Author: Lori Hatcher
Located in: Lexington
Submitted: March 07, 2020
Tell us a little about yourself. I'm an inspirational writer and speaker, pastor's wife, mother of two, and Gigi to four who's passionate about God's Word. I edit a Christian magazine based in Columbia, South Carolina. Although I wasn't born in the South, I got here as fast as I could! Originally from Bristol, Rhode Island, my family and I moved to the South after the Blizzard of '78. I love sunshine, long walks at the beach or the mountains, sunshine, chocolate covered nuts, and sunshine. I could be a vegetarian if it wasn't for Chick Fil A.
What was your motivation behind this project? I wrote Refresh Your Faith because I was frustrated by many of the devotionals I read. They seemed to focus on the same basic verses I'd memorized with my children twenty years ago. John 3:16, Romans 8:28, Psalm 23, Matthew 3:5-6. Same with the Bible passages and stories. Don't misunderstand me. I treasure the familiar verses and stories. I've held them close to my heart during some of the darkest times of my life.
But I knew there was more to the Bible than these well-worn favorites.
I reached a point in my spiritual life when I needed something new. If something didn't change, my spirit was going to wither up. My time with God shouldn't be something I did out of duty. I wanted to delight in God and His Word.
So I asked God to help me. I needed something to refresh my faith and energize my Bible reading. Wow, did He answer. I'd been reading through the Bible every year for more than a decade, but all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to passages I'd never noticed before.
These uncommon verses sparkled like gems. The more I read, the more I spotted them, tucked into obscure stories and buried under genealogies and census reports. I found some hiding out in plain sight, golden nuances and nuggets in the shadows of the more familiar stories.
Refresh Your Faith, Uncommon Devotions from Every Book of the Bible is a collection of the treasure I unearthed during my year of searching.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I hope my book will energize your faith, inspire your devotional time, and make you say, Wow, I've never seen that before!
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I fell more in love with God and His Word than ever before.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? I love the classic devotional writers like Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest) and Charles Spurgeon (Morning and Evening). They have the ability to go deep with an economy of words. I can read a devotion in 5 minutes, but I think about their points all day.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: God's Word is relevant and helpful for the situations we face in today's world. This is why I included a real life story with most of the devotions--so readers will take away something they can use immediately. Reading this devotional isn't an intellectual exercise, although I hope you learn a lot about the Bible. It's a life-changing strategy session for the issues we face every day.
