Karen Gamble Writes

Pick Up Your Cross…

Have you ever heard the phrase, “pick up your cross”?

It’s part of a verse where Jesus says, “pick up your cross and follow Me,”.

This is a good, important thing to do.

It’s one of the basic parts of being a Christian.

To pick up our cross means to pick up the practice of obeying Christ and whatever calling He has placed on our life, to choose to lay our self aside, and to follow Him wherever He leads us.

Have you ever read the entire verse?

It’s found in Matthew 16:24 and says,

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. (NIV)

Did you catch that?

It says to deny yourself.

Too often we try to follow Christ while still doing things our own way and living life on our terms.

Category: Faith, God, Jesus, Obedience, Trust | LEAVE A COMMENT

On Being Vulnerable

I recently wrote a post on how I like to journal (read it here).

In the post I mentioned being vulnerable before God.

Sometimes, we try to hold back and not talk to God about certain things.

Things we’re ashamed of, embarrassed by, hurt from.

Here’s the thing. – God already knows about it!

Because God is all seeing and all knowing (omniscient), He knows absolutely everything about everyone and everything already.

There are no thoughts we can think that He doesn’t hear.

There is nothing we can do He doesn’t see.

So, when we try to hold things back from Him we are only fooling ourselves.

Not only that, all these things we keep holding back from Him are the very things He wants us to bring to Him.

Bringing ourselves before the Lord and laying our hearts open can be scary.

We’re afraid He will be shocked – He won’t. There’s nothing He hasn’t seen.

We’re afraid He will reject us because we are so “bad”. He won’t. He loves us unconditionally, no matter what!

Sometimes, part of the problem is, sometimes we don’t want to have to face what we’ve done.

We’d rather turn a blind eye to it, bury it deep within ourselves, and move one.

The problem with that is that not only is it still there, but God sees it and wants us to bring it out and share it with Him.

We might be able to bury it temporarily, but He’ll keep reminding us of it.

The sooner we bring it to Him and face it, the sooner we can get rid of it and stop it from hanging over our head.

The consequences may still be there, but He will walk us through it and comfort us as we go.

Another part might be that we don’t realize or we’ve forgotten that He is our Father

As a parent, He wants us to bring our broken things to Him so He can fix them – broken relationships, broken habits, broken thoughts, broken lives.

When we are brave enough to go to Him with these things, even if we can only do it one tiny bit at a time, He will begin to heal and restore us.

As He does, we will begin to see and feel His comfort, which will help us to trust Him more.

As we trust Him more, we can bring the bigger things to Him as we open our hearts to Him more.

It’s this heart opening that we do that allows us to be vulnerable with Him.

It won’t always be easy.

Sometimes there will be substantial pain.

But, at the end of the day we will be closer to God, relying more and more on His love and mercy, trusting Him and His love more and more.

That’s a pretty good place to be!

If there is something you are hiding or holding back from the Lord, I hope you will bring it to Him and ask Him to help and to heal you in that area.

It may be hard, but the peace, relief, and healing you receive will be so worth it!

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 (NIV)

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

To read my previous post on journaling,, please click here.

Category: God, Journaling, Trust | LEAVE A COMMENT

Good Friday 2026

It’s Good Friday – the day we remember Jesus and how He willingly gave up His life to pay for our sins so we can be reconciled with the Father through His precious blood atonement. .

I praise Him for His sacrifice and thank Him for His immeasurable gift!

“He Himself bore our sins” in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by His wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)

“We are going up to Jerusalem,” He said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.” Mark 10:33-34 (NIV)

To learn more about Good Friday, please visit my post, What Is Good Friday?

For more posts about Easter, please visit my Easter page here – Easter

Category: God, Holiday, Jesus | LEAVE A COMMENT

Easter 2026

It’s almost Easter!

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week.

During this week Christians from around the world will remember Jesus and His crucifixion, as they celebrate His resurrection.

I hope you will take time to reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice and what it means for us as believers.

If you would like to know more about Easter, please check out these links to previous posts:

What Is Easter?

What Is Palm Sunday?

What Is Holy Week?

For more posts about Easter, please visit my Easter page here – Easter

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)

Category: Death, Holiday, Jesus | LEAVE A COMMENT

What is Salvation?

You’ve probably heard the words Saved or Salvation used by Christians.

What does it mean in this context?

It means saved from our sins.

See, back when God first created the world He created a beautiful garden and placed two people in it – Adam and Eve.

They lived a beautiful and blessed life.

There was no sin.

There was no pain.

There was just joy.

Unfortunately, they made a really bad choice that ended all that.

When God placed them in the Garden of Eden, He told them about two trees that were there.

One was the Tree of Life; the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

God made it very clear they could eat of any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The enemy came to Eve, disguised as a serpent, to tempt her into eating the fruit of the only tree God had told them to stay away from.

She not only ate it, she shared it with Adam.

When they ate this fruit, their eyes were opened to see the difference between good and evil.

It was at the moment Eve yielded to the serpent’s temptation and ate the fruit that sin entered the world.

Because of this, God made them leave the garden so they would not eat from the Tree of Life.

Category: Faith, God, Jesus, Trust, Truth | LEAVE A COMMENT

Don’t Look Back

There’s a story in Genesis 18-19 that tells about the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah.

God sent angels to the two towns to destroy them because of their great wickedness.

Just before destroying the cities, the angels sent Lot, his wife, and two daughters out of the area, telling them to flee to safety and not to look back.

Unfortunately, Lot’s wife does look back and is turned into a pillar of salt. (Genesis 29:16)

Why?

Because she didn’t just look back, she looked back with longing.

Instead of looking to the rescue from destruction God was providing her, she looked back at the old life she was losing with desire to keep it.

She didn’t want to let go of the old life she was leaving behind.

I wonder how many of us have done that?

Maybe we left behind a job we loved, a friendship that was not healthy for us.

Maybe we’ve had to let go of a bad habit/pet sin we enjoyed.

Maybe we’ve had to leave a ministry we enjoyed participating in or a church we valued.

Maybe we’ve even had to let go of a romantic partner.

Whatever it is, God called us away but we are struggling with the loss.

If He’s called us away, He’s calling us to let go, walk away, and move on.

Category: God, Old Testament, People in the Bible, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Psalm 63:6

I often wake up at least twice a night.

I used to either get up, get a drink of water, and walk through the house wondering why I was awake, or else lie there and grumble to myself about being awake when all I wanted to do was sleep.

Then I came across Psalm 63:6:

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. (NIV)

I realized instead of being in a foul mood about being awake I could talk to the Lord about things on my mind, or pray about/review Scripture or sermons I’d recently heard..

As I began to do this, my attitude began to change.

I began to look forward to waking up in the middle of the night and having these quiet moments with the Lord.

My sleep began to improve.

i began to wake up more rested than before.

Best of all, I wake up with my mind more focused on the Lord than it has ever been.

What I thought was a problem and inconvenience turned into one of the sweetest and best parts of not just my day but my faith walk.

I still have times when I wake up grumpy because I’m awake in the middle of the night, but the moment I look to God and begin talking to Him, the bad mood leaves and peace washes over me.

I relax and feel so much better.

If you wake up in the middle of the night I hope you will try this and see how much it can improve your mood, your faith walk, and even your life.

Let me know how it goes.

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises .Psalm 119:148 (NIV)

I previously wrote a longer version of this post. You can find it here: Praying In the Night.

I wrote today’s post discussing it again because it is an important topic and it is good to occasionally have reminders.

Category: God, Life, Prayer, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Rationalizing

Rationalize -to attempt to explain or justify one’s own, or another person’s, behavior or attitude with logical, plausible reasons, even if the reasons are not true or appropriate. -Google dictionary

Rationalizing – we’ve all done it.

We’ve explained things away – also called making excuses, for our bad or improper behavior.

We make up reasons and twist words and phrases to make it sound like what we are doing or thinking is okay, even though it isn’t.

It makes us feel better about ourselves and feel like maybe, just maybe, our choice is better when we already know it isn’t.

Someone else used this tactic – the enemy.

In the Garden of Eden, when the serpent tempted Eve with the fruit, she knew she wasn’t supposed to eat it.

The enemy, in the form of the serpent, didn’t say, “hey, eat this.”.

Instead, he was sly about it.

Yes, he did call into question whether God really said what Eve knew He said.

But, then he started talking and explaining why things wouldn’t turn out as bad as God had said they would.

He also explained why there were things to be gained by doing it; and why it was okay to do what she wanted instead of what God had said.

Unfortunately, Eve gave in to the temptation of the lies and believed him.

Category: God, Life, Submission, Truth | LEAVE A COMMENT

Memorizing Scripture

We live in a society where Scripture (the Bible) is easily accessible.

There are several websites that have the entire Bible available to read and search.

Stores everywhere sell copies.

There are tons of Bible Study books, commentaries, and devotionals available.

We even have apps for our phone.

If it is so accessible, then why is it so important to memorize Scripture?

There are several reasons.

The Bible tells us to.

Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

To hide something in our heart means to learn it in the deepest part of us so that it becomes part of who we are.

More than facts, it is deep knowledge on the most intimate level.

When we have Scripture in us, it shapes how and what we think and do.

If it is in us, the Holy Spirit can remind us of it when we need it, like when we are witnessing to someone or when we are dealing with a situation.

This helps us know what we should and shouldn’t do as we walk through our day so that we can live a life honoring to God.

Category: God, Life, Obedience, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Lamenting Before the Lord

Sometimes I get really frustrated or annoyed about something and will sit on my friend’s porch and talk about it.

I will whine, cry, question the circumstance, and list out all that is bothering me.

By the end of the conversation we are both saying, “But God can help. He can intervene.”

This is more than griping, complaining, or whining.

It’s lamenting.

Lament – to express deep regret, grief, anger or sorrow. It is followed by moving to an expression of trust.

The Bible is filled with these types of things.

My favorite is Psalm 13.

David has had all these bad things happening; things he’s concerned and worried about.

He writes about them specifically in the first 4 verses when he is asking God how long he (David) must suffer in all these areas.

Then in verse 5 he tells God, “But I trust in Your unfailing love…”.

He wraps up the Psalm by declaring he will sing God’s praise –

He will praise God because God has been good to him.

Instead of focusing on his problems he chooses to look to God and His unfailing love,

In other words, David is saying he has all these problems but is choosing to look to the Lord and to trust Him.,

Not so God will fix them.

Not so God will answer his prayers, but because David recognizes who God is and what He’s done for him.

Category: God, Submission, Trust, Truth | LEAVE A COMMENT