Fertility Retreat 2015

Posted on by Evangeline

iHope Fertility Retreat

The iHope Fertility Retreat is fast approaching!

Get all the details of this fabulous weekend HERE. 

You’ve struggled long enough…

Feeling like infertility has taken over your life?

Want to address the SPIRITUAL aspect of infertility? 

Pull away from the daily stress of infertility and hear what God has to say about infertility (He doesn’t like it). Receive personalized prayer and encouragement for overcoming infertility.

Get new Word-based tools to help you maintain hope.

Workshops at the iHope Fertility Retreat will be based on the content of my book, A Seed of Hope: God’s Promises of Fertility. We’ll have discussions that help you with increase your trust in God’s lavish and unending love for YOU, and in His faithfulness to always follow through on His promises. The weekend will be filled with revelation centered on God’s promises of fertility.

This 3-day retreat is tailored to help you nourish your spirit and to draw closer to the One who has the solution to your every problem.

ihope retreat theme - largeYour registration fee includes your lodging, meals, workshop materials, and a signed copy of A Seed of Hope.

It’s time for some R&R … Rest and Receive at the iHope Fertility Retreat!

Enjoy a time of fun, pampering and recreation.

YOU NEED TO JOIN US AND RECEIVE THE BLESSING!

Reserve your place now at  www.EvangelineColbert.com/retreat-registration

Monday’s Marinade – Expectancy

Posted on by Evangeline

Monday’s Marinade is provided to you as a means of “soaking yourself” in the hope-filled Word of God at the beginning of your week. 

Start your week by meditating about waiting on God with expectancy. 

Repeatedly think about this and quietly say it to yourself.  

Marinate and season your week with hope and a confident expectation of good things happening!

Here’s your spiritual marinade:Monday's Marinade- EXPECTANCY - Ps 42-11

 

How to Mix Expectancy with Your Faith

Posted on by Evangeline

Faith in God is required to live a life filled with His love and His blessings. Faith in Him means we believe He exists and that what He says is what will be. The more we focus on Him and believe in what He has said in His Word, the more we change how we think.

But simply believing is not enough. We must mix expectancy with our faith. We must expect that God will do what He said He will do. Expecting God to come through on our behalf means that  we trust what He has promised. And when we trust His integrity about His promises, we  can live anticipating that His promises will be manifested. What is that expectation called? Hope.

hope - H.O.P.E.

Hope is having positive, confident expectations. Hope is vital!

Live everyday expecting good to come your way.

Look forward and anticipate God’s wonderful promises being manifested in your life. Psalm 7:13 encourages us to do so:

“What would have become of me if I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord?”

“…believed to see.” That’s expectation. Notice the order of the words– it’s not see to believe, it’s believed to see. Believing with expectation comes first and then seeing/manifestation comes afterward. Expectation is a high level of confidence that something will happen, in this case, that the goodness of God will be manifested. Instead of having a fearful attitude about your life’s circumstances, maintain an expectant mental attitude when it comes to what you desire to receive from God. It’s always helpful to focus on Jesus’ love and integrity and not allow fear to diminish your hope.

When you pray, do you expect to receive what you’ve requested from God? Expectancy should be mixed with your faith. Not only are you asking God to do something that He has already promised in His Word, you are also mixing expectancy with your faith in His promises. You do so by looking forward to the fulfillment of the promises and by acting as if that fulfillment will occur.

I once read a story of a little boy whose town had been experiencing drought conditions for quite some time. He asked his mother if they could pray together and ask God for rain. She did so willingly, excited that her son wanted to Faith and Expectancy - umbrella and raincommunicate with and trust God. Later that day, as they left home to run errands, the little boy walked out of the house with an umbrella. His mother asked him why he was taking  an umbrella when there was not a cloud in the sky. He replied, ” Because we asked God for rain.” He expected God to answer his prayer!

When you pray using God’s Word, having faith in His promises, walk away from that time spent with God expecting Him to come through on your behalf. Do so even if it means expecting Him to make a way where there seems to be no way.

The Bible is clear, nothing is impossible with God! What good thing will you expect God to do on your behalf today?

Monday’s Marinade – Use Your Words to Change Your Life

Posted on by Evangeline

Monday’s Marinade is provided to you as a means of “soaking yourself” in the hope-filled Word of God at the beginning of your week. Start your week by meditating about how your words change your life. Your words really do have an impact on your life — make the connection between what you say and what you have. Repeatedly think about this and quietly say it to yourself.  Marinate and season your week with hope and a confident expectation of good things happening!

Here’s your spiritual marinade to change your life with your words:

Monday's Marinade -Your Words

Focus Friday – Difficult Days and Faith

Posted on by Evangeline

Have faith today, even if it’s a difficult day.

Don’t worry about tomorrow, just have faith for TODAY. No matter how difficult today may seem, have confidence that God loves you and that all will be well because He is right there with you.

For God has said, 
“I will never fail you.
I will never abandon you.”

Hebrews 13:5

Will you acknowledge His presence, have faith in Him, and focus on His love for YOU today?

 

Difficult days and faith

You Talkin’ to Me?

Posted on by Evangeline

  The problem that you’re facing right  now may seem like a tough guy that won’t go down easily. You may feel overwhelmed, like there’s no hope of victory. But have you considered the account of David and Goliath? David spoke with confidence, telling the giant that he was “going down” because he was approaching Goliath in the unquestionable and unbeatable authority of the God of Israel. Have you read about the event where Jesus spoke to a tree and it shriveled up at its roots (Mark 11:12-21)? Jesus told that tree that its deception would not be tolerated. Perhaps the details of the battle between Israel and the Amorites (Joshua 10:12) will encourage you—that’s where Joshua spoke to the sun, telling it to stand still. Amazing! The account of Jesus speaking to the storm is also a good reminder of how our words can be instruments of peace in our lives.

Whatever you’re facing today may seem hard to overcome. It may even feel like the situation is standing before you taunting you, saying, “You talkin’ to me?” But don’t be fooled! Jesus has told us that when we have faith in Him, even the thing that seems like an immovable mountain must move.

“I assure you: If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”

Mark 11:23 HCSB

Be encouraged! Turn the tables on your tough situation and become tough in the face of the mounting evidence that seems insurmountable. Be swayed not by what you see or what you are experiencing, but only by what God has promised. Faith speaks. Keep speaking God’s Word to your circumstances. His words, spoken through your mouth in faith and acted upon with confidence, will always work to fulfill His good plan.

Focus Friday – Change Your Focus

Posted on by Evangeline

Change your focus in those moments when doubt sweeps over your soul. Remember to do as Hebrews 12:2 suggests:

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”

Focus on that scripture throughout the day. Focus on His unchanging love. Focus on His unstoppable power. Focus on His faithfulness to always say “Yes” to His promises.

change your focus - looking unto Jesus

 

How to Have Strong Faith

Posted on by Evangeline

Have you been wondering how to have STRONG faith?

strong faith

“Let us hold tightly to the confession of faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised.” ~ Hebrews 10:23

The character of Jesus is such that He would NEVER lie (Numbers 23:19). His character, which is completely based on love, paves the way for having strong faith in Him because He would never make a promise and then go back on His Word or fail to fulfill it. Hold tightly– don’t loosen your grip on His promises. God’s words and His promises are true. Get into the habit of confessing your faith in them out loud.  The passage in 2 Corinthians 1:20 assures us that His answers to His promises are already “Yes” in Christ.

How can you have strong faith?

Romans 10:17 informs us that faith comes by hearing:

“So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” (NLT)

“The Good News about Christ” is that He has finished all the work and fulfilled all the requirements necessary in order for the Father to say “Yes.” There’s no work left to be done except to believe in Jesus’ love and His willingness to bring good things into our lives (John 6:29). When we hear ourselves reading about His love and repeatedly hear ourselves saying God’s words, it builds our faith. When we hear ourselves speaking the specific promises God made about our personal situation, it builds our faith in those promises. It increases our confidence in God’s integrity, in His ability to do what seems impossible, and in His willingness to do everything He promised.

Doubt is the enemy that comes along to plug our ears to the Good News  so that we’re not hearing God’s promises. Doubt distracts us from looking to Jesus. When we’re enticed by the devil’s doubts to give up on God’s promises, we must react by speaking God’s Word to those doubts. By doing so, we choose to retain hope within our soul and expect God to do what He said He’d do. Our  soul, which consists of our mind, will, and emotions, must choose to believe the promise, speak the promise to the problem while undergirding that confession with hope, and “act as if” the promise is already true.

When we have confidence in God fulfilling His promises and we have only a strong expectation of a good outcome, that is when we are empowered and living with strong faith.

 

Focus Friday – It Takes a REAL Act of Faith

Posted on by Evangeline

Faith is believing God’s words.

Having faith in God’s promises means you allow the words in His promises to become influencers of how you think and act.

Focus on the following scripture throughout the day. It’s God’s Word and it’s what He desires us to believe. Believe it is true for your circumstances because God’s Word is Truth. Act like it is your truth.

Real Act of Faith

The Danger of Hopelessness During Infertility

Posted on by Evangeline

Infertility and hopelessness--don't give up jpg

Hopelessness during infertility. The two seem to go together. But do they have to?

The danger of hopelessness is a loss of your joy, a critical element in maintaining hope. Hopelessness is spawned from giving up. Giving up on something means losing faith or belief that the thing will ever happen.  It’s an act of surrender to an enemy. You feel forced to give up and give in.

In the case of infertility, giving up is the choice someone makes when they declare that they are abandoning the fertility promises God  made. It’s a decision that infertility is incurable or unsolvable. As hopelessness swirls into every area of life and becomes a consuming power, it pulls all kinds of negative and dangerous thoughts into one’s mind. One might think that infertility is too hard for God (it’s not–Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27). Or she may choose to think that God’s promises are not for everyone (they are — 2 Corinthians 1:20; 2 Peter 1:3-4).

I frequently hear from women who are considering giving up on the thought that they will ever conceive and give birth to a child. They feel inept, broken, forgotten by God, and are sick and tired of trying to stand up to infertility.
Keep calm--infertility and hopelessness

But I want to offer an alternative to the hopelessness. There is no need to abdicate your position of authority over infertility when you are focused on Jesus, the One who is the cure for everything. Focus is everything.  Keep your focus on the Problem-Solver instead of on the problem.

 

Decide now to continue to trust God’s promises of fertility as being solid ground to stand on. They are never shaky because God does not lie; they are not like quicksand because they are based on the Solid Rock, Jesus. His promises are His forever-settled Word— God’s Word is His bond.

 

It can be tough to continue to have hope when your faith has become weak and you feel like giving up. But that’s the time to take this essential next step:

  • Speak and sing words of God’s praise to yourself and thank Him in advance of the manifestation of His promises. Do this repeatedly, every day.

Those words will begin to bring the joy back into your situation and soon you’ll feel strong again because “the joy of the Lord is our strength!”

 

“Sometimes you want to give up, but you can’t–something deep inside you won’t let you. No white flags, no bailing out, no throwing in the towel for you. You have to keep going; you must carry on you just take the next step…and the next…and the next.” ~B. J. Gallagher

 

HOW CLOSE ARE YOU?

You may be closer than you think!

infertility and hopelessness - don't quit - you're close

 

“Keep Calm” image courtesy of Keepcalm-omatic.com