Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

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Three Reasons to Live Fearless {Guest post for Proverbs 31 Ministries}

July 14, 2020 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Today I’m sharing a devotional from the book of Revelation for Proverbs 31 Ministries’ Encouragement for Today devotions. Here’s a preview . . .


“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’” Revelation 1:17-18 (ESV)

I still remember where I was when the question came. We had just started the drive to school when one of my young carpool passengers piped up from the back seat and asked, “Miss Marissa, how old will you be when Christopher graduates from high school?”

Fighting back tears, I struggled to figure out the answer to her question. I had recently finished treatment for a rare cancer called angiosarcoma. I was begging the Lord for another year or two but didn’t dare let myself think about attending my second-grader’s graduation.

We find many reasons for fear in this life, and death is often at the top of the list.

Whether it’s cancer or a contagious new virus, reminders of our mortality can shake our security and peace. Christ’s promise of eternal life soothes our doubts about eternity, but we might fear the process of dying or dread the loss of our loved ones.

In the book of Revelation, God gives us hope as we face all our fears. He pulls back the curtain of heaven to show us the present reality of Christ’s reign and the future consummation of His triumph over the grave. Turning our eyes to victorious Jesus gives us hope and comfort in the face of death.


To finish reading the devotional, head over to the Proverbs 31 website. I hope you’re encouraged to live fearless no matter what you’re facing today!

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Jesus Christ conquered death {No Matter What Monday}

April 22, 2019 by Marissa Leave a Comment

I’ll never forget the look of joy on his little three-year-old face when he heard the news. My son Christopher was eating breakfast at the kitchen table when he started asking questions about Jesus. He’d heard repeatedly that Jesus had died on the cross for his sins. But apparently we failed to mention one crucial piece of information—Jesus didn’t stay dead. When I mentioned that Jesus rose from the dead, his eyes grew wide and he exclaimed, “Jesus is ALIVE?!?” He clapped his hands exuberantly and shouted, “Yaaaaaay!” 

It was such a joy to witness the moment my son first learned the good news of the resurrection. He realized for the first time that death didn’t win. Jesus isn’t still in the grave. He is risen! 

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep . . . “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (I Cor. 15:20 and 55, NIV)

Friend, this is good news: Jesus is alive! He isn’t just a suffering Savior who died in your place but a reigning King who conquered the power of death. He rose victorious over the ultimate enemy. We read in Revelation 1:18 that Jesus holds the keys to death and hades. Death has no power over Him.

Our risen Savior is the firstfruits of the resurrection. “Firstfruits” implies that there are more resurrection fruits to come! When He stepped out of the grave, He made a way for us to have new life in Him now and eternal life with Him forever. Death has no power over Him, and it also has no power over those of us who are in Christ. 

This is another one of the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection that we’ve been studying this month. Jesus Christ has paid our debt, given us His perfect record, forgiven our sin, and conquered death for us. 

Even though we feel the pain of death here temporarily, we can look at the empty grave of Christ and say with Paul, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Jesus Christ took the sting of death for us, so we wait eagerly for the day when we feel it no more. 

No matter what you face this week, the risen Christ conquered death for you. 

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God is With You {No Matter What Monday}

August 20, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Last Tuesday morning I opened my Facebook app and saw a post that stopped my casual stroll. It’s not the first time the cancer battle of a Facebook friend has ended in death. And sadly, it’s not even the first time I’ve learned the news by seeing a teenage daughter’s loving tribute to a mom she won’t see again this side of heaven.

I sat in stunned silence, praying for the grieving family as I absorbed the reality of their loss. Several minutes later, I saw another tribute for a young father who just passed away after a five-year cancer battle. On a morning when I planned to write a devotional on Psalm 23:4, I couldn’t avoid the reality that death is a pervasive part of life.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

This verse tells us that as we endure the pain of suffering, we have nothing to fear. Through our tears and our heartbreak, we can have confidence that Christ conquered cancer, sickness, death, and loss when He rose from the grave. We can say with the apostle Paul, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55).

The psalmist draws comfort from these four words: “You are with me.” We have peace in the midst of suffering because God is always with us and will never abandon us. There is nowhere we can flee from His presence (Ps. 139:9-10). We belong to Him, and He promises to always be with us (Isaiah 43:1-2). Just as the fourth man appeared with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace, we never suffer alone (see Dan. 3).

Because our Shepherd, Jesus Christ, walked through death for us, we will never walk through death’s shadow alone. Because our Shepherd suffered for us, we can face suffering without fear. Because our Shepherd demonstrated His love for us on the cross, we have confidence that He will always be there to comfort us and will one day wipe away all our tears.

No matter what you face this week, God is with you in your suffering.

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Video ~ An Excerpt from Loving Your Friend through Cancer

May 28, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

In this video, I read the introduction to chapter 9 of Loving Your Friend through Cancer. The chapter is titled “Mind: Questions Your Friend is Asking.” To learn more about how to support a friend as she wrestles through the difficult questions cancer brings, check out the book here.

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Learn more about the book!

marissahenley.com

Loving Your Friend through Cancer is now available! I'm excited to share this resource with you and pray it equips you to support your friend with compassionate care.

Let’s Connect Everywhere!

Welcome

marissahenley.com

I write to remind myself of the truth of God's promises. I share my writing here in case you need to be reminded sometimes, too.

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marissa.henley

When you need help, where do you turn? A few years When you need help, where do you turn? A few years ago, I realized that the internet’s vast supply of answers to life’s problems can cause us to be more disconnected from others. Before Google, if I needed to know how to poach an egg or house-train a puppy or get olive oil out of my favorite sweater, I would call my mom or a friend. Now those phone calls don’t happen because I have all the answers at my fingertips.⁠
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So when my son threw up on the loveseat in our living room, I decided to call my mom to ask how to clean it rather than typing the question into an impersonal search engine. I explained my predicament and asked her what I should do. The first words out of her mouth were, “Have you Googled it?”⁠
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I’m thankful for my helpful mom, knowledgeable friends, and of course, Google. But I’m even more thankful for the One we can turn to for help in any and every problem we face.⁠
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“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea” (Psalm 46:1-2)⁠
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God is our refuge. He provides safety because He loves us and reigns over any circumstance, any power, or any person that would threaten us. As Paul says in Romans 8:38-39, nothing in this world can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.⁠
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God is our strength. The One who created the heavens and the earth is your helper (Ps. 121:1-2). He placed in stars in the sky and the fish in the ocean depths, and He promises to give you His strength when you’re weak.⁠
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God is always present in our suffering. This is why the psalmist can say: “Therefore we will not fear . . .” We can face our troubles with confidence that the Lord is with us. He’s not just a passive, uninterested bystander. He’s not just an automated source of abundant answers as we attempt to solve our problems. He is our heavenly Father, our refuge, and our strength.⁠
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No matter what you face this week, God is an ever-present help in trouble.⁠
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#NoMatterWhatMonday
Arkansas basketball fans will never forget that ni Arkansas basketball fans will never forget that night. It’s one of those “I remember where I was when . . .” moments. I was a senior in high school, riding home from an orchestra rehearsal. I listened on the radio as the Arkansas men’s basketball team beat Duke to win the 1994 NCAA National Championship. When we said we were #1, we weren’t just saying it—we had the trophy to prove it.⁠
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Have you ever read about God’s love for you, but the words felt hollow? Maybe as empty as the boastful claims of a losing team? We sometimes wonder if He really loves us. Our circumstances don’t always appear to reflect His love—at least not the kind of love we would choose!⁠
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And yet, God’s Word tells us that God doesn’t just say He loves us. He’s proved it. There’s no greater proof He could give than the sacrifice of His only Son.⁠
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“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)⁠
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Here’s how you know God’s love for you: before you ever loved Him, He sent His Son to be the propitiation for your sin. But what is propitiation, and what does it have to do with love?⁠
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Propitiation refers to Christ’s turning away God’s wrath from us by taking it on Himself. Christ laid His life over ours like a big shield, taking what we deserve because of our sin. Being our propitiation, our wrath-shield, came at a high price. The sinless One took the punishment our sin deserved and proved God’s great love for us.⁠
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When we start to wonder, “Does God really love me?” we can look at the cross and find reassurance. God sent His Son to give us new life. The Son died and took the wrath we deserved. There’s no higher price God could pay and no greater proof we could ask for.⁠
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No matter what you face this week, God proved His love for you in Christ.⁠
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#NoMatterWhatMonday
We’re continuing our study of Ephesians in the @ We’re continuing our study of Ephesians in the @first5app and today I had the privilege of sharing about the armor of God. You can read the entire teaching at the link in my bio or in the app! ❤️

Posted @withregram • @first5app When the recipients of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians were exhorted to stand firm in a battle against the spiritual forces of darkness in Ephesians 6:12 , they may have felt overwhelmed. Maybe you feel overwhelmed, too, as you look at the rampant wickedness and unending problems in our world. Maybe you’re burdened by the weight of personal temptation or past failures.  But in reading Ephesians 6, we find that God knows exactly what we will face each day and He has already supplied everything our battle requires.

God’s armor covers us from head to toe — from our helmet to our shoes. Nothing is lacking from the protection and resources God provides.

God doesn’t ask us to assemble our own suit of armor and hope it holds up against the “flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). Our armor is God’s armor, and our strength is His strength. (Ephesians 6:10; Ephesians 6:13)

Our daily battles aren’t easy, but in Christ, victory over the enemy is guaranteed. (Romans 8:31; Romans 8:37)

-@marissalhenley  #First5

How can you see God providing what you need through the armor He has given?
This week, the world around us will be obsessed wi This week, the world around us will be obsessed with love. We will enjoy showing our love for others with pieces of candy taped to little paper cards, candle-lit dinners, and all the heart-shaped gifts money can buy. And while there’s nothing wrong with celebrating love and appreciating those around us, we’ll all wake up next Monday knowing that human love can’t ultimately meet our need to be fully known and fully loved. The love of family and friends is a wonderful gift from the Lord, but it’s not meant to fully satisfy us.⁠
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If you’re looking for love that never changes, never fails, and never ends, that love can only be found in the Lord.⁠
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“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)⁠
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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved . . .” (Ephesians 2:4-5)⁠
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“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1a)⁠
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“For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5)⁠
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These verses—and many others in Scripture—reveal key insights about God’s love. First of all, God loved us while we were still sinners. He loved us when we were still dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). He will always be faithful in His love for us, and He proved that by sending His Son to die for us so we could have new life in Him.⁠
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Second, God’s love secures our place as His children. Our adoption is rooted in God’s love for us, not our being deserving of it. Our position before God isn’t like a job we can lose if we don’t perform. It’s the status of a child who’s been permanently adopted by a loving Father.⁠
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Third, God’s love never ends. The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.  Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). We have complete security in God’s eternal love for His children.⁠
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No matter what you face this week, God’s faithful, fatherly love never fails.⁠
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#NoMatterWhatMonday
“It’s not fair!” This whiny cry is a nemesis “It’s not fair!” This whiny cry is a nemesis of parents everywhere, but it demonstrates our innate sense of justice. As those made in the image of the righteous God, we recognize what’s wrong and want it to be made right. As we finish our study of Psalm 63, we see that David felt the same way.⁠
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Can I be honest? I wanted to stop our study of Psalm 63 at verse 8. This is a tough passage, and I’m nervous that you might read a political agenda into these words. (Please don’t, and please see an important note I've added in the comments.) However, God’s justice is an important aspect of His character, and when we rightly understand it, we grow in our confidence in Him.⁠
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“But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.” (Psalm 63:9-11)⁠
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The introductory words of this psalm tell us it was written by David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. He probably wrote it while running for his life from either Saul or Absalom (see 1 Sam. 23 and 2 Sam. 15). Either way, David asked God to defend him against the wicked actions of his enemies, and David trusted God to do so.⁠
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Psalm 63 reminds us that when we are treated unfairly, we can find hope in the reign of our King, Jesus Christ. It may seem like the wicked prosper now, but God will have the final say. Jesus triumphed over all His enemies on the cross and will one day judge the world with justice and righteousness. We look forward to the day when “a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice” (Isaiah 32:1).⁠
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On that day, “the mouths of liars will be stopped” and “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Ps. 63:11, Phil. 2:11). When we look at the world and want to cry, “It’s not fair!”, we can trust the Lord to act with perfect justice and righteousness, now and forever.⁠
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No matter what you face this week, rejoice in Jesus Christ, the King of righteousness.
I recently joined my friend @niki.hardy on her Che I recently joined my friend @niki.hardy on her Chemo Chair Prayers podcast to talk about living with the unknowns of cancer. If you or someone you love is walking through this difficult situation, I'd love for you to listen. There's a link in my bio, or you can find Chemo Chair Prayers wherever you listen to podcasts.
It was familiar routine for many years. We both cl It was familiar routine for many years. We both climbed out of the white minivan, and I locked the doors. As we stepped out into the parking lot, she slipped her soft hand into mine. She knew that she was safest when she was holding her mom’s hand as we walked through the big, bad parking lot. Even as a tween, she still reaches for my hand out of habit, and it makes me smile.⁠
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Who was holding whom as my young daughter and I walked hand-in-hand? She was the one who reached out and grabbed my hand, but I was the one who wouldn’t let go. I was the one who would scoop her up and rush her to safety if danger threatened. If she forgot to reach out and grab my hand one day, I’d reach for hers and grasp it tight.⁠
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As we continue making our way through Psalm 63, we see that David holds on to the Lord even as he is held by the Lord.⁠
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“My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:8) ⁠
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As we’ve studied Psalm 63 this month, we’ve seen that God was refreshing water for David’s dry soul. David knew God’s love was better than life itself. He spent nights focusing on the Lord’s faithfulness rather than his worries and regrets. Today we read that as David’s soul clung to the Lord, the Lord’s right hand held him tight.⁠
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Are you struggling to cling to the Lord? Maybe it feels like your fingers keep slipping in the midst of fear and doubt. You’re trying to hold on, but your muscles are straining and threatening to quit.⁠
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If your grip on God feels weak or faltering today, take comfort in these promises of God: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).⁠
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Keep clinging, friend. And when you’re weary or overwhelmed, remember that the Lord’s steady hand upholds you. He gives you the strength and courage to persevere in the faith. He’s got a strong grip on you, and He won’t ever let go.⁠
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No matter what you face this week, keep clinging to the Lord and trust Him to hold you.⁠
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#NoMatterWhatMonday
The house is still quiet in the mornings as I open The house is still quiet in the mornings as I open my Bible and place my coffee mug on the teal coaster that a friend gave me for Christmas. It says, “It’s as if no one in my family appreciates that I stayed up all night overthinking for them.”⁠
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It’s funny because it’s true. As the mom of two teens and a tween, I had a lot of opportunities to overthink even before our world was rocked by a pandemic and political turmoil. Now my nightly overthinking has shifted into overdrive.⁠
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As we continue our study of Psalm 63, we see that David had a better approach to his bedtime routine.⁠
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“My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.” (Psalm 63:5-7)⁠
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Isn’t it fascinating that David specifically mentioned thinking about God in the watches of the night? He didn’t just praise God during the day - he turned his thoughts to the Lord as he laid down to sleep.⁠
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I think God understands that when we’re alone in the dark with our thoughts, we will be tempted to stew over the past or worry about the future. Through David’s words, God shows us another way. Instead of focusing on our troubles and fears, we can meditate on what God has done and remember that we can trust Him.⁠
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These verses also tell us that David had a satisfied soul and joy-filled lips. These two things are connected—when we find our satisfaction in the Lord, it leads us to praise. We are grateful rather than grumbling. We look at our gracious God and find reasons to be joyful in all circumstances.⁠
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David behaved this way because of what he believed about God. He was satisfied, joyful, and peaceful because he knew the Lord was his refuge and his help. Rather than running out on his own to fix All. The. Things, David sang for joy in the shadow of God’s wings. And so can we.⁠
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No matter what you face this week, you can shift from anxious overthinking into peaceful praise.⁠
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#NoMatterWhatMonday
Just sharing a teaching on another favorite passag Just sharing a teaching on another favorite passage - isn't Ephesians sooo good?! I was dead in my sin, but God didn't leave me there--this is the best news ever.

You can read the entire teaching at the link in my bio or in the @first5app. ❤️

Posted @withregram • @first5app “Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?” 

I cringe when I hear this question. If I have to choose, I’d rather get the bad news over with first. In Ephesians 2:1-7, Paul shares devastating news followed by the best news imaginable. He starts with the bad news that we were all hopelessly and helplessly dead in our sin. 
 
Dead people can’t do anything to change their situation. They can’t make themselves better or even ask for help. Spiritually dead people have only one hope: a rescuer with the power to raise the dead and give them new life. Now it’s time for the good news. In Ephesians 2:4, we find these two little words that change everything: “But God.” 

You were dead in your sin, but God made you alive together with Christ. You were a child of God’s wrath, but God showed His mercy, love and kindness to you as one of His own. God has saved us so that He can spend eternity putting the immeasurable riches of His kindness and grace on display for us. Dear friends, there is no better news than that. 

-@marissa.henley #First5
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