Coffee With Emily

Sometimes you just have to accept reality. Like right now.....I am awake at 1:14 am and have to be up in 4 hours - but my brain is fully alert and the last three hours of trying to sleep hasn't worked. So I might as well do something useful with my time. The reality is that I probably shouldn't have had a cup of coffee at 9:30 pm....but it sounded way too good to say 'no' to it paring perfectly with my gluten-free chocolate cake. But "reality", however, sometimes isn't what we can see. At times we just have to have faith even when His promises can't be seen in our lives today. I've been thinking a lot about the characters in the Bible and their every day life. We only get glimpses of what happened. We don't get to see the minute by minute struggles they went through. How they wrestled....how they made it through....what things did they keep in front of them to keep going? I would love to just have a month to walk around with Abraham and s...

Who is God? What does His character look like? These are the questions I've been going through a lot in my mind this last week. I was listening to a sermon by Jill Briscoe and she was sharing a lot about how we forget God's character and who He is when we view Him through the lens of the hard or terrible things we are going through. We see it as Him doing all those things or allowing them to be....instead of placing before our eyes the truth of who the Lord is in the midst of those things. What does the Bible say about Him and how He operates? What do we know to be true in our own lives? Our minds are apt to just freak out and forget all we know to be true. We have to "mind our minds" and really take a hold of what we are thinking about. We must rehearse the attributes of God so that we know - not just feel - who God is in each situation. "Mind your mind and God will mind your heart." This really hit me. My eyes have been on the difficult things and it...

"Now in the morning, having risen long before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed" (Mark 1:35)  "And when Jesus has sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray." (Matthew 14:23)  "So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed" (Luke 5:16)  This season has not been an easy one. There are times when I just want to crawl into a corner and never face people or life again. I've begun to process the things that have been going on in my life and it's messy and painful. I would rather not deal with it if I'm honest with you and myself. I want to shove it into a box and bury it - but growth doesn't happen unless we get to the root of the problem and allow Jesus to heal it. As seen in the accounts of Jesus' life - He realized that He couldn't walk in this life without the Father and I am beginning to understand the same thing. I can't get thro...

Photo by Emily Hart This Easter has been different than most for me. Most years it just comes and goes and I remain unchanged. God changed my heart this Easter season. I actually entered into this season doing lent purposefully and it was the hardest thing ever. The Lord had me give up the thing I loved the most, to pray for the hardest situation I was going through. I tried to get out of it - yet He called me deeper. He slowly did things in my life and in my heart to show me who He was to me. Also, He changed me during this season - I am learning more on how to trust Him, despite what my current circumstances are. Photo by Emily Hart The week leading up to Easter-so many things in my life came to a head. I really struggled through it - my pastor recommended I read this book called "The Bait of Satan" - I wasn't really sure about it and the title made me be like..."wow...this is going to be a tough read...just the title is intimidating" Yet, God's...

Photo by Emily Hart I've tried really hard to find the right answers to the difficult situations around me - but I failed. I couldn't find a way to explain it logically. I don't get it why life sucks so much sometimes. I don't get why I feel like I'm sinking, and I feel like the ocean waves are crashing in all around me. The last few days were the hardest I've had in a long time. I wanted to give up. Throw in the towel and run away from everything in my life. But Wednesday morning - God. I sat in the chapel writing out my prayers to Him, asking Him why things were happening and His reply was simple "My mercies are new every morning" - He didn't explain anything - but somehow those simple words revived me. I had such peace in my heart. Photo by Emily Hart Things continued to pile on top of me - trials - overload of work - difficulty in relationships - but I was okay. I knew He'd get me through it all. He gave me the mercy ...

I woke up late in the morning –  the accusations fresh in my head “You aren’t good enough. You can’t get passed this. You’ll never have the victory.” I screamed in the shower and started to cry. Why would this come up again at this time? I was under the weight of all of the chaos surrounding my life. I couldn’t take this added weight – I was being crushed. I tried to erase the thoughts, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t. I heard a faint whisper “Come away with Me, Emily” I quickly grabbed my key, headphones, phone, water bottle, Bible, journal, pen and walked out the door. I tend to have long conversations with God when I'm outside. (Praise the Lord for 77 degree weather in PA in February! What?!) I went to a park near the apartment I was staying at and sat by the river.  Photo by Emily Hart I, for some reason, blared a song I’d written the year before and the words “ So hold me tightly and wrap me in Your arms ” kept resounding in my heart….and...