Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

Jesus Will Wipe Away Every Tear {No Matter What Monday}

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rev 21.4

If you ask my 10-year-old son what he would wish for if he had three wishes, you’ll hear a couple of the things you’d expect to hear: unlimited Minecraft-playing time, no more homework ever. But he’ll probably include one wish that might surprise you: His wish that Jesus would come back today.

 

My son can’t wait for Jesus to return. Maybe it’s because he watched me suffer through cancer. He watches me grieve the loss of friends to the disease. We take meals to sick people so often that anytime I take them with me to deliver food to someone, my kids ask if the recipient has cancer.

 

My 10-year-old understands that he lives in a broken world filled with sickness, sadness and death. But my son also understands that he does not live in this broken world without hope.

 

He knows there is a perfectly joyous ending coming. He knows that every heartache he feels will be made right when Jesus returns in glory. He knows His Savior will wipe away every tear.

 

Revelation 21:4 gives us this promise to cling to: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. 

 

No matter what you face this week, your triumphant Savior will one day wipe away your tears.

 

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Nothing Can Separate You From God’s Love {No Matter What Monday}

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Nothing

I have planned my husband’s funeral countless times.

My husband is a perfectly healthy forty-something-year-old who has never been in a life-threatening situation that I’m aware of.

But sometimes he is late coming home from work.

When he’s late coming home from work, I start to think he’s dead on the side of the road.

And when I start to think he’s dead on the side of the road, I mentally plan his funeral. If he’s really late, I might even brainstorm some of the hymns we’ll sing.

Sometimes I try to make myself feel better by telling myself that surely he just got one more phone call on his way out of the office. But the reality is that I’m not guaranteed to grow old with my husband. Sometimes telling myself the worst won’t happen doesn’t quite calm my fears.

But one truth that can calm my fears is this: no matter what, nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The matchless, unfathomable love of Christ is a guarantee I can cling to.

What are you facing this week? What are you afraid of? Can it separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus?

Filter your challenges and fears through this test:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:38-39

We face many losses in this life, and they are heartbreaking. But we will never face the loss of His love.

No matter what you face this week, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

 

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The Jerk in the Starbucks Parking Lot

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The Jerk

As I drove into the Starbucks parking lot, I saw a large gray Buick pull into a place reserved for those with disabilities. The lot wasn’t full, so I left an empty space on the driver’s side of the Buick and pulled in two spots over.

 

I looked over, expecting to see an elderly woman driving the car. But instead, I saw a younger man with long hair and a hoodie. If I encountered him in a dark parking garage, let’s just say I’d be mentally reviewing my knowledge of self-defense.

 

“Some jerk is driving his grandma’s car and taking advantage of her disabled license plate,” I thought to myself.

 

I can’t stand it when people park in those spots and don’t need them. I’m far from perfect, but that’s something I’ve never been tempted to do. And in that moment, looking at the young man committing a grievous offense, I judged him harshly. I looked down on him from my tower of parking perfection.

 

I love rules. To be more precise, I love the rules I can follow. Don’t commit adultery. Check. Attend worship regularly. Double check. Don’t take God’s name in vain. Got it covered.

 

But when I start thinking about scriptures exhorting me to love my enemies, I start squirming. I can’t even patiently and sacrificially love the people who mean the most to me. Be content with what I have? Consider others more significant than myself? Wait, there’s got to be a loophole in here somewhere.

 

That’s how it is with judging others, isn’t it? I’m quick to judge those who sin in ways I don’t. And I’m quick to ignore sin in others that I’d rather not face in myself.

 

When I’m secretly shaking my finger at others, I’ve forgotten I’m dependent on God’s grace to cover all my sin. I’ve forgotten that I’m not accepted because I can keep any of the rules. I’m accepted because Christ kept God’s law perfectly and died to save my rule-breaking soul. As a sinner saved by grace, I am called to extend grace to others.

 

Back in that Starbucks parking lot, I gathered my things and started to get out of the car. I watched as the young man in the Buick emerged from his car with a significant limp. He hurried to the door and opened it for a woman as she approached the coffee shop.

 

The only jerk in the parking lot that morning was me.

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We Never Suffer Alone {No Matter What Monday}

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Those who belong to Christ never suffer alone

No matter what you face this week, Christ walks beside you in your suffering.

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. Whatever you face this week, your Savior walks with you.

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