Andrea Gressman

I recently went to a conference and it was such a rich time for me spiritually. I feel so convicted to share some of the nuggets that were presented to me in the hopes that maybe someone else can get something out of it as well.  Most of these are not overwhelmingly deep. Some are very simple concepts that may even have been presented before to me but for some reason, it grabbed ahold of me now or just had a different meaning in the present time. The first nugget was the idea that "we are not in Kansas anymore."  We have heard that saying so many times in reference to the Wizard of Oz movie many of us grew up watching.  This was actually a reference to our post-Covid circumstances in the church world. However, I do feel like it can be applied to our family life, friend life, and even work-life just as much as it can be applied to our church life.  It was a simple statement. He was referencing how the church was sitting at a certain mark and then when Covid hit many ...

My takeaway from my daily devotional which focused on Proverbs 3:5. Trust God with all your HEART and MIND (this is the “lean not on your own understanding” part). This means that we don’t meditate on our problems, wrapping our minds around the problem over and over again - we hand it over to God and trust Him with it. He will keep our path straight. He has an excellent track record of keeping my own path straight - something I cannot say for myself. When we don’t trust Him with our hearts and minds and continue to meditate on our problems instead of God it only causes negatives in our own lives - one of which is stress. Stress is toxic for us in many ways - specifically our mental and physical health. But God has the perfect solution to protect us in both areas - hand it to Him. Let Him work it out on our behalf. Stop thinking we have to be the world’s problem solvers. When the “worry” starts to creep into our minds push it away. Tell yourself you refuse to worry about...