Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

Perfect Peace is Found in the Rock Eternal {No Matter What Monday}

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Isaiah 26-3-4

We were two college freshman, thrown together into a tiny dorm room by the luck of the draw. After a rocky semester of figuring each other out, we were forced to inhabit each other’s space for hours on end with no escape. No classes, no meetings, no parties to separate us. Just one common goal: to pass our first set of semester final exams. Tension ran high in our hearts and in our third-floor dorm room.

One night, my roommate wrote out a verse and taped it to our wall:

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).

This verse got us through those sleepless nights of studying, and it has comforted me during many anxious nights since. When the cares of my heart are more burdensome than college exams, my comfort has grown because of the verse that follows:

“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:4).

What struggles, relationships or challenges are threatening your peace right now? Do you find it difficult to keep your focus on the Lord? I do.

When my peace is washed away by the waves of life, I can cling to the everlasting rock. My mind is not steadfast, and I struggle to trust Him. But the Lord is steadfast. He strengthens my faith and pours out His perfect peace into my troubled soul.

He is faithful, even when we are not. And as He pours out His peace over and over again, our trust will grow and our minds will be more steadily focused on the source of our hope and peace: the Lord, the Rock eternal.

No matter what you face this week, perfect peace is found in the Lord, the Rock eternal.

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Guest Podcast Appearance ~ Sucker Punched with Becky McCoy

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I’m so grateful for this opportunity to share God’s story of faithfulness with my friend, Becky L. McCoy. She hosts a fabulous podcast called Sucker Punched. I’d love for you to check out the episode and subscribe to her podcast! I promise you’ll be encouraged by the stories of God’s grace in the midst of hard times she shares each week.

 

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God Heals Broken Hearts {No Matter What Monday}

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Ps 34-18 (2)

The Great Breakup of January 1991 swept through Woodland Junior High like a social earthquake. One couple after another toppled, and it seemed no one was immune. Even the long-term couples couldn’t withstand its force. When it was over, all that remained of the junior high dating culture was a bunch of brokenhearted adolescent girls, including me.

At the time, most of us who were dumped thought it was the most horrible heartbreak of our lives. But 25 years later that pain pales in comparison to the heartbreak we know as adults. We watch friends endure illness, job loss, divorce, death. We experience pain and loss ourselves. If we’re paying any attention to the world around us, heartbreak is everywhere.

When sadness threatens to crush us, there is a place for us to seek comfort: in the arms of our Heavenly Father. He cares for our broken hearts. He sees our pain and surrounds us with His love and peace. He will never leave us alone with our sadness. We can trust Him to lovingly mend our lives back together when the destruction of grief blasts through.

This truth isn’t a platitude that sounds nice but has no real power. And it isn’t a band-aid that we put on our grief that makes it all feel better. Grief and loss is still painful, even with the Lord. But as we run to Him with our broken hearts, He gently takes our pain, heals our wounds, and gives us the strength to go on. We can face our grief without despair because we belong to the One who heals broken hearts. And we know that one day, there will be no more broken hearts when we are with Him in heaven (Revelation 21:4).

Psalm 34:18: The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

No matter what you face this week, our Heavenly Father heals broken hearts.

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Suffering Produces Hope {No Matter What Monday}

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Romans 5-3-4

Last week, we looked at the foundation of our joy: the grace of God and His free gift of eternal life in Christ. Heaven seems like a great reason to rejoice, right?

But in the next verse of Romans 5, Paul throws a curveball:

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings . . .” (Romans 5:3)

Wait, what? I’m on board with rejoicing in the thought of eternal glory, but rejoicing in suffering? You better explain yourself, Paul!

“ . . . Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)

I’d love to develop endurance, character, and hope. But if I’m honest, I’d rather enjoy a comfortable, easy, suffering-free life. I lose interest my character development quickly if it requires suffering to get there.

However, God is more concerned with my character than my comfort. He is working to conform me to the likeness of His Son, not to conform my lifestyle to match my neighbor’s. Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic and cancer survivor, says it this way: “Sometimes God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves.”

God hates suffering, illness, tragedy, and death. But in His mysterious sovereignty, He uses suffering to accomplish what He loves: teaching His beloved children endurance, growing our character, and giving us hope. As our earthly foundations crumble through suffering, we see that the only true source of hope is the Lord. Suffering is not good. But finding our hope in the Lord is very good indeed.

No matter what you face this week, your suffering will produce something wonderful: hope in the Lord.

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