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God’s Got You in His Grip {No Matter What Monday}

March 19, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Last week, my kids and I walked through an unfamiliar city on our way to a concert. As I started to cross a wide street, my daughter hesitated and looked around anxiously. She didn’t want to follow me as confidently I stepped off the curb.

“Mom? Are you sure we should be crossing here?”

“Sweetheart, am I holding your hand?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can relax. You can let me take care of keeping you safe.”

My daughter didn’t look down the street and see the road blocks that kept that block car-free. She didn’t have the life experience to know that a concert venue plus large crowds plus police blockades equals safety crossing the street. She became anxious because she forgot that the one who holds her hand cares for her more than she can imagine.

Each week, I send out these Monday devotionals to my email subscribers. I sign my emails with “In His grip.” It’s an intentional reminder of a truth that brings me great comfort—I’m in God’s hands. He’s holding on to me, and I’m safe and secure in Christ.

In John 10:27-29, Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Those who belong to Christ can never be snatched from His hand. We can count on this promise because our heavenly Father is greater than all. If He’s holding us, we can trust that He won’t let go. There is nothing that can loosen His grip. One of my favorite songs, “In Christ Alone,” puts it this way: “No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand.”

You will face trouble and suffering in this world. But if you are in Christ, nothing you face can ever separate you from God’s loving hold on you (Romans 8:38-39). He’s got you, and He won’t let go.

No matter what you face this week, God’s got you in His grip.

When You Don’t Have Any Answers {Guest post at (in)courage}

March 13, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Facebook is a terrible way to learn a friend has died.

A heavy feeling settled in my chest as my newsfeed swarmed with strangers writing messages to Julie about shared memories.

When I saw the first “RIP,” I crumpled into a mess of tears.

Julie and I met in the radiation waiting room at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In May 2011, I reported to Waiting Room J each weekday at my assigned time. It didn’t take long to recognize the familiar faces of those with similar appointment times.

Julie struck up a conversation with me during my second week of radiation. She was about my age and recognized me from the 9th floor Sarcoma Center waiting room. (Cancer demands a lot of time in waiting rooms.) Although she was clearly in pain from the growing tumor in her leg, her smile was brilliant, shining from a face adorned with a spunky, color-streaked wig.

We bonded quickly over the chemotherapy regimen we’d both endured and the experience of being moms with cancer. We shared our life stories and cancer stories, and I learned that while chemo caused my tumor to shrink like a snowball in a frying pan, Julie’s tumor grew steadily and ominously.

We celebrated the end of Julie’s radiation, and she stood proudly beside me as I rang the bell at the end of mine. We planned to see each other when I returned to Houston six weeks later for surgery. But by then, Julie was gone.

I never found out exactly how she died. When you make friends in a radiation waiting room you don’t know each other’s people. I never met her friends or family. I had no one to grieve with, no one to share common memories with, no one to answer my questions about her final days. Did she suffer? Did she die in the hospital? Did she have enough warning to say good-bye to her son? I’ll never know.

I shared this piece over at (in)courage . . . a beautiful community of women seeking connection with each other as they follow Christ. I’d love for you to head over there to read the rest of the piece about my struggle to trust God in an answer-less place.

While you’re there, check out their site and subscribe to their daily emails–they are such an encouragement to me!

The Expert of Everything {No Matter What Monday}

March 12, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Have you ever needed an expert? In 2010, I was diagnosed with angiosarcoma, a rare cancer that doctors in my area only see about once a decade. I went to the largest medical facility in my state, where they see it once or twice a year. Then I went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. There we found an oncologist who treats it once or twice a week, with great success. My husband and I looked at each other with the same thought in our heads: “We choose this guy.”

We trusted this doctor because he knows more about angiosarcoma than most people on the planet. We knew that no matter how much searching and reading we did, our understanding of this complicated disease could never match his. Because of his expertise, we decided to do whatever he told us to do—even when we didn’t like his plans, and even when his recommendations were difficult and life-altering. His expertise led us to put my life in his hands, medically speaking.

The same is true of the Lord. There is no limit to the extent of His knowledge and wisdom, not just about cancer, but about everything in all creation. He is the ultimate Expert of everything.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34)

We can confidently choose to trust the Lord because of His riches of wisdom. He knows the past, present, and future. He knows all the possibilities and which ones will become realities. He knows how He will provide for His children and every situation they will face. He knows what is best for us, even when it doesn’t make sense from our perspective.

Not only does He know all things, but He uses His knowledge to always do what is right. We can feel safe putting our lives in His loving and faithful hands.

No matter what you face this week, you can trust the One who is the ultimate Expert of everything.

When You Struggle to Give Thanks {No Matter What Monday}

November 20, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

I laid next to my sleeping husband and wondered if the next morning, Thanksgiving Day, he’d wake to find that I’d died during the night. My fear may have been exaggerated, but it wasn’t completely unreasonable. I ran a fever of over 102, and the number of white blood cells available to fight infection in my body was dangerously close to the number of hairs on my head: zero.

From the world’s perspective, I didn’t have much to be thankful for. I was stricken with a rare cancer, facing months of grueling treatment, bald, sick, fatigued, and scared.

And yet, these verses challenged my thinking:

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (I Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Some days, I didn’t feel like rejoicing. Chemo made my mind too foggy to pray. I struggled to find reasons to give thanks.

With great relief, I noticed the scripture doesn’t say, “Give thanks for all circumstances.” God didn’t ask me to give thanks for cancer—in fact, I believe He hates cancer, along with all the effects of this fallen world. He asked me to give thanks in all circumstances, and then He graciously enabled me to do so.

Maybe this year, giving thanks is a challenge for you. I’ve been there, and I’m sorry for your pain. When our life is a mess, our future uncertain, or our hearts broken, how can we give thanks in those circumstances?

God doesn’t ask us to wear a fake smile and humor Him with a Pinterest-inspired thankfulness craft. He hears our cries for rescue, restoration, and relief from our suffering. Then the Lord gently lifts our tear-stained faces and shows us He is with us. He cares for us, He is at work, and He can be trusted in our trials. Our Heavenly Father lovingly reminds us that He is the reason we give thanks in all circumstances.

No matter what you face this week, the Lord gives you a reason to give thanks in all circumstances.

Photo by Dan Musat on Unsplash

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