The Unfolding

If your goal in life is to be happy, what do you do when your marriage makes you unhappy? For Jaime Crosier, the answer was to move on. When Kevin and Jaime met, their life of partying together was nonstop fun. But after marriage, a child and an affair- happiness was long gone. It would take a movie and miraculous intervention to change their path toward divorce.

Pray for our troops. It's a great phrase to post on social media, put on a bumper sticker, or a sign in your yard. But Captain Kyle Swanson lived it. During his time in the military, he watched prayer change things- change the weather, change the course of a grenade, literally save lives. When Kyle says prayer changes things it's not a trite phrase. It's his real-life experience, and he wants you to know your prayers can change things, too.

Pray for our troops. It's a great phrase to post on social media, put on a bumper sticker, or a sign in your yard. But Captain Kyle Swanson lived it. During his time in the military, he watched prayer change things- change the weather, change the course of a grenade, literally save lives. When Kyle says prayer changes things it's not a trite phrase. It's his real-life experience, and he wants you to know your prayers can change things, too.

Healing can be a mysterious thing. Sometimes God answers our prayers. Sometimes we don't see the miracle we are hoping for. For Emma Villanueva, both are true. As a young girl she was miraculously healed, saved from a surgery that would have left her wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life. Then as a teenager, Emma was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. In the years since, she has watched her body grow increasingly weak. What happens to your faith when you know God can heal, but He doesn't?

What if we looked at life as if everything was a miracle? That's much easier when life is going well. When Chris and Denise Benyo got married, they were looking forward to a bright and beautiful future. But within months, Denise was diagnosed with a progressive neurodegenerative disease, called ALS. How do you see everything as a miracle, while you're facing a terminal diagnosis?

No matter what you go through, as long as you are holding on to Jesus, you can stand. That seemed to be the recurring theme of the Bible stories Laura Piraino studied as she was leading a women's ministry. It's one thing to teach it, but it's another to live it out. How do you hold on to Jesus when you are robbed of your sense of safety; when the place that had been your sanctuary becomes a crime scene?

Jesus said everyone who hears his words and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down and the winds blew, yet it did not fall. Adam and Christina Hannan were trying to raise their family on a firm foundation. For years they made a habit of reading Jesus' words and putting them into practice. But their faith had never really been tested. That all changed the day their son Myles was born.

Sparkle Sanders was driven to succeed in everything she did. One of her greatest fears was failure. Nothing made her feel more like a failure than motherhood. When Sparkle became a mom, it didn't look anything like what she expected. Every day has hard, and the struggle with postpartum depression made her feel miles away from God.

When Tracy Hoth first met Jesus, it was fun and dynamic. Her life changed almost overnight. But as the years went by, faith became more of a responsibility than a relationship with the Creator. Prayer and reading the Bible felt like a duty, but didn't bring life or joy. But God continued to pursue Tracy, confirming she could trust him, even when her son was in a traumatic accident. ()

For so long there has been a stigma around issues of mental health, including among believers in Jesus. For many of us, we assume depression and anxiety are issues we can fix, if we read the Bible or pray more. Lydia Laird knew God was calling her to write and perform music about her faith, but she was struggling with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. For years she carried shame because she just couldn't fix it.