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God is Not Ignoring You {No Matter What Monday}

June 19, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

This week’s No Matter What Monday devotional is a special edition – I’m sharing today at the devotional website for Proverbs 31 Ministries. I hope you’ll head over there with me to read the entire devotional. Here’s a preview . . .

“Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” Habakkuk 3:18-19 (ESV)

If our pediatric dental clinic keeps a Top 10 list of challenging patients, I bet my daughter is near the top. She can’t stand lying flat on her back while a stranger cleans her teeth with noisy tools. It doesn’t matter if Frozen is playing on the ceiling or if we promise her all the bouncy balls in the world. My girl hates going to the dentist.

Prior to one of these semiannual visits, my daughter repeatedly asked me to pray for her. We prayed over and over again for God’s help and peace, right up until the moment the hygienist prepared her instruments.

Then the cleaning started. My daughter realized that despite all her prayers, the experience was just as terrible as she feared.

That’s when she started screaming, “God isn’t helping me! God isn’t helping meeeeee!”

My daughter has something in common with the author of today’s key verse. Before Habakkuk’s declaration of trust in chapter 3, he questioned the Lord’s plans. Evil rulers oppressed God’s people, and Habakkuk wondered why God hadn’t intervened to rescue them.

“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2, ESV)

Do these questions sound familiar? Do you feel abandoned in your suffering, like my daughter and Habakkuk? Have you cried out for relief from your struggles with your work, relationships, parenting or sin?

Maybe you’re weary from waiting for the Lord to intervene. You see suffering in this world and in your life and say with Habakkuk, “How long will you keep ignoring my struggle, Lord?”

Read the rest of the devotional at Proverbs 31 Ministries by clicking here!

Your Debt is Fully Paid {No Matter What Monday}

June 12, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

It’s happened to me twice now, and each time was surprising and impactful.

I’ve pulled up to the Starbucks window and found out that my (grande, non-fat, one-pump-caramel) latte was paid for by the driver in front of me. It feels strange to receive my drink without giving anything to the cashier. I accept the gift of a free latte because someone I don’t know paid the debt I owed.

It’s a beautiful picture of the Gospel. Romans 8:1 tells us, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Condemnation is not a word we like to discuss. But God’s Word is clear that we are all sinners, and our sin deserves God’s punishment.

So how can Romans 8:1 say there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Has God decided to look the other way? Did He change His mind about sin? Is He just being nice?

There is now no condemnation because Someone else paid for our sin.

On the cross, Jesus took the punishment our sin deserved. God is fully satisfied with Jesus’s sacrifice and will not demand payment from those who are in Christ. Our debt has been paid. We freely receive the gift of God’s grace.

As we drink deeply of His grace, we are set free from trying to convince God and others that we’re good enough. We don’t have to keep looking around, hoping to be a little better than the next guy. We don’t have to keep striving, hoping the good works will outnumber the bad.

When Jesus took your punishment, He gave you His perfect, sinless record. If you are in Christ, when God looks at your life, He sees what Christ has done. You can walk in the joy and freedom of God’s grace.

No matter what you face this week, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The Lord Listens When You Call {No Matter What Monday}

June 5, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Do unsolicited sales calls make you crazy? A lower interest rate, an extended car warranty, a timeshare opportunity . . . And I suspect most of these “amazing offers” aren’t even legit.

But I received a call recently that was rather entertaining. An exuberantly chipper woman told me I had qualified for a free cruise vacation (yeah, right) and just needed to answer a few questions. Our conversation went like this:

Me: I’m in the middle of working right now—this isn’t a good time.

Chipper Telemarketer: This is exciting! Okay, so is your annual household income still over $40,000?

Me: I don’t think you’re listening to me. I want you to take my name off your list.

Chipper Telemarketer: I don’t think I heard you clearly—let’s try this again so we can get you signed up for your free trip! Is your annual household income still over $40,000?

I’m thankful that our Heavenly Father is nothing like Miss Chipper. When we speak to Him, He doesn’t ignore us. He already knows our thoughts and concerns, and yet He still listens (see Psalm 139:1,4).

Psalm 91 tells us that God hears the cries of those who seek refuge in Him:

“When [the one who holds fast to me] calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.” (Psalm 91:15)

When we call out to the Lord, He listens and responds. He rescues. He provides. He pours out His perfect peace.

No matter what you face this week, the Lord listens when you call to Him.

You Never Suffer Alone {No Matter What Monday}

May 29, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Have you ever felt alone in your suffering? When we’re going through something hard, it can feel like no one gets it, so we feel isolated. But God’s Word gives us hope that we are never alone in our struggles.

In Daniel 3, God’s people are living as exiles in Babylon. Three of the Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, face a difficult choice between worshipping a golden image or being thrown into a furnace.

In the minds of these three men, the decision is a no-brainer. In fact, the confident manner in which they defy the king’s order to bow down to the idol sends him into a rage.

After the men are thrown to the flames, the king’s fury changes to confusion. “Wait a minute,” he says, “how many men did we throw into that furnace?”

A fourth man, whose appearance was “like the son of the gods,” walked with the three men in the furnace (Daniel 3:25).

We all know how this story ends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are pulled from the furnace without even a scent of smoke on their clothes. But we know from experience that this type of deliverance isn’t always God’s plan for His people. Sometimes the flames feel like they’re killing us. We may not be pulled from the furnace until we reach heaven. So what can we take away from this story?

Dale Ralph Davis puts it this way in his commentary on Daniel: “Christ did not keep them out of the furnace but found them in it. He does not always shield you from all distresses and dangers, but it is in the loneliness, the betrayal, in the loss that the Fourth Man comes and walks with you.”

If you belong to Christ, you never walk through suffering alone. He has found you, and He will never leave you.

No matter what you face this week, your Savior walks with you in your struggles.

(An earlier version of this devotional originally appeared on my website on February 22, 2016.)

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