Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

God Will Renew our Strength {No Matter What Monday}

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is 40.31

It’s one of those times of the year. The end of the school year ranks high on my list of busy times of year, right up there with Christmas and back-to-school. I feel like there’s a runaway train barreling down the tracks toward the last day of school, and I’m hanging onto the back for dear life. I’ve got two hands gripping the back of the train and both feet flying up in the air behind me, just hoping we can make it to the end of the track without some unknown danger around the corner knocking me loose from this roaring engine.

 

In other words, I’m overwhelmed and exhausted. Anyone else?

 

Maybe you’ve got little ones who wear you out each day by 8:30 a.m. and you wonder how soon is too soon to start texting your husband to ask when he’ll be home.

 

Maybe you’re caring for an aging parent or pouring yourself out all day into a demanding job, and then heading home to face another long list of responsibilities.

 

Maybe your exhaustion stems from an ongoing struggle to parent a challenging child, cope with illness, or grieve a loss.

 

On weary days, I love this promise from Isaiah 40:30-31: “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

 

Isaiah gets me. He knows we all have those tired days – even the young ones get worn out, he says.

 

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. The Lord’s strength is a sufficient, sustaining, satisfying strength. Rather than holding on for dear life, I can fly through these challenges like as soaring eagle because I’m sustained by the Lord.

 

No matter what we face this week, the Lord can be trusted to renew our strength as we rest in Him.

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Our Hope Enters Behind the Curtain {No Matter What Monday}

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We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 

Hebrews 6:19-20 (ESV)

 

Last week we talked about the anchor of our hope being in God’s sure and steadfast promises. But what about the rest of the verse?

 

Our hope is described as entering the inner place behind the curtain. Now, I know that can sound like a bunch of theological gobbledygook. The inner place refers to the Holy of Holies, the place where God dwelled in the temple. Once a year, the high priest would take a blood sacrifice and enter into the inner place to atone for the sin of the people and remove their guilt.

 

When the author of Hebrews says that Jesus has gone on our behalf into the inner place, he’s saying that Jesus’ sacrifice has taken away the guilt of our sin. Jesus’ blood qualifies him to enter into the place where God dwells. And when it says that Jesus is a forerunner, it means that we will follow him there.

 

When we cast the anchor of our hope, it lands in the place where God dwells. And our hope-anchor is there because Christ died once for all as a sacrifice to remove our guilt, rip the curtain that separated us from God, and secure our access to the inner place with God.

 

This is our sure and steadfast hope. Not hope in our own abilities or good works or trying to do a little better than yesterday. Not hope in promises that may or may not be true when we need them most. Our hope for salvation, for daily life, and for peace in the midst of a storm comes from one sure and steadfast anchor: the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us.

 

So no matter what we face this week, our hope is in Christ, who entered the inner place behind the curtain as a forerunner on our behalf. 

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The Free App Your Prayer Life Needs Today

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Prayer Mate (1)
Don’t you love it when you run into a friend who shared a struggle with you, and you’ve been praying fervently for her? You hug her and immediately ask for an update. She feels loved and supported by your commitment to pray for her.

And then there’s the way it goes too often in my life: You’re chatting with a friend, when she mentions that situation you promised prayer for. Your stomach drops as you realize you completely forgot.

I’ve tried various methods over the years to prevent this sinking feeling by keeping up with the prayer needs of others. For the past couple of years, I kept a small box of notecards. I separated the notecards into groups: family, close friends, those dealing with cancer, those in ministry, and other needs. I’d rotate through the cards in each group, praying for one or two from each category when I sat down to pray.

It’s a great system, but it’s still easy to forget. And when someone mentions a need to me at lunch or as we’re dropping our kids off at school, chances are slim that I’ll remember to write it down three hours later when I get home with a van full of groceries and a million things to do.

Then a friend told me about the Prayermate app. It is basically my notecard system on my phone, which is always within reach and even makes little noises regularly to remind me that it’s still there.

Here’s the basic setup: You create lists of topics (family, friends, ministry, etc.). Within each list, you create topics (husband, kids, pastor, your friend Marissa, etc.). You can write as much or as little as you like about each topic. When you open the app to pray, it shows you several topics from the lists you’ve created to refer to as you pray. Over time, the app rotates through all the topics, using priorities that you set, so that you are regularly praying for all the needs on your list.

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When you open the app to pray, it will show you a selection of topics. You can increase or decrease the number of selections easily. You swipe left, and it will show you one selected topic at a time. I have mine set up to show me an attribute to praise God for, a sin to confess, a reason for thankfulness, a member of my immediate family, and then several prayer needs.

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Here are some features I love about the Prayermate app:

  • It’s free!
  • You can associate a topic with a contact in your phone and text your friend directly from the app. It’s great for letting someone know you’re praying for her!
  • You can password-protect the app if you want. Because sometimes I hand my phone to my kids, and my kids don’t need to read about your marital issues.
  • You can set a specific number of topics from each list to be shown at each prayer session. I use this to tell the app that I want to pray for one member of my immediate family each time I pray. I also want to pray through one topic from my Praise, Confession and Thanksgiving lists.

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  • You can set a topic to be a high priority so you’ll see it more often. My husband is a high priority on my app, along with friends in the midst of a crisis.
  • You can set a topic to be shown on a specific date. If I told you I’d pray for your job interview or surgery, Prayermate will help me remember!
  • You can subscribe to built-in lists such as Open Doors USA, which gives you a prayer request for a different country each day.
  • You can set reminders to pray at certain times each day. I set one for first thing in the morning, and in case I ignore that one, I’ve got a second reminder set at bedtime.

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What do I not like about the Prayermate app?

  • It doesn’t kick me in the butt when I ignore it.

Seriously, there is nothing I don’t like about it. I still HAVE TO PRAY, and that’s the hard part sometimes. No app can fix my lack of self-discipline. My phone can’t address the heart issues that cause me to prioritize other things above bringing my family and friends before the throne of God. But as God works in my heart to help me to prioritize prayer, the Prayermate app is a wonderful tool. Go check it out, and let me know what you think!

Find the PrayerMate app on iTunes here. Find the app in the Google Play store here.

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The Steadfast Anchor for our Soul {No Matter What Monday}

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heb 6.19

What is your anchor? When the storms come and the wind throws your small boat up into the air, what keeps it from being tossed so far that it’s destroyed by the waves?

 

When the waves threaten, we need an anchor. Anchors are strong. Anchors are immovable. Anchors provide stability when life around us is turbulent.

 

In Hebrews 6:19, we are given a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor . . . ”

 

What is this anchor? If we at the context of the chapter, we see this anchor is the unchanging character of God’s promises. Theses promises are sure and steadfast because of the character of the One who makes them: His unwavering faithfulness.

 

What else in your life is unchanging? What else can you cling to that will never fail or waver? I haven’t found anything in my life that is more steadfast than the promises of my Heavenly Father.

 

Our Creator, Redeemer and Lord beckons us to find refuge in Him. He makes these promises and guarantees them with an oath to show us the “unchangeable character of his purpose,” so that “we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us” (verses 17-18).

 

Are your circumstances tossing you haphazardly? Does life feel chaotic or out of control? Find refuge in the Lord. Let his arms wrap around your rocking boat as he lowers the anchor of his steadfast promises.

 

Because the Lord is holding fast to you, you can hold fast to the hope set before you and face the storm ahead.

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