Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

Keep Clinging to the Lord {No Matter What Monday}

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psalm-63-8

It’s a familiar routine. We both climb out of the white minivan, and I lock the doors. As we step out into the parking lot, she slips her soft hand into mine. She knows that at barely 4 feet tall, she’s safest if she’s holding my hand as we walk through the big, bad parking lot.

Who’s holding whom as my daughter and I walk hand-in-hand? She’s the one who reached out and grabbed my hand, but I’m the one who won’t let go. I’m 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.

Psalm 63:8: My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

In this psalm, David remembers the Lord’s help during dark times. He finds joy in being near to the Lord. And he knows that as his soul clings to the Lord, the Lord’s right hand will hold him tight.

Are you struggling to cling to the Lord? Maybe it feels like you’re trying to grab on, but your fingers keep slipping in the midst of fear and doubt. Or you’re trying to hold on, but your muscles are straining and threatening to quit.

Keep clinging, friend. And when your hands grow weary or start to slip, remember that the Lord’s steady hand upholds you. He’s got a strong grip on you, and He won’t ever let go.

No matter what you face this week, keep clinging to the Lord and trust Him to hold you.

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God Has Prepared You For This {No Matter What Monday}

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A couple months ago, I stared out the window of my home office, sipping coffee and enjoying the early morning quiet of a house filled with my sleeping people. The silence was broken by a sound I interpreted at first to be my children jumping up and down upstairs. But the way the house was shaking, there must have been twenty kids jumping, and that couldn’t be right. The waves of realization came slowly across my slightly-caffeinated brain: an earthquake.

I had no idea where I should be or what I should do. I live in Arkansas, not California! Was I supposed to bring everyone downstairs to a bathroom, like in a tornado? Get everyone out of the house like in a fire? Get under a desk or into a doorway? Thankfully, the earthquake ended by the time I gathered my confused, bleary-eyed family, and we were fine.

After we settled down, I was struck by how unprepared I was for the earthquake. When the unexpected happens, we often find ourselves unprepared. We feel scared, confused, even frantic. Life is happening, and we need to act or respond, but we have no clue what to do.

Ephesians 2:10 promises us that God has equipped us for all that He calls us to do: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

We are His workmanship. He has good works for us to do, which He has prepared beforehand. Fueled by the Holy Spirit, we can walk freely in the work He asks us to do.

If you’re anxious about the tasks your week will bring, you can be sure of this: God has equipped you in every way to tackle the to-do list He’s given you.

Whatever you face this week, God has prepared you for this, because you are His workmanship.

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God Will Never Leave You {No Matter What Monday}

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I was halfway down the mountain and didn’t know what to do next. I was cold, tired and scared. And I was alone.

It was my first-ever ski trip, a church youth group trip during my sophomore year of high school. After a few runs down the bunny slopes, our college-aged chaperone took us up to the top of the mountain for our first real run. She paired up the new skiers with those who had experience, and she assigned me to the guy who had dumped me just weeks before. Perfect.

As you can imagine, he wasn’t too interested in offering words of encouragement as he skied slowly down the mountain beside me. It took him about five minutes to decide he was out of there, and off he went. I was on my own, forced to figure out how to get down all by myself.

We’re often tempted to view our grown-up trials in the same way. We want to believe God is with us. But sometimes it feels like we’re taking so long to work through our issues that we wonder if God will get bored and move on. Or we’re in the throes of suffering and can’t imagine why God hasn’t rescued us from our circumstances. We feel abandoned and alone.

But God isn’t like the 16-year-old boy who left me on the ski run.

Hebrews 13:5: {God} will never leave you nor forsake you.

Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, the Lord is by your side. In Him, you have everything you need to face your struggles. His love for you will never waver, and His faithfulness will never come to an end. He will finish the good work He began in you.

No matter what you face this week, God will never leave you.

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God is For Us {No Matter What Monday}

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romans-8-31Do you ever feel like your life is you against the world?

You vs. The little people in your house whose behavior threatens to sabotage your sanity.

You vs. The co-worker who undermines your work at every step.

You vs. The slow driver in front of you when you’re already running late.

You vs. The fallenness of our world manifested in sin, illness, and death.

Who or what is your nemesis this week? Take a minute and fill in the blank. This week, it feels like you vs. _____________________.

Then draw your hope and courage from Romans 8:31: What then can we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

In this verse, Paul proclaims that God is for us as a response to the truth he’s just finished talking about in previous verses. He’s told us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That God works all things for the good of those who are called according to His purpose. That God foreknew us, predestined us, called us, justified us, and glorified us by His grace. (See Romans 8:1-30.)

If all this is true (and so much more!), there’s other conclusion to draw other than this: God is for us. And if God, the sovereign and powerful Creator and Sustainer, is for us, then who can be against us?

The answer is no one. People and circumstances come against us and appear to win sometimes, but the truth is that no one can successfully come against those who are in Christ. God takes what others mean for evil and use it for good in our lives, to sanctify us, refine us, and conform us to the image of His Son. (See Genesis 50:20 and Romans 8:29.) As Paul goes on to answer his own question, he shouts from the rooftops that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). Your children’s misbehavior, your co-worker’s schemes, that driver in front of you, this fallen world—whatever your nemesis is this week—none of these can successfully thwart the Lord’s plans for you.

No matter what you face this week, God is for you.

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