Editor’s note: Psalm 23 has brought comfort to believers since it was first written, read, and sung. In The Book of Common Courage, Psalm 23 is divided line by line and shared with photography, poems, blessings, writings, and prayers for your encouragement. Enjoy this excerpt!
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Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of peace. — Luke 1:78-79 MSG O God, who makes the sun to rise, Open our eyes to Your goodness and love
stretching across the skies, for we have been hounded
by hatred and lies, but Your beauty
follows us
further
still.
Amen. We can so easily become
that which has harmed us. We pour thick concrete
around the softness of our souls
to protect ourselves
from more pain. Poetry can penetrate
our layers of self-protection.
Beauty can call us
into resurrection.
Like words on the edge
of a cliff into death,
Goodness and Love can pull
us back from the ledge. A forest can speak hope
in the scent of pine.
A wave can roll grace
to mist our parched pain.
A peony can bloom faith
with ballet skirts
of intricate praise. Goodness and Love
always do seek
us in the layers,
lodged under hard sheets
of concrete, too thick
to breathe, too precious
to leave. They chase us
all our days and crack
open our shields,
calling us back
home to the beauty
of being healed. |
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You are the flower of God’s love. |
You are the flower of God’s love. |
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Right now snow covers the soil
on the ridge where red rocks
jut from the foothills, where
I have walked and wept
and wondered at the way winter is harsh
and spring is muddy. The ground is barren now,
but in just months she’ll sprout.
Come summer, this soil will burst with green.
The trail will put on her lavender scarf.
The wind will ruffle through
each bloom. May today be the day you realize
that if God dreamed wildflowers
into existence from the dirt,
which rise
season after season from snow-covered soil, through mud and muck
and storms, then your blossoms can return from
winter too. And if most wildflowers stretch
as rainbows on remote hillsides,
far from trails with human eyes, your beauty can also be stunning
even if unseen by others’ eyes. Honor the hard ground
where seeds hide under snow. No farm lives in perpetual
harvest.
No wildflower blooms all year. Hallow your hidden work,
how you push through the dirt
year after year, day after day,
choosing kindness over criticism,
forgiveness over fury,
and trust in the truth
that beauty will
eventually
bloom. You are a perennial.
Your flowers always return. There is beauty
both in your blooming
and your becoming. Be tender
toward the time
between both. If God imagined that small,
brown seeds
far beneath thick, white snow
could one day curl into damp,
dark dirt
and spring into whorls of green
with strong, maroon stalks
crowned
with bell after lavender bell, then he will curl you in his care,
he will spring your life into
the air,
he will build bells from your
small buds,
he will delight in watching who
you will become,
for you are the flower of
God’s love. Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love is… mine. |
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May we all find comfort in the poetry of God's great love for us! Remember that God the Father delights in you and sings over you (Zephaniah 3:17). You are so loved! ~ Devotionals Daily |
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Your story will end in joy |
The Book of Common Courage: Prayers and Poems to Find Strength in Small Moments |
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ENDS TONIGHT - get free shipping & double points with code THANKSFS |
ENDS TONIGHT - get free shipping & double points with code THANKSFS |
The Book of Common Courage is a collection of prayers, poems, and blessings to help you find a flicker of strength in the small and hard moments of life. Beloved author and therapist K. J. Ramsey invites you to journey word-by-word through Psalm 23 to experience how the Good Shepherd is with you and for you, especially in the valleys of life. When you struggle to find the words to hold your pain or trauma, be encouraged to cultivate the compassion and courage to believe that your story will, in fact, end in joy.
Through K. J.'s lyrical and emotive writing, you are invited to: - Surrender your anxiety and your tears to a faithful God
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Validate your emotions and embrace them as the gift they are
- Slow down and remember that good will come again
- Replenish your soul with the life of Christ and the promises of God
- Refresh your faith with a peace that lasts
- Experience newfound confidence in prayer
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Remember that even when pain is not past-tense, God is still present
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What Our Readers Are Saying |
"Everything about this book is done with excellence. I am enjoying my time with it and have bought extras to give away!" — Julie H. |
"Awesome Resource… For comfort, encouragement and refocus when your heart and soul need a lift." — Joni S. |
Courage is a common hope that we can cultivate together. These prayers and poems can be read in group settings--among friends, families, and worshipping communities--and are also ideal for personal reflection. Inside, you will find: - Colorful still life and nature photography
- Prayers, poems, and blessings
- A ribbon marker
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This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers |
This Too Shall Last offers an antidote to our cultural idolatry of effort and ease. Through personal story and insights from neuroscience and theology, Ramsey invites us to let our tears become lenses of the wonder that before God ever rescues us, he stands in solidarity with us. |
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The Lord Is My Courage: Stepping Through the Shadows of Fear Toward the Voice of Love |
The Lord is My Courage is for the deconstructing and the dreamers, the afraid and the amazed, for those whose fear has not been fully shepherded but who can't seem to stop listening for their Good Shepherd's Voice.
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Luke: Gut-Level Compassion Online Bible Study |
Luke: Gut-Level Compassion Online Bible Study |
“The great news woven throughout the Gospel according to Luke is that perfection is not a prerequisite for a deep and personal relationship with Jesus.” - Lisa Harper
Join Lisa Harper for the Luke: Gut-Level Compassion Online Bible Study and discover how the Gospel of Luke is a literary masterpiece that doesn’t celebrate the elite, but embraces the outliers, outcasts, and overlooked! |
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this devotion with someone who needs it today |
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