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January 1 - January 12, 2023
We praise God when our normal looks like what we thought it would. We question God when it doesn’t. And walk away from Him when we have a sinking suspicion that God is the one who set fire to the hope that was holding us together.
And the seeming permanence of some of the heartbreak has stolen their affection for life.
What if the victory is only in part how things turn out? What if a bigger part of being victorious is how well we live today?
Sometimes to get your life back, you have to face the death of what you thought your life would look like.
But disappointment isn’t proof that God is withholding good things from us. Sometimes it’s His way of leading us Home.
In the quiet, unexpressed, unwrestled-through disappointments, Satan is handcrafting his most damning weapons against us and those we love. It’s his subtle seduction to get us alone with our thoughts so he can slip in whispers that will develop our disappointments into destructive choices.
Remember, this is a love story. And we will never appreciate or even desire the hope of our True Love if lesser loves don’t disappoint.
To deny my feelings any voice is to rob me of being human. But to let my feelings be the only voice will rob my soul of healing perspectives with which God wants to comfort me and carry me forward.
If the enemy can isolate us, he can influence us.
Dust doesn’t have to signify the end. Dust is often what must be present for the new to begin.
“Give me your broken hearts, promises not kept by others, and your fears tangled with tears yearning to breathe free. I will be a light by which you can find God’s hope past the heartbreak of rejection.”
No matter how well I follow the rules, do what’s right, and seek to obey God with my whole heart, I can’t control my life. I can’t control God.
let’s be honest, if we weren’t ever disappointed, we’d settle for the shallow pleasures of this world rather than addressing the spiritual desperation of our souls.
Feeling the pain is the first step toward healing the pain. The longer we avoid the feeling, the more we delay our healing.
Your life may be dark today. But make no mistake, there is a powerful work happening.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)
Help me trade my unbelief for the beautiful relief that I don’t have to figure this out. I just have to fix my thoughts on Jesus and how He will lead me.
I cut out my speaking engagements and pouring myself out for others in this season so I could have time to be poured into.
What gives power to all that I fear others are thinking and accusing and saying isn’t the people themselves. It isn’t even the enemy. I’m the one who decides if their statements have power over me or not. It’s me.
Who told you that? Aren’t they broken, vulnerable people, with their own hurts and heartbreaks? Might you have compassion for them but not be overpowered by their thoughts?
When you live slow for a season, the Son has access to the parts of you normally covered up by everyday put-ons.
Darkness has such a way of swallowing up enthusiasm for the future.
It was my choice which narrative to hold on to: “Not good enough” or “Find delight in what is right.”
Understand that no time showing up and bringing compassion to another human is ever a waste of time.
Might I just be courageous enough to stand before her work and require myself to find everything about it I love? Release my clenched fist and pouty disappointments, and trade my “live up” mentality for a “show up” one?
Sometimes, you just have to let people you love have their journey on one side of the street and have yours on the other side of the street.
The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.
What you are going through won’t be for nothing. Your hurt will not be wasted. It will be for the saving of many lives.”
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. (1 Peter 5:10)
God isn’t picking on me. God is picking me to personally live out one of His promises.
News comes at us to tell us what we are dealing with. Truth comes from God and then helps us process all we are dealing with. News and truth aren’t always one and the same.
An e-mail she sent me about a difficulty I was walking through said, “Lysa, this is news. This is not truth.”
If we keep walking around thinking that God won’t give us more than we can handle, we set ourselves up to be suspicious of God.
Is this news or truth? • The restoration that is impossible with man’s limitations is always possible for a limitless God.
Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way:
“Because [Jesus] never lost sight of where he was headed . . . he could put up with anything along the way.” That’s why we must keep our eyes on Him and go over His story—the Bible—again and again.
God isn’t causing this pain and suffering—He’s allowing it.
But, if my Bible is collecting dust and my conscience is being hushed, then my heart is in danger of being crushed.
The longer he can keep someone deceived, the more their flesh will scream for pleasure, and soon they will become slaves to the most depraved versions of their desires.
“When God says ‘don’t’ we should read it as ‘Don’t hurt yourself.’”
If we are going to be true to ourselves, we’d better make sure we are being true to our most surrendered, healed, and healthy selves, the ones God made us to be.
What if the comfort and certainties we crave today are a deadly recipe for complacency that will draw our hearts further and further away from God?
We must sip the suffering of today, so we don’t have to drown in the devastations of tomorrow.
I will cling to God’s Truth, which never changes with the news I receive.
Feelings don’t have the final say; Truth absolutely does.
They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD. (Psalm 112:7)
recognize I will steer where I stare. So I must watch what I fixate on.
• I know that what consumes my mind controls my life.
Being lulled into a false sense of security is worse than going through the process of suffering.
That’s why I’m glad these verses don’t say “feel the joy” but, instead, “consider where some glimpses of joy might be even in the midst of all the hurt.”
