! Have a fabulously wonderful day! Blessings, Laurie P.S. If you have any thoughts, I’d love for you to join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter!

Living Victoriously in the Messy Middle

Posted on: October 8th, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

“How’s the adoption?” A friend asked excitedly as I walked into church one Sunday. I desperately wanted to tell her that we were moving forward without a hitch and that we had everything ready and that we would soon be traveling to bring our children home, but I couldn’t. Instead, I reluctantly spoke words that broke my heart. “We’ve hit another roadblock,” I said, before mustering enough faith to add, “but we’ve been here before.” I expected to see sorrow in my friend’s eyes at my response, but she simply said, with complete and total assurance, “Yep, and you know how to get through them,” before she quickly hightailed her way to service. I was a bit stunned to be honest at her quick reaction to my heartfelt confession, but I couldn’t help but smile. She’s right, I thought. I do know how to get through them! God was reminding…

The NIV Bible for Women has just been released!!

Posted on: September 22nd, 2015 by Laurie Coombs

I received an email several months back from an editor asking if I’d consider contributing to the new devotional Bible by Zondervan called NIV Bible for Women: Fresh Insights for Thriving in Today’s World. There were apparently a few contributors who dropped out at the last minute, and this poor editor had only a few days to pull the whole thing together. It was Saturday. The project was going to print on Monday. And God had brought her to me (and I’m sure a few others). “I can do it!” I told her with excitement, as I thought about how God had done it again. He’d provided yet another opportunity to get my message out there, and I was thankful––even though this project had effectively hijacked my weekend. I was asked to write a devotion on Revelation 4:8, focusing on the fact that God is still on His throne despite all the pain we see…