trust – BeanSpired Editions

A planner lies open on a granite countertop. The month shown is February 2023.

God, Tough Times

When God’s Timing Seems Terrible

January 27, 2023February 1, 2023 Megan Bean

In the face of loss, where and how can we find the providence of a loving, sovereign God?

The green heart-shaped leaves of an Eastern Redbud tree fill most of the photo. The closest are mere inches from the camera. Some leaves are in sunlight, others in full or partial shade. A few bits of blue sky show though the canopy of leaves. The leafy branches cast shadows on the grass below.

God

A Love That’s Easily Pleased

July 29, 2022February 1, 2023 Megan Bean

When we truly, deeply love someone, we’re easily pleased with their gifts. They could give us a rock and we’d treasure it—because it’s from them. If their heart’s in it, our heart responds. I wondered: How pleased am I with what God gives me? What does that say about our relationship? And how does He respond to what I offer Him?

A single set of footprints cross the damp sand of a beach, parallel to the line of the water. The sand is strewn with seashells and sticks. To the left, gray-blue seawater is rippling onto the beach.

Life, Relationships, Tough Times

When Obedience Comes First

May 20, 2022February 1, 2023 Megan Bean

Sometimes action has to precede emotion. Sometimes we have to trust the power of obedience to shape us, instead of trying to get ourselves in shape to obey.

A furry gray donkey with a white nose and belly and a dark stripe down its shoulder stands in a snowy pasture. It turns its head toward the camera and pricks its ears. The pasture in which it stands is long and narrow, with wire mesh fences, and slopes downhill toward a forest. The forest consists of pine and bare deciduous trees. Through their branches the sky shows a bright cloudless blue. Some trees off-screen to the right streak the snow with shadows.

Donkey Devos, God, Holidays & Seasons, Tough Times

Finding God When Things Look Bleak

January 25, 2022February 1, 2023 Megan Bean

We may not always be sure what to make of what God sends us. But we can always trust and know the One who sends it.

A furry brown and black donkey eats pelleted feed out of a bright blue pan on the ground.

Donkey Devos, God, Life

What It Takes to ‘Taste and See’

June 21, 2021June 2, 2022 Megan Bean

A life following Jesus isn't an easy life. But it's the best possible life we could ever live. And it takes us to the best place we could ever be: the heart of God, the very definition of goodness. You’d think we’d rush to taste that goodness. What kind of healthy human doesn’t want to experience inner peace, to be truly and faithfully loved, to live with a sense that they and their lives matter? Yet we hold back....afraid the sweetness holds poison. Convinced the fruit we’ve been told is scrumptious will turn out sour or bland. Suspicious that the goodness is all taste and no nourishment for our famished souls.

God, Gospel, Tough Times

Only Goodness and Mercy

February 19, 2021January 31, 2023 Megan Bean

Yes, trouble may chase us. Pain may nag us. Sorrow might ambush us again and again. Guilt and shame may nip at our heels. But the only things that can keep up with us, day in and day out, all the days of our lives, are the goodness and faithful love of God. And like the Good Shepherd He is, He will send them after us relentlessly. No, scratch that – He’ll come after us Himself, bringing them with Him. Because that’s who He is.

God, Life

God’s Belongings

July 24, 2020June 2, 2022 Megan Bean

What does a life owned by God look like?

God, Tough Times

Crossing the Abyss

March 21, 2020June 2, 2022 Megan Bean

Even in the midst of heart-stopping terror, He offers the heart-healing, life-giving good news of His presence, love, and care.

God, Tough Times

Why Worry?

August 23, 2019June 2, 2022 Megan Bean

I get tired of fighting the God who controls everything. And I think He loves me, which makes it worse.

Disability & Rare Disease, God, Tough Times

A Question of Identity

December 9, 2018June 2, 2022 Megan Bean

Sudden hard times demand answers to some very important questions: What kind of God do you follow? What gives your life meaning? Where will you look for comfort and help that actually deliver?