Archive of ‘Devotional’ category

How to Live in Freedom & Stand in Christ | Galatians 5:1 Bible Study

Galatians 5 Bible Study In high school I was a religious hypocrite, yet I had no idea how I was damaging the gospel. I grew up going to church, but the gospel I heard was you have to be a good and perfect Christian to get to heaven.

This was an impossible goal to reach. As hard as I tried, I could never be sinless. And so I lived in this cycle of addiction. I lived in bondage. I would try to be perfect, fail and turn back to sin.

The cycle went on and on.

Living in bondage was exhausting.

I was a religious Pharisee. I told people that I was a Christian and that I felt called to be a pastor, my church even let me preach on youth Sundays, yet I didn’t even know God. One day on the way to school, I was walking up from the parking lot with my boyfriend and he looked at me and said, “You’re a bad Christian.”

I had no idea what it meant to be a Christian. My church added to the gospel and because of this, I believed I needed to earn my salvation.

Maybe you, just like me, sometimes still think you have to be a good perfect Christian woman. Maybe you’ve lost sight of God’s grace. These desires actually make us slaves. We become slaves to our sin and lose our freedom. Why is it that we allow ourselves to be burdened again by slavery instead of living in the freedom that Christ has freely given?

You are I are living our lives like the Christians in Galatians.

In Galatians 5:1 Paul says “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (more…)

Instant Intimacy: When one click, swipe or like isn’t enough.

Instant Intimacy _ JoyPedrow.com Desiring to feel loved and beautiful, I downloaded Tinder and uploaded my cutest selfie. Sick of being single and waiting on God’s perfect timing, I wanted to take things into my own hands. I wanted control over my dating life.

Impatient and not trusting God, I began the quest for a man. Swiping right if I found him attractive and left if he was too creepy, I was making every decision based on looks. During this season in college, I was a believer and truly loved God, but I lacked intimacy with Him.
Instead of growing in intimacy with God, I wanted instant intimacy.

I believed that instant intimacy was only found in the love of a man, so in that moment, when he swiped right too and we were a match, I felt desired. This feeling didn’t last. Instead of believing what God says is true about me, I believed I was unloved and ugly. Yet, I kept on swiping and searching for intimacy.

Have you ever sought out intimacy, yet remained unsatisfied? (more…)

When You Can’t Imagine a Life Without Pain

When You Can’t Imagine a Life Without Pain We can’t imagine a life without sin, pain, shame, death, loss, grief, tears, etc. The list can go on and on. Our only experience with life is living in a sin cursed world. We’ve never known a life without these things, yet God promises that one day we can experience a new life if we trust in Jesus.

As the news unfolds of tragedy after tragedy, how do we believers hold on to this promise? (more…)

8 Truths to Know When You’re Tempted to Sin

Tempted to Sin? | JoyPedrow.com The moment of temptation right before you sin happens in a matter of seconds. The enemy wants you to sin. He wants victory over your life. The good news is that God has promised us that no temptation is too big or too strong for us to conquer. In this post, I hope to provide practical tips and encouragement through Scripture to help you become more like Jesus, fight temptation, and experience freedom. (more…)

This Father’s Day, Get to Know Your Heavenly Father

Father's Day 2016, daddy issures, Bible, blessed, Christian, truth, Church, Scripture, Bible Verse, Bible Study, hope, gospel, Praying, God, Love, Jesus Christ, Good News, Bible Verses, Christians, Relationships, prayer, faith, praise, Encouragement, chat about jesus, questions, forgiveness

Our view and relationship with our earthly dad is reflected in our view and relationship with our heavenly Dad. For this reason, I believe it is incredibly important to turn to scripture and learn about our heavenly Father this Father’s Day. If you don’t have a great relationship with your earthly dad, I pray that today you would spend extra time getting to known your heavenly Dad. One way to do this is to begin understanding the names of God, which will help us understand His character. (more…)

Christian Dating: When My Body Doesn’t Know I’m a Christian

Doesn’t my body know that I started to follow Jesus my freshman year of college? Yet, why does it constantly not follow Jesus? My mind. My heart. My body. All connected, and yet all do their own thing. Christian dating is hard. Setting physical boundaries is hard. You can only read so many devotionals, Christian blogs and Bible verses on purity before you begin to wonder, what am I doing wrong? Why is none of this controlling my body?

What do you do if you’ve set physical boundaries and you’re pursuing purity in dating, yet your body is doing its own thing?

Allow me to share my story, one of the many stories where my body acts differently from my heart and mind. Through my story and through Scripture, let’s learn together what to do when our bodies don’t know we are Christians. (more…)

Sexual Addiction and Freedom – The Power of the Holy Spirit

Freedom. We want it, we crave it, yet we think it’s impossible to have.

Even as believers, there are a lot of us living in chains. Slaves to our desires. Slaves to our sin. We have heard of the concept of freedom, but we have never experienced it for ourselves.

Most days we think we can earn this freedom. Maybe if we pray more, do more, or work more, then we will experience freedom, but eventually we run out of steam. (more…)

Trusting God During Transitions

This summer, I packed up all my stuff in my Subaru Forester and traveled half way across the country from Tampa, Florida to Dallas, Texas. I left what I knew for the unknown. I left a community that truly loved and encouraged me every single day. The decision I was making did not make sense. Why would I leave my college community and church family to go to a city where I knew not one soul? (more…)

Why Follow God in College?

The transition from high school to college can decide who you are, who you will become, and who you will follow. You must decide now, before you enter college, if you’re going to follow God in college.

With the start of the new semester, many women will leave home and move to a new place to begin their college years. I’m so excited for you all to begin this new journey! When you go to college, big parts of your life will change. You’ll experience more freedom than you had while living at home. With this freedom, you may be challenged in your faith. (more…)

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