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by
Sheila Walsh
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December 29, 2018 - January 2, 2019
This marriage will work. We will get out of debt. Our children will come back to Christ.
I’ll pray more. I’ll share my faith at work. I’ll read my Bible from Genesis to the maps in the back of the book. I’ll trust God without questioning.
I’ve let go of beating myself up trying to live a life that Jesus never asked me to live.
That’s fifty years of falling down and getting back up. Fifty years of trying to be worth loving. Fifty years of doing the same things over and over, hoping they’d turn out differently
Here’s the great news: It’s also fifty years of the faithfulness of God and this beautiful invitation from Christ: Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. (Matt. 11:28–30 Message)
read an old Chinese proverb that said, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.”
Have you ever had one of those days when you’ve just had enough? If you have to do one more load of laundry or find one more recipe for chicken or take one more kid to a sports practice you might just physically combust.
Some days I’m very aware of God’s presence, and prayer and thanksgiving flow easily. Other days I open my Bible and it seems dry and prayer is hard work. I have a habit of stretching myself too thin. I want to say yes to everything and be a superhero for God.
Those who say they don’t have any problems are doing one of two things: Hiding their problems Pretending they don’t have any
Only an internal transformation will truly change external behavior. Every battle begins in our minds, not with our behavior. We can behave a certain way and remain unchanged. If we want to change how we act, we have to change how we think.
Only an internal transformation will truly change external behavior. Every battle begins in our minds, not with our behavior. We can behave a certain way and remain unchanged. If we want to change how we act, we have to change how we think.
There are, however, many situations where the word control has negative weight. When we call someone a “control freak” it’s clearly not a compliment. Spouses often complain about a controlling wife or husband. In the workplace no one wants a controlling boss or coworker. People have sometimes left their church home because the leadership is too controlling.
There are moments in life when there is nothing you can do to control what’s happening. In those times, find your hiding place under the shelter of God’s wings.
There are moments in life when there is nothing you can do to control what’s happening. In those times, find your hiding place under the shelter of God’s wings.
The LORD was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. (Gen. 39:1–2) The Lord was with Joseph. We need to stop right there. That is a profound, eye-washing truth. It’s tempting to think, If the Lord was with Joseph, why did he end up bruised and battered in a foreign country? Why didn’t God protect him? When we look at our own lives we think, Surely if God is with me terrible things won’t happen. Can you identify moments like that? When things went wrong, what went through your mind? Did it feel as if God was in control or that He’d
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The LORD was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. (Gen. 39: 1– 2) The Lord was with Joseph. We need to stop right there. That is a profound, eye-washing truth. It’s tempting to think, If the Lord was with Joseph, why did he end up bruised and battered in a foreign country? Why didn’t God protect him? When we look at our own lives we think, Surely if God is with me terrible things won’t happen. Can you identify moments like that? When things went wrong, what went through your mind? Did it feel as if God was in control or that He’d taken His eyes off you for a moment and when He looked back was surprised at the chaos? Until we embrace the understanding that God, and no one else, is in control, our faith remains shaky. When we begin, by faith, to grasp hold of this truth as deep as the marrow in our bones, it changes us. We don’t have to be afraid anymore. Hymn writer Edward Mote said it so well: My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.
You may have been betrayed . . . but God. You may have been abandoned . . . but God. You may think that right now, everything is out of control . . . but God. Can you bring to God whatever feels out of your control and, by faith, say, “I don’t understand but I trust You. I choose to let go”? The first verse I learned as a child was Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” The Hebrew root that’s translated be still means “let go.” When we let go, we acknowledge to Him, “You are God.”
When I think of all the emotions that make up who we are, disappointment is one of the hardest to handle. So many things fall under that one word, but they don’t weigh the same.
There are so many places where we need the grace of an everyday miracle. Are you struggling as a mom? Perhaps you have three kids all needing to be at different places at the same time and it’s overwhelming. Many days you feel frustrated. Some days you feel like a failure. Do you struggle in your job? Your boss has unreasonably high expectations that you can’t live up to, so you constantly feel stressed and anxious. That kind of pressure is paralyzing. Rather than encouraging the best that is in you, the message is that no matter what you do, it won’t be enough. It’s hard to rise above that.
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Lord, I don’t have enough energy, I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough patience, I’m not enough. As we wait before Him, the invitation comes:
Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. (Matt. 11:28–30) A yoke is something that is laid over the shoulders of two oxen. They bear the weight together. Christ’s invitation to us is greater. He will walk beside us and carry the weight. I used to question God when I met someone who was in as much pain as the mom who had recently buried her son. How could God allow
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Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. (Matt. 11: 28– 30) A yoke is something that is laid over the shoulders of two oxen. They bear the weight together. Christ’s invitation to us is greater. He will walk beside us and carry the weight. I used to question God when I met someone who was in as much pain as the mom who had recently buried her son. How could God allow these things to happen? I struggled because I used my human understanding to try to understand the divine plans and ways of God. I’ll never know enough about Him this side of eternity to make everything crystal clear. So I don’t question anymore. Instead, I pray for them, often with tears running down my face, and I worship God in that sacred space of not understanding. That may seem like a strange response. It could come across like a cultlike obedience that’s out of touch with reality. Far from it. For me, there is no greater reality than the love and faithfulness of God. I don’t always see God’s hand in a heartbreaking situation but as the great preacher Charles Spurgeon wrote, “And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”
“You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.” And, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) Christ told him he’d answered correctly. Heart, soul, strength, and mind. What does that look like for you and me right now? We love with our heart, even when it’s broken. We love with our soul, even when our humanity wrestles against our situation. We love with our strength, even when it’s almost gone. We love with our mind, even when we don’t understand.
Some unexpected changes in life are welcome, but no one imagines the hard things that wait just around the corner. How do we live, then, when we find ourselves in a place that’s far from the life we imagined?
When storm clouds begin to gather and the sky becomes as dark as night, it’s hard to remember that happy couple who made their vows in front of God and family. Most times, the storm will pass. If you both learn from it, you’re more prepared to weather the next one. But sometimes the storm is more like a tornado—wrecking everything in its path, changing the landscape of your life—and your marriage comes to an end. If that’s your story, I’m so sorry. Whether you were the one who wanted the divorce or not, it’s painful to rip two lives apart. In those times we need to hold on to the truth that
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She was a woman living in a desperately disappointing situation, but clearly, she didn’t allow it to change who she was.
Even though she was living a life that was clearly not the life any woman would have chosen, she was kind and strong. His cruelty had not changed her character.
accept all blame in this matter, my lord” (1 Sam. 25:24).
And that hope, that assurance that whether some dreams may have to fall by the wayside on this earth, our true hope in Christ
will not disappoint. Not all disappointments are born out of tragedy, of course. Many are simply dreams deferred or finding ourselves in a new season of life.
The thing that will keep us strong and help us move forward is knowing that Christ is with us and for us, and the hope we have in Him ultimately will not disappoint.
I love the promise of Psalm 91: “He will cover you with His wings. And under His wings you will be safe. He is faithful like a safe-covering and a strong wall” (v. 4).
Now I think that every time God the Father sees the pierced hands of Christ, He sees you and me. There is no image that displays the love of God more perfectly than the scars of Jesus.
Yet they were singing hymns that night as they left the upper room and headed across the Kidron Valley. Then it all started to go wrong. Haven’t you been there? I know I have. You’re in a great place, loving God, family intact, when suddenly something you didn’t see coming happens, and you wonder where God is, and does He see what’s going on?
We all know we’ll face challenges in life, but sometimes we’re hit by something that feels as if the enemy has won. That’s a frightening place to be. That must have been how the disciples felt that night. The first thing they saw were flaming torches approaching them, the sound of boots on the ground, and then, Judas stepped out of the shadows and kissed Jesus on the cheek. I’m sure they never quite trusted him. Money always seemed to be disappearing, but no one expected this. Somehow that kiss on the cheek seemed to unlock the powers of hell and the soldiers and temple guards moved in to
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As the incisions from any surgery heal, it becomes clear that you no longer have wounds, you have scars.
I love that Jesus chose to go there. He never stayed in the nicest places in town and seldom hung out with the most respectable crowd. He went to the poor
and the broken, those whom society had given up on.
He’d given up hope and accepted who he was—the one who never gets a miracle. The wound was always open.
I’ve wondered sometimes if there are situations where we find our identity in being wounded instead of scarred? That may sound harsh, but I’ve seen it many times. Unless we have a deep sense of the identity we are offered in our scar-marked Savior, we find our identity in our wounds.
Miracles will never change us; obedience to Christ does that.
Miracles will never change us; obedience to Christ does that.
Once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. —Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
I saw that he’d reached a fresh place of freedom, a space where he felt comfortable enough in his own skin to let his goofy side show.
