It's Okay Not to Be Okay: Moving Forward One Day at a Time

by Sheila Walsh

Sex is a powerful force. It’s a beautiful God-given gift when it’s expressed inside the commitment of marriage, but when we’re tempted to move outside that bond, it causes pain and heartache.

The truth is, we’re all capable of anything. When we allow the temptation to be louder than the prompting of the Holy Spirit, the unthinkable can become reality.

What looked enticing in the moment for my friends was full of regret when it was over.

That’s why we have to bury our hearts in the Word of God, which is, as David wrote, “a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path” (Ps. 119:105).

He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.” (Gen. 39:8–9)

It would be hard to imagine a more honorable response. Joseph refused to break trust with his master, but more than that, he recognized that the one he would ultimately sin against was God.

So unfair. Joseph had done everything right. He’d even shared part of his testimony with her—I can’t sin against my God—and yet, he ended up in prison. In that situation it would be tempting to believe God is not in control: If God is in control how could I end up in prison for doing the right thing?

But the LORD was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. (v. 21)

There was nothing he could do but keep being the man he was becoming. He let go of what he couldn’t control and once more threw himself into service. The young, arrogant teenage boy was ...

One of the greatest lessons of Joseph’s life is that God is far more interested in who we are becoming than what we are doing. When things went wrong, it didn’t turn him away from God. He stayed faithful.

I wonder if Joseph got tired of waiting for God to deliver him? It had been a long, hard road and he’d been faithful, but nothing was happening. God hadn’t delivered him. In his humanity, he tried to exercise a little control and turned to the cupbearer for help. If God had forgotten him then surely the cupbearer wouldn’t. It’s easy to understand. When something drags on for a long time we just want it to be over, so we try to fix it ourselves. It didn’t work for Joseph and it didn’t work for me. In my spirit I heard God say, You can run around and try to put out every little fire, or you can fall on Me and when the time is right, I will deliver you.

For us, the gift Joseph gave to his brothers is a gift for us to tuck deep into our hearts: You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.

but God. Those two words change everything.

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 t...

The first verse I learned as a ch...

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 ...

What is still standing when everything else is gone? I found the answer on my knees and through my tears. Christ my Savior. God my Father. The Holy Spirit my Comforter. The “good thing” I wanted, I might not get. The “good thing” that remained was greater.

Losing Christian was not going to be part of my story, but I meet those who have faced tremendous loss everywhere I go. It’s tempting to offer quick-and-easy verses to those who

are in pain, but walking through the possibility of losing my son changed me. The tears I wept washed more than my face, they washed my soul.