40 Scriptures on Faith (Downloadable)

Hello all! I hope everyone had a meaningful and reflective Memorial Day weekend. For today's post, I wanted to give you a downloadable meme that contains 40 scriptures about faith.

I hope you are encouraged to look these up when you need a boost, some encouragement, when you're doubting or facing something hard. Sometimes we try to walk in our own goodness and strength, which can be hard. God wants us to look to him for everything, including faith.

What's your favorite scripture on faith? Do you know one I haven't included here? Please share!

Just right click on the meme and your computer should give you the option to download the meme. Feel free to share it with friends, or print it out and keep it on your fridge, or in your computer to have a handy go-to reference when you need a boost of faith.

Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Cheryl Wyatt

What I'm Working On-Interrupted by Cheryl Wyatt

Hi all! So sorry for the late afternoon posting. I misread my calendar and just now noticed my error. I hope you all are enjoying the warmer weather. It's nice and breezy today, around 70 degrees.

What's the temp and weather like where you live?

I've been saddened this week to see the flooding down south, in and around Louisiana. If you live or have loved ones in that area, I'm so sorry. We've contended with flooding in our town and it's hard. My prayers go out to all those affected. I hope you will join me in praying for flood victims. Just heartbreaking.

I wanted to share what I'm working on writing-wise right now. Well, what I WAS working on. I had a lot of time to write today and so I was excited to really throw down some words on my next book in an Indie series I'm doing called Under His Wings.

Then, another story started intruding. So I switched gears and began to write snippets that were coming to me. Before long, I had scribbled down notes for not just one story, but a three-book series concept. I'm excited about it and glad for the intrusion. I've been wanting to come up with a new series idea for one of the publishers I work with-and it's an answer to prayer because the series idea that came today feels like a good fit. Now, to set that idea aside so that I can finish my current book. LOL!

Have you been gloriously interrupted in plans you've made? Did you see later that the intrusion was a blessing from God in disguise? Please share!

Hugs to each of you and I pray for a productive day. That you'd be encouraged by the Lord in whatever situation or struggle you face. I pray also that for God to grant us each the character to match the gifting he's given and also that we'd nurture the talents God has placed within. I pray health to you creatively, spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally so that you can run your race unencumbered.

Please pray for me as I move forward with both of these projects. I need discipline and I do not multi-task well. LOL!

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Many blessings!

Cheryl Wyatt

Promise and Provision by Cheryl Wyatt

Hello all! Sorry this is a little late going up today. It's been a busy (but fun!) weekend with kids and sports tournaments. I love watching them play! 

This morning, I was scrolling through Facebook, as I often do in the morning, to see if there were any prayer needs I could bring to God. I kept running into memes with the above verse. I heard it 4 or 5 times this morning, and several times last week. 

Any time I hear or see a verse more than once in a short amount of time, I know God is speaking that verse to me as a promise. Sometimes the promises apply to something I've just been through. Sometimes the promise speaks to a current situation or struggle in my life or faith. 

But often, God gives me a promise from scripture to prepare me for something in the future. 

I made this meme today, for me, as well as for you. There was a point in my Christian walk when I'd hear a verse like this and freak out and immediately become fearful of whatever was coming down the pike to warrant this promise. Today, by the grace of God, as I received this promise of God, I felt peace and joy, and even a giddy anticipation, over this promise. 

I'm not worried about the days to come. I'll be with God. I'm safe! 

I. Will. Be. With. You. 

WOW! The living God-the Everlasting King, The Creator of all creation, the Ruler of Nations-will be with me. 

Guys, my heart leaps because NOTHING trumps that. Nothing! The nearness of God is my good and, even if aspects of the future are terrifying or unpleasant or whatever negative connotation my prone-to-worrying mind can conceive, nothing that happens to me can diminish the joy of the promise of God's presence. That he wants to be with us is amazing. That he longs to be with us is amazing. That he pursues to be with us is amazing. That he died to be with us-amazing. 

I thank the Lord that He has helped me not to fear what is ahead. If you knew me and my propensity toward worry/anxiety/fear, you'd know what a miracle that is. My heart and my mind are focused on the fact that HE WILL BE WITH ME. The Living God-with me! Whatever it is-he will take care of it. He knows my future. He is in control. He is GOOD. He's a good God who delights in drawing near to his people, his beloved children. 

I don't have to go looking for him. He promises to BE RIGHT THERE WITH ME. Not on the sidelines looking on or cheering me on. He will literally be with me. Literally. My mind can scarcely fathom that. Knowing and being close to God-there is nothing better, nothing I'd want more-and I thank God for that. 

And, whatever it is, whatever I'm facing, this promise is proof that he will protect me. I'm safe no matter what. How wonderful that God himself will see to my (your!) wellbeing. What a wonderful God we have! There is no one greater,  no one kinder, no one more powerful or compassionate or loving. He deals with us in mercy-and grace-and lovingkindness or minds can't comprehend. 

So glad! Thank you, Lord! I'm so eternally grateful that he is a God of provision and promise. 

He never breaks his promises. We can be sure. 

What verse have you been hearing or seeing a lot lately? Hold on to the promise. He's faithful! 

Love you all! 

Thanks for stopping by...and for bearing with my lateness in getting this post up. 

Blessings,

Cheryl Wyatt

Construction Disarray by Cheryl Wyatt

So, this week my husband and I had birthdays. His was on February 15th and mine February 14th-Valentines Day :-) ).


We'd been planning to get rid of our carpet since we have a plethora of allergy and asthma sufferers in our house. What better time than our birthdays to rip the carpet out and put vinyl flooring down? LOL!

As my husband and our helpers were cutting, sawing, ripping, dragging old layers out, my house fell into construction chaos and all kinds of disarray. We had to misplace all of the furniture to get to the floor, and of course with construction comes tons of tools and gadgets and pieces and parts.

So the living room looked like this:




And this:

And this: 

And this: 

It occurred to me as I stepped around various scattered piles of disarray that with construction it seems like things have to get really messy before they get really glossy. I wondered why I, being slightly OCD that I am, wasn't getting more upset about the disorder littering my home.

This is when it hit me: the mess usually comes before the masterpiece and deconstruction sometimes precedes construction. This is true in home construction and renovation, and it's true in the building of our character.

Sometimes when we look our messiest, God is at work on the most important parts of us. Perfection came at a cost, and the cross, smudged with His blood, is a beautiful messy reminder that even when it looks and feels like we're finished, he's not finished with us, and yet he proclaimed, "It is finished."

Jesus spoke both in retrospect and in the future and those words will manifest in all believers one day. He won the victory for us on a dirty road where his aching feet walked and his abraded shoulders bore the mess and shame of our sin.

There, in the mess, I see images of what the floor will look like when finished. In the meantime it isn't so beautiful, until I learned to look past the mess and see it as the process to perfection instead. We'd do well to offer ourselves and one another the same courtesy of grace as we grow.

I hope you are encouraged today that God is capable of changing us. If you feel stripped or laid bare or rearranged or broken to pieces, surrender. Let him do his magnificent work. You are the masterpiece that Jesus died for. You are worth it, for it was at our messiest that Love came in.

Often things look worse before they get better, but God is always working behind the scenes. For everyone who feels broken or in pieces or torn apart or alone, I pray that you feel his loving, renovating, restoring presence in such a profound way that it overpowers your pain.

Blessings,
Cheryl Wyatt

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The Hero's Sweetheart Release Party-Day 3 Cheryl Wyatt

Welcome back to my release party for The Hero's Sweetheart. 

I'm grateful you've joined us! 

For today's post, I thought it would be fun to share how God encouraged me through the writing of this book. I'll be honest, last year was HARD. One of the toughest for me in terms of being a writer. In fact, I tried to quit. I truly did. 

Then about four weeks into what I thought was my permanent exodus from writing, I felt God asking me not to grow weary of doing good. 

That hit me right in the feels guys. I mean, I had been hit SO hard with writing-related discouragements the months prior--I mean a full out unrelenting assault, that I believed with everything in me that I had nothing to offer readers. So I quit. 

Until the day God called me back. I wish I could describe to you the tug on my heart by His spirit. The flood of hope that washed over me when my bruised and aching heart soaked in the meaning of what he'd said. That He found merit and worth in my words even if no one else did. Despite opinions of many people around me, many of whom I'd looked up to and trusted my writing to...guys, I was WRECKED. 

Both in the discouragement and tearing down of my gift and both in God's breathing life back into my will to continue.

So, with more fear, insecurity, unworthiness and doubt than I'd ever had in my life, I said, "Yes, Lord, with your help and if this is your will, I will, even though I feel inept and completely frustrated and discouraged...I will write." 

I felt like God promised to encourage me that he had gifted me with writing and that if I would just continue to offer up my words as worship, he would rebuild my courage to write. 

A few weeks ago a friend emailed me that she'd seen my book featured in a national secular magazine (First for Women-February Edition) as one of 6 or 7 recommended reads and it was reviewed in a positive light. A week later I got news that my book received a Top Pick from Romantic Times. These were important affirmations, that I believe God granted me, because the book had no revisions and very light editing. This dispelled the lie I'd bought into that my writing is too weak to market and that I don't have anything of worth of value to offer readers or publishers. 

The thing is, it's true that I may not be the strongest writer out there. In fact, many have called my writing weak despite that I truly put my best effort forward and yet my best wasn't good enough for some who had control over my contracts and future books. Here's the miracle of it all: God chooses to use me anyway. He uses imperfect people to accomplish his work. 

Does that mean I'm going to stop striving to grow as a writer? No way. As long as I have breath, I will strive to learn and grow and to make each book better than the last. In the meantime, God still chooses to use me, though I struggle.

Now, in retrospect, I realize God allowed those doors to slam in my face...and I do mean slam to the point of some of the most intense emotional pain and confusion I've experienced to date, in order to move me in a direction I never would have gone on my own-hybrid publishing. 

More about that direction in a future post but suffice it to say that I'm following God's lead and I'm trusting in his opinion above all others. 

This post is hard for me to share. I don't want to be vulnerable or make anyone wonder who hurt me. The truth is that it doesn't matter, because those events were sifted through God's hands for the purpose of redirecting me. I believe I'd gotten out of God's will, and in his great mercy, he used difficult circumstances to steer me back into the center of his will. 

Anytime we obey God, there will be opposition, so I appreciate your prayers as I move forward with my new direction in writing. The good news is I'll be able to put out books more often and on a more regular schedule. 

Have you gone through something confusing and hard that you learned later was used for your good? 

Guys, seriously, all I want is for people to know Jesus. If my books can teach people how to pray, or make them wonder if God can love them like he loves my characters...all the hard stuff is worth it! Everything I do, every word, is for Him and for the sake of others knowing him. 

God knows when we need encouragement doesn't he? I'm so grateful! I'm thankful too that his timing is perfect. I believe he brings good news when our hearts need a boost. 

I hope you'll share ways that Christian fiction has buoyed your faith and encouraged your walk with God, or helped you get closer to Jesus. It definitely doesn't have to be my work mentioned...in fact I'd love to hear which authors' writing (other than mine) touches your heart and mends your spirit. 

How has God encouraged you lately? 

Thanks for coming by! 

Staying in touch is important to me. So I hope you will consider joining my newsletter for new release news, freebies and other goodies exclusive to subscribers at: http://bit.ly/CherylWyattNewsletterSignup

Cheryl Wyatt

When Holidays are Hard by Cheryl Wyatt

Good morning everyone. I hope all of you had a wonderful time with your loved ones at Christmas. This year was a little easier on our family than the past two years, because we'd just lost my grandmother one year, then the other the next year right before Christmas. Moods were definitely dampened, and yet we were all keenly more aware of the gift of having one another as opposed to things.

This year it felt easier to get into the Christmas spirit and we found ourselves laughing more than crying as we told stories of my grandmothers from Christmases past. How about you? Have you faced a loss or are you enduring a hardship that makes the holidays hard on you?

I hope you will let us know so we can lift you up. Prayer is a gift that I'm enormously grateful to both have and receive. If you don't feel comfortable sharing your struggle in the comment section, please feel free to request prayer at cheryl@cherylwyatt.com.

Jesus is the best gift of all, and I love that he left us examples of how and what to pray. Not just The Lord's Prayer, but also prayers like his prayer in John Chapter 17. That prayer was meant for not only his immediate disciples, but also for his future disciples...which is us...me and you if you believe.

Having a hard time with Christianity? I pray a special touch from God this season that will last forever. God isn't finished with your story. He wrote himself into it and I pray you open your heart to all he is and all he has for you, including hope that will never fade or die. His love for you is not dependent on what you do or don't do and his peace is life-changing and his hope everlasting.

I pray for you this year the gift of knowing Him. Of knowing Jesus as Lord, Savior, Friend, Spouse, Confidant, Provider, Healer, Wisdom-giver, Lavish Mercy-maker, Loving Father, Comforter, Hope-giver, Peacemaker, Powerful King, Joy-infuser, Victory-maker, Hurt-taker, Burden-carrier, Chin-lifter, Heart-healer, Lie-dissolver, Encourager and the million other things he is and does.

May you go into the new year knowing him more intimately and more accurately than ever. He loves you. My gift is to tell you that and to pray with all my heart that you know it, share it, show it.

Love you all,
Cheryl Wyatt

And they call it puppy love...

My girls with our new puppies, Sargeant and Sebastian.

Hi Everyone! Danica Favorite here and I am a little late getting my post up for today because we have had major changes in our house!

About six months ago, our dog passed away after being my companion for fifteen years. My family wanted a new dog right away, but I wasn't ready. Finally, over the past few weeks, I started thinking we should get another dog, and I've been watching the dog rescue sites. For a variety of reasons, we wanted schnauzers, so I've been waiting to find one. A little over a week ago, a pair of brothers showed up on the rescue site, and we fell in love. We went through the adoption process, yesterday, the rescue group brought the dogs to our house for a home visit. Everything worked out perfectly, and we found ourselves with two new puppies at our house!

Even though we were ready for the dogs, it's been an unexpected experience. The dogs turn one this week, so they're still at the puppy stage, and because they spent much of that year being neglected, they are not your typical one year olds. We're working on potty training and socialization, among other things. Because of the lives they led until now, if you leave them for even a minute, they think you're leaving forever. And when you walk into a room, they're like, "oh yay! She's back! I missed you so much! Never leave me again!"

We adopted a set of brothers who'd never been separated. With our dog, Grant, we always regretted not having a doggie companion for him, so when we found these guys, we thought it would be perfect. Except I forgot how much work one puppy was, let alone two! When you finally get one calmed down, the other decides to be worked up. The rescue organization said that they were very quiet and not your typical puppies. HA! These guys have been nothing but happy little bundles of energy since we got them. Every time I go to sit down, I have a dog crawling all over me, saying, "hey! Did you forget about me? Do you still love me? Are you going to keep me?" And when I finally get one settled down, the other one thinks it's his turn.

Even though our Grant had been sick a long time, and I knew his end was coming, losing him was hard. We'd had him since he was a baby, and he was my constant companion. The last year or so was hard, because he required a lot of care, and in some ways, it was like having a puppy- minus the energy. I'd forgotten about the energy!

Losing a pet is hard. Especially when it's been someone who is like family. And even though I still miss Grant, it gets easier every day. We got the dogs when everyone in the family was ready. I think the girls wanted a new dog within a couple of weeks, but it took me months to be ready. Grief is a really personal thing, and what I've learned from this process is that you have to let your process be your process. People will give advice and tell you what they think about where you should be in grieving your pet, but here is my take: let it be whatever it needs to be for you.

We have these great new puppies. I'm enjoying them very much. But I know there will be days when I still miss Grant, and that's okay. Of course, these guys are such bundles of energy, I'm not sure when I'll have time to miss him!

How about you? Have you ever lost a pet? How did you handle the grief? And if you have some good puppy training tips, let me know!

STRADDLING THE PICKET FENCE OF FRIENDSHIP

While our youngest son was home from college for the weekend, he asked me how many true friends I have. When one’s eighteen-year-old, who is exploring his new world away from home, asks something like that, the writer puts down her pen and settles into a verbal, son-initiated (gasp!) conversation. I treasured every minute of our hour-long exchange. It took me back years to a ladies Sunday school class where I found myself straddling the fence—of the picket variety, with spear-like points that make one intensely uncomfortable. On one side of the fence was my reaction to the topic of “friendship,” as introduced by the story of Ruth and Naomi: Friends are all good and well, I thought, but one must be cautious. On the other side of that fence was the thought: How wonderful to have a “to the ends of the earth friend” like Ruth. It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends and wasn’t a friend. It’s that my introverted personality, combined with painful experiences as a teenager, made me cautious with the depth of friendship. And so I continued to straddle the fence until our leader, a beautiful, God-breathing woman, demonstrated what the Lord intended when he commanded us to love one another.

She asked if one of our ladies would read a passage from the book of Ruth and pause after each sentence. Then she knelt before a surprised lady and, with each pause between sentences, put Ruth’s words into her own words while holding the woman’s gaze with an intensity that made me duck my head behind my Bible (I do not do drama).

Ruth 1:16-17: Don’t force me to leave you. Don’t make me turn back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and I will be buried there with you. May the Lord strike me down if anything but death separates you and me!” (God’s Word Translation)

After the second sentence, I peeked at the scene. Back to my Bible. Deep breath. Another peek. A glance at the floor. My, I mused, I really ought to repaint my toenails. Maybe one more peek. That last time, I made it through the end of our leader’s demonstration without looking away. And when she rose before the speechless, visibly moved recipient, it was obvious we were all affected. I was awed…and touched…and needy. At the risk of vulnerability, I had to get off the fence on the side of Ruth. Not that I was ready to toss out the teabag tag I had been holding onto for years that quotes sixteenth-century Diane de Poitiers: To have a good enemy, choose a friend; he knows where to strike. But the reminder to never allow a friend too near didn’t belong on my refrigerator door. Baby steps…

That was years ago, and I continue to take baby steps with friendship, but what joy to look back and see all those steps have added up to strides. We’re commanded to love one another, and so I continue to work toward gaining friends—and being a friend—like Ruth. We should all be so blessed and a blessing to others.