beencouraged 5 - Barbara Lynn Seibel

March 23, 2025March 21, 2025

Deep Sorrow that Led to Worship

As many of you know, I am healing from a deep sorrow since losing my husband by his own choice last July and my earthly father by natural causes last October.

We expected my earthly father’s death. But my husband’s shocked all who knew him.

Thus, the journey of healing I am on is complicated.

I shared part of my experience in my first post back after a six-month break from writing.

Today’s passage was hard for me to work through because it touches on the themes of deep sorrow.

Yet, it also provides an opportunity to learn why the Lord is worthy of our worship, no matter the source of our deep sorrow.

Join me in this study of 2 Samuel 12:15-23 and portions of Psalm 51.

March 16, 2025March 16, 2025

Elkanah Returns to Worship God

Two weeks ago, I started this series on 1 Samuel 1, purposefully studying the “minor” characters instead of the usual approach to this passage.

Several of you have thanked me for this focus, stating that you had never considered that these “minor” characters could reveal so much about the Lord’s work in our daily lives.

Today, again I want us to study the next group of verses from 1 Samuel 1.

And yes, as the title suggests, we will focus in again on the minor character of Elkanah and his faithfulness as he returns to worship God at Shiloh every year.

March 9, 2025March 8, 2025

How God Worked Through Eli

Have you ever misread a person’s behavior?

I certainly have.

Or perhaps you were the one whose behavior was misunderstood?

Yep, been on that side too.

How does God work through our misunderstandings?

Last week’s post considered how the Lord provided a supportive and Godly husband, Elkanah, in 1 Samuel 1, to Hannah long before He answered her petition to have a son.

Many who read the post commented that they had never studied Elkanah’s role before.

This is precisely why I focused on Elkanah last week.

Often, we forget that the supporting characters in a scripture passage are also useful in learning more about how God works in our lives.

Today, we return to 1 Samuel 1 to explore how God worked through Eli, another supporting character who, at first, misunderstood Hannah’s behavior.

March 2, 2025March 4, 2025

Seeing God at Work Through Elkanah

One of my seminary professors once stated that, anytime, scripture highlights a barren woman to take note because the Lord is about to do something significant.

The first chapter in 1 Samuel shares the unique turn of events that brought about the birth of the prophet and priest, Samuel, through resolving Hannah’s barrenness.

I can relate to Hannah in the early part of her story in the sense that I do not have any physical offspring.

But today, I want to focus not on God resolving Hannah’s barrenness, but on how we can see God at work through Elkanah, her husband, before that resolution occurs.

February 23, 2025February 23, 2025

Finding Healing Through the Bronze Serpent–An Incorrect Statement

When you get a minor illness, where do you seek healing?

While I was unemployed several years ago, I got ill with an upper respiratory infection. It was the first time in my adult life that I recovered the quickest from this type of infection.

Then, months later, after I had resumed working full time and enrolled at seminary with a nine-hour credit load, I contracted another upper respiratory infection that lasted for months, even with multiple rounds of antibiotics.

During this time, my blood pressure also skyrocketed, prompting my primary doctor to ask me if he needed to write me a prescription to take a vacation because he felt I was under too much pressure to get well. He literally stated, “This isn’t you.”

I thanked him, but told him I’d drop one of my classes to see if that made a difference. This did ultimately help me kick the respiratory infection and reduce, but not eliminate, the blood pressure medication.

Minor illnesses are one thing, but where do we turn when something life threatening takes hold of us?

February 16, 2025February 15, 2025

Finding Your Opportunities for Boldness

How often do you rehearse what you wish you would have said after the fact?

Or maybe you have the opposite problem, you immediately speak and then wish you had remained silent?

I fall into the first camp most of the time.

Even as I was studying for today’s post, something triggered in me a tirade of anger about something that I have re-rehearsed far too many times. I sound, in my own ears, incredibly bold and powerful in this re-rehearsal of what I wish I had said.

I realize, though, that these re-rehearsals are temptations to focus on an unhealthy anger rather than a healthy boldness inspired by God.

What does this have to do with Acts 5:17-32?

February 9, 2025February 10, 2025

When Our Witness Brings Healing and Persecution

On the evening of my husband’s death, one pastor helping me inquired about what I wanted him to tell my coworkers the next day.

After a brief pause of utter silence, I looked him in the eye with intensity and said, “The truth. There’s nothing to hide here. And I did not see this coming.”

The next morning, this same pastor called to check on me and to tell me he was about to email all the staff to gather in the youth space to inform them what had happened. He wanted to make sure the email did not surprise me in the event I was checking my work email.

I thanked him and then told him I wanted him to stress to the staff that if any of them were struggling, to please seek help because that is what my husband failed to do. And he was wrong to not seek help.

Later that same day, I shared Psalm 77 on my blog and also posted on my social media that I desired to bring God Glory out of this situation.

How was I able to respond in this manner within less than twenty-four hours of learning what my husband had done?
And how does it connect with the title of this post?

Let me prepare my answer to these two questions with a brief study from Acts 4:1-13.

July 21, 2024July 20, 2024