Jennifer Wier, Writer

“We wait as people who experience hardship and pain, yet we are called to witness to the persistent joy that sustains our life as God’s people. May our lives shine with the fierce, tenacious joy of the Light who lives in our hearts as we wait and work for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.”

We prayed this prayer with our church community today, on this third Sunday of Advent, and it struck me with wonder because it so beautifully encapsulates the hope-filled way our faith in Jesus enables us to live, even in our pain, as we joyfully await His return.

May we, as the people of God, hold tenaciously to the joy that is found in Jesus, so that even as we walk through weary seasons, we may overflow with the only true hope, which shines like a beacon in the darkness.

—-

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” -‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭13‬ ‭

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
‭‭-Ephesians‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬-‭19‬a

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
‭‭-Hebrews‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬a

Do you ever find yourself in a bad mood you just can’t seem to shake?

Today I’m over at sharing how God can turn a day around simply with the light of His presence. He really is the light of the world!

https://proverbs31.org/read/devotions/full-post/2023/12/04/when-you-cant-shake-a-bad-mood

Do we spend more time getting ready for Christmas, or getting ready for Jesus?

Jesus promised to return suddenly, at a time we do not expect.

When He does, may He find us ready— not surprised by His presence but already walking in it, with His light burning brightly within us!

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“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!” -Luke 12:35-38

“And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” -Romans 13:11

“... So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” -Matthew 24:44

“I am coming soon!” -Rev. 3:11, 22:7, 12, 20

“Joy Like a Fountain” is the title my daughter gave this drawing.

A few years ago, while struggling as a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of three, I was pretty certain I couldn’t handle having another child. But God whispered, and I heard it. Another child was supposed to exist. So I mustered up my courage and followed His voice, terrified, and yet also possessing the peace that comes from knowing you’re walking right in the middle of the will of God.

That child is four now. And sure, these kids are loud, the house is messy, we no longer homeschool, and I forget my own name sometimes. But that child was indeed meant to exist. God knew exactly what He was doing.

The others are off at school now, and this is my last year at home with this last child. This little girl I get to spend my days with has so frequently been the channel through which God continues to teach me and encourage me. She always has a song in her heart-- sometimes silly but most often a song of praise to God. She spends hours at church with me throughout the week, helping with little jobs and making people laugh. The first word she taught herself to write after her name was JOY, and she fills my sticky-note pads with hearts on every page.

It hasn’t always been easy. Our personalities do conflict sometimes, I’ve got less energy than I used to, and I don’t quite know what to do with all the sass that’s bottled up inside her. But I do know one thing: God’s path is always the best one.

This post isn’t about whether or not to have another baby (if that’s something you are even able to control). It is simply a reminder that God can be trusted, even when what lies in front of you looks scary. Walking forward in obedience to what the Lord is calling you to may involve a bit of hardship, but it will also bring peace… and JOY.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” -Romans 15:13

"When we focus only on getting our needs met, we miss out on the abundance God has for us."

These words of wisdom were spoken yesterday by my husband, a man who regularly seeks to meet the needs of others before his own, and while they could certainly apply to our human relationships, the conversation was actually centered on our relationship with God.

Are we so focused on what we want, or even what we think we truly need, that we forget that God really loves us and that He has a wisdom higher than our own?

When we choose to live grasping at things out of fear that we won't have enough, we miss out on the peace, joy, and incredible blessing of living dependent on the One who knows our needs even better than we do.

God not only has our best interests at heart, He also has the power to meet them more deeply than we ever could, and He faithfully does so for those who will trust Him.

When Jesus' dear friends Martha and Mary were distraught because their brother was nearing death, they knew it was a need they couldn't even try to meet on their own. So they called on Jesus, who they knew had the power to save him.

This was a legitimate need expressed to the Lord by people who were devoted to Him. Lazarus NEEDED healing. And yet Scripture tells us Jesus stayed away two more days, until after Lazarus died...because He LOVED them.

Jesus had the power to heal Lazarus. He also cared deeply- enough to weep over it. But He had an even higher good in mind.

Their agenda was for their brother not to die.

Jesus' agenda? RESURRECTION.

Our needs are legitimate-- the life-and-death ones, and the smaller ones, too. But the reason we have them is not so we can scramble to satisfy ourselves, often at the expense of others and our relationship with God. Rather, our needs are opportunities to call on the One who can satisfy them in higher ways, allowing us to experience not only a miracle, but the joy of a deeply satisfying relationship with the One who loves us more than we can fathom.

What needs will you trust Him with today?

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"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,..."
-Eph. 3:20

hallowed
/ˈhalōd/
adjective
holy; consecrated.
greatly revered and honored.

-oxford dictionary

Whatever you are up against today...
Jesus is the way.
The way forward.
The way out.
The way through.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." -Proverbs 3:5-6

September called for a writing Sabbath, but it's a new month! Check out the October newsletter for some free phone wallpapers, some inspiring quotes and songs, and some thoughts on sanctification.

"Lord, Edit My Heart." On editing and sanctification

This summer I had the opportunity to submit some of my poetry to Awake Our Hearts, an online literary publication celebrating creativity, faith, beauty, the voice of women, and the goodness of God. The poem they chose to publish is an old one that is, for me, one of the most intimate and heartfelt ones I’ve ever written, because it reflects the deepest desire of my heart. When they contacted me a couple weeks ago to tell me they wanted to share it, I happened to notice that the date was exactly ten years to the very day that I wrote it on the rocky shores of Lake Superior. What floors me even more is that those words, written a decade ago, have never felt more true for me than they do today.

All Is Not Dark All Is Not Dark by Jennifer Wier The scars of life roused me from sleep And by the light of the moon You beckoned me to the shore I couldn’t ignore that full-bright glow Or the roar of the waves as…

I bought a new Bible recently and decided to begin highlighting different topics in different colors. I figured it would help me find relevant encouragement and instruction more easily when the need arises.

Yesterday, I came across a passage describing some of the attributes of God, a topic I’ve been highlighting in blue. I reached for the designated blue highlighter, only to find it was missing from my collection. As I dug once more through my pencil pouch, it occurred to me that of all the colors to lose, this blue highlighter was the one whose absence was most unfortunate. Tragic, even. Its job was to emphasize who God is, not according to our own preconceived ideas but who He REALLY is, according to His own word and the history of what He has done to demonstrate it. What that little blue marker did-- well, there is nothing more crucial in all the world. Suddenly, I wanted to cry.

Maybe it sounds silly to mourn over a missing blue marker, like crying over spilled milk. I can know God without a certain pen. Yes, thankfully, you and I have the honor of having access to the very Word of God, through which He reveals His nature to humanity (along with revealing to us our own nature and our need for Him). What’s more, we get to know Him experientially, not just as someone we have read about, but someone we can actually encounter in real relationship! What a priceless treasure we possess, blue highlighter not required.

And yet, that moment when I learned that this little blue tool- -this means I had of noticing who God is and personally taking action to place emphasis on it-- was no longer available to me, it stirred up in me the conviction that there really is nothing else that matters more than discovering who He is. To see everything in light of God is a corrective lens for our faulty vision, the only thing with the power to put things into right perspective.

I would really like to find that blue highlighter, but even more, I want to BE that highlighter. I want to live my life seeing everything through the eyes of who God is, what He has done, and what He will do… and then highlight His character so the whole world can see it, too.

Pretty excited to kick off a year of ministry with these wonderful, servant-hearted women (and more not pictured)!

We have each come to know Jesus as the only foundation that will hold through the storms of life and are so excited to share His love with those who are looking for hope and truth. Together we will dive deeper into walking with Jesus and putting what He says into practice, because this is so much more than an accessory to our lives or a self-help technique. His words are LIFE, and the one who builds her life on Him will never be shaken.

“Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?

Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up their dominion over the earth? Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?”

-God.
(‭‭Job‬ ‭38‬:‭25‬-‭28‬, ‭33‬-‭34‬)

Feeling awed and grateful that such a mighty God is holding everything, and no purpose of His can be thwarted.

“Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” (Psalm 33:8)

I’m so excited to worship in community at Eielson Chapel tonight (and again on Sunday morning)! If you’re local, we’d love for you to join us!

Are you finding yourself feeling a little overwhelmed lately, like you can't quite keep up with all the demands life keeps throwing your way?

Managing time and tasks proficiently is a challenge for me, but recently the Lord provided some insight and encouragement about what's most worthy of my focus, and I shared it with fellow writers this week over at Compel Training.

If you ever struggle to juggle it all, maybe these words are for you today, too...

Do you ever feel like you’ve got more balls in the air than you can handle?

As creators and as followers of Christ, we long to be skillful managers of the many tasks in front of us, but realistically, we know we cannot do everything and do it well. So how do we know what’s worth prioritizing?

In Matthew 24, Jesus gives us insight into the kind of work God deems worthy of our focus:

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions” (Matthew 24:45-47, NIV).

Or as Jesus put it to Peter in John 21:17d, “Feed my sheep” (NIV).

In the midst of all the tasks vying for our attention, there is one thing Jesus says is worthy of our focus: feeding people — not just with physical food but with the true nourishment that comes from the Word of God. I’ll bet this is the very thing you aim to do for your readers, your family and your community — and it brings joy to the Father’s heart!

As we juggle all the demands life throws our way, we can rest in this truth: ✨God’s faithful servants focus on feeding His sheep.✨ We might drop a ball or two sometimes, but when we prioritize nourishing ourselves and the people around us with the life-giving words of God, we can be confident that we are stewarding our lives well.

— Jennifer Wier

What morsel of truth have you been feasting on that you can share with someone today? Tell us in the comments below!💕

When things get scary... Jesus is our solid rock. ​ For as long as I live, I’ll never get over the way clouds can hide mountains. This fascinating phenomenon reminds me that there are things going on beyond what we can see. That there is something sure and steady, no matter what it seems. I know those mountains are there,

We were on vacation when my four-year-old daughter pulled from the suitcase a special item she had stowed away, asking if I could put it on her. It was a ribbon she had won in an art contest a few months earlier— second place. I pinned it on her shirt, admittedly with a little hesitation… because who of us adults would be eager to walk around town advertising our second-place status?

The theme of humility has been popping up all around me lately, along with humbling experiences aplenty. Slowly I’m learning to recognize them for the gifts that they are.

It might be something small. Missing a song lyric. Tripping in public. Sending out an email with a few too many typos.

Sometimes it’s bigger, like when a friend you’ve put in an uncomfortable situation steps into your house extending grace you don’t deserve. Or when your child is in crisis and you realize you are powerless to help her, apart from calling on the only One who can.

Humbling circumstances can feel terribly uncomfortable. But humility is beautiful, if you know how to see with Kingdom eyes. The world will tell you otherwise, of course.
But God’s kingdom is an upside-down kingdom, one where the prideful are brought low and the lowly lifted up. With God, it’s not the capable who are honored, but those who recognize their need for Him.

This humility is not self-doubt or self-abasement, it’s learning not to think of ourselves quite so often at all. It means we don’t need to project an image more put-together than we truly are, because we know we are loved and that He can supply all we lack.

Pride is a roadblock to receiving the grace, forgiveness, and love God freely extends to us, and it prevents us from extending that love to others. Humility, on the other hand, gives us the assurance that we are loved just as much when we come in second, enabling us to rejoice for the person who came in first.

Humility makes us more like Jesus, the King of everything who humbled himself in order to be close to us. So when we experience something that feels like a blow to our pride, let’s embrace it as something that can bring us closer to Him. There is no greater prize.

Do you ever wonder if your prayers really matter? Does it ever feel a little superstitious to be sending your wishes up to a God who already knows what he’s going to do? Does he really want to hear my ideas?

It’s a joy to be sharing some of my own journey with these questions with Candace Cofer over on The Good Day podcast today!

You can listen here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5pIgFhlJHwigYDg2Qo4GZn?si=UFlm7L5HS6SWmIGk190-4w

Or read it here:

https://www.candacecofer.com/post/summer-in-the-psalms-psalm-127

Summer in the Psalms - Psalm 127 Do you find yourself wishing or praying? What's the difference? Is there a difference? Jennifer Wier is helping us sort through these.

Beyond blessed to have been able to attend the She Speaks conference for Christian writers and communicators this week! I thought I was going to learn some tools and techniques, but what I came away with was something different entirely. I'll be sharing more about it in my newsletter later this week. If you don't already receive it, let me know if you'd like to!

Do you ever think,
“I can’t do this anymore.”
“I just don’t have it in me.”?

This is me at a park during the writing conference I flew halfway across the world to attend, skipping out on a session because my heart needed rest.

The conference was not about hustle or performance- quite the opposite, actually. But somewhere between Fairbanks and Charlotte, the supernatural motivation God has been providing a steady supply of for the past two years just vanished, and I had nothing.

So I came out to this park while everyone else was still inside. I knew the Lord was telling me to. What He had for me in this moment was out here, not in there.

“Be still and know that I am God.” is what I heard, so that is what I did.

I sat on a bench and let the Bible app read Job 38 to me— words straight from God to a man who needed to be reminded how small he was and how very big God is. I sat there and listened until I couldn’t even sit anymore, I had to lay down in the grass. I rested my head on the leather-bound Bible in my bag while cicadas buzzed and worship music played in the distance. And I drifted off to a holy sleep.

God has called me to write words that help people see Him, and more than anything, I want to be faithful to Him, to you. But the reality is, I’m not particularly skillful or equipped. As much as I adore the Word of God, I’m never going to master it or know how to exegete (?) it perfectly. I’m Moses, standing in front of a burning bush, not daring to speak the same words he did telling God I can’t do what He’s asking, but with the look in my eyes betraying that I’m thinking it, too.

And the words of the conference speaker echo in my heart: “This calling is not all on you. It is the awe of what God can do.”

Maybe you’re bone-tired too. Run dry of motivation and under-equipped for the task at hand. You long to be faithful with what’s been entrusted to you, but all you can see is what seems like pretty solid evidence that you don’t have it in you.

But, friend, what if you quiet your heart and you hear Him speak…
And what if He doesn’t say, “try harder” but instead He tells you this:

“This calling is not all on you.”

And He tells you to take a nap.

We don’t pursue holiness to earn God’s favor. We pursue holiness because without it, people won’t see Him.

People know hypocrisy when they see it. But they also know the genuine light of Christ’s goodness and love when we allow it to shine through us. Some will be drawn to that light, while others may despise it, preferring to stay in darkness. But if we don’t shine the light of Jesus into this dark world, no one else will.

I began to grasp this concept more clearly when I heard the song “Should I Tell Them?” by Shaun Groves. In it, he wrestles with how to convey, in spite of his shortcomings, the hope others can find in Jesus. He asks God, “Do You speak through the imperfect? Or are we too dirty for Your light to get through? I want Your light to get through.”

This line forever changed my view of holiness. Yes, of course God speaks through the imperfect, or He wouldn’t have anyone to speak through. We are messengers of God’s grace, not of any perfection we could ever obtain without Him.

But it’s also true that if a lightbulb becomes too caked with dirt, the light will not shine through it properly. If we’re going to shine the light of Christ to those around us, we must clean off the glass. We need to pursue holiness, putting on not self-righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness.

Our holiness matters, not only because God deserves it and our own health and wholeness depend on it, but because God wants to reach the whole world with the light of His truth and love, and we are His plan to accomplish it.

How will you let His light shine through you today?

Where is home for you?

As I’ve moved across the world every couple of years as a military spouse, my idea of “home” has shifted. I’m not really interested in the white picket fences of the American Dream anymore.

My home is in the house of God, with His people, even though it looks a little different each place we land. This house, this family, is a broken and beautiful mess being made whole and holy as we allow Him to dwell in our hearts, and there is nowhere on earth I’d rather be.

I feel this so deeply that I wrote a poem about it, which I do every once in a while when I catch a glimpse of the beauty of God.

If you’d like to hear more about the story behind the poem, why I love the Church, and why I’m sure there’s room for you in the family of God, I’m sharing about it in my monthly newsletter. Just comment below or send me a message and I’d be happy to send it to you.

May your heart find its home in Him today, and forever.

Home (a poem) - Jennifer Wier Home One day you travel home, but the roads don’t look the sameThe familiar is a comfort, but it’s not a firm foundationOthers are moving on, and you’ve moved on, tooThe places you once pinned your dreams on no longer hold allure for you Spacious houses, sprawling yards, miles of marketplace s...

How much is Jesus worth to you?

When we are willing to endure hard things for the sake of Jesus, or even to simply realign our priorities with His, we are making a declaration that He is worth it. We are putting a stake in the ground that says He is worth more than our comfort, our money, our plans, our reputation, our agenda, our opinions, our pride.

Those who know Jesus have found that the value of having Him in our lives surpasses anything we might need to let go of for Him.

What might a watching world see if we really lived like it? Oh, Church, let’s live like it!

Let us live in a way that shows the surpassing, incalculable worth of Christ. Let us show it through faithful service and sacrificial love, through holiness and humility, through our full, undistracted devotion and our relentless pursuit of Him. Because we’ve tasted and seen that He is not only good, He is the only good, the only one who will satisfy our hungry hearts, the only thing worth spending our lives pursuing. Nothing else will compare.

Jesus instructed those who would follow Him to count the cost before they started out. It would not do to follow halfway and then determine the cost is too great.

I have counted the cost of following Jesus, and I have discovered it might cost everything.

I have also discovered…

He is worth it.

Lord, let my life be a declaration of your immeasurable worth…

“Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭60‬:‭20‬ ‭

Marveling at midnight over all the ways God’s creation whispers his promises of hope to our hearts.

6.25.2023 / 12:00 am

Today Ben and I celebrate 16 years of marriage, and 18 years since God brought us together.

A lot has changed since then (most noticeably the hair!), but one thing that hasn’t changed is how thankful I am for the ways Ben faithfully loves me and helps our family faithfully follow the Lord. Marrying him was an excellent decision, most of all because God did the choosing and He knows what He’s doing. There hasn’t been a day that I’ve regretted that decision, because you don’t regret partnering with someone who is pursuing the heart of God, and you’ll never regret following God’s lead or receiving His provision.

I’m definitely not a perfect decision-maker, but I am deeply content with every choice I have made that has been rooted in the wisdom and guidance of God, who always knows the best way to go. He is so good, and so worth following.

How have you experienced God’s faithfulness as you’ve allowed Him to guide your life?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..." -Galatians 5:22-23

If you’ve ever tried to become more patient, joyful, or self-controlled, you know how difficult it is to accomplish. No matter how sincere our intentions or strong our desire, we cannot seem to produce these good things by simply trying harder. That’s because we are, by nature, self-focused. As carnal human beings, we are naturally self-preserving, driven to seek our own comfort, controlled by our own desires.

The fruit of Christ-like character is not natural. It is supernatural-- which means it is produced only by the Spirit of God. By the grace of God, this Spirit dwells within every believer, giving us access to things that are higher than our physical nature. What wonderful news!

Yet even those who, through faith in Jesus, possess this glorious gift of the Holy Spirit so often find themselves stunted and seemingly unable to produce this good fruit. Why?

Perhaps it’s because we’ve been shoving the Holy Spirit in a back closet in our hearts rather than letting it permeate our lives.

We only experience the Spirit’s power when we actually walk in it. By welcoming the Spirit, listening for Him, and heeding His voice, we begin to experience spiritual fruit in our lives. If we resist, ignore, and quench it, it will not produce a harvest in our lives.

The good fruit we long to produce will not come about through our own self-effort. It will only come through welcoming God’s active presence in our lives, and submitting to it.

The more we follow God’s lead in our lives, the more He will lead us, because He’ll recognize us as people who want to be led, who want to bear this kind of fruit in our lives more than we want our own convenience and comfort.

He will see us as people ready to bear fruit. And, by the power of the Spirit, He will surely produce it.

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“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” -Philippians 2:13

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” -Zechariah 4:6b

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” -Isaiah 30:21

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” -Galatians 5:25

One Sunday morning in Japan, I received this sweet little revelation from the Lord, and I'm delighted to be sharing it over at the beautiful Calla Press.

What the Lord’s Prayer Reveals about Heaven by Jennifer Wier Not long after my family and I moved to Japan, we sat in church on a Sunday morning and listened to a local woman named Veruca pray the Lord’s Prayer over us in Japanese. Whenever I have the opport…