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God is Not Ignoring You {No Matter What Monday}

June 19, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

This week’s No Matter What Monday devotional is a special edition – I’m sharing today at the devotional website for Proverbs 31 Ministries. I hope you’ll head over there with me to read the entire devotional. Here’s a preview . . .

“Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” Habakkuk 3:18-19 (ESV)

If our pediatric dental clinic keeps a Top 10 list of challenging patients, I bet my daughter is near the top. She can’t stand lying flat on her back while a stranger cleans her teeth with noisy tools. It doesn’t matter if Frozen is playing on the ceiling or if we promise her all the bouncy balls in the world. My girl hates going to the dentist.

Prior to one of these semiannual visits, my daughter repeatedly asked me to pray for her. We prayed over and over again for God’s help and peace, right up until the moment the hygienist prepared her instruments.

Then the cleaning started. My daughter realized that despite all her prayers, the experience was just as terrible as she feared.

That’s when she started screaming, “God isn’t helping me! God isn’t helping meeeeee!”

My daughter has something in common with the author of today’s key verse. Before Habakkuk’s declaration of trust in chapter 3, he questioned the Lord’s plans. Evil rulers oppressed God’s people, and Habakkuk wondered why God hadn’t intervened to rescue them.

“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2, ESV)

Do these questions sound familiar? Do you feel abandoned in your suffering, like my daughter and Habakkuk? Have you cried out for relief from your struggles with your work, relationships, parenting or sin?

Maybe you’re weary from waiting for the Lord to intervene. You see suffering in this world and in your life and say with Habakkuk, “How long will you keep ignoring my struggle, Lord?”

Read the rest of the devotional at Proverbs 31 Ministries by clicking here!

You Never Suffer Alone {No Matter What Monday}

May 29, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Have you ever felt alone in your suffering? When we’re going through something hard, it can feel like no one gets it, so we feel isolated. But God’s Word gives us hope that we are never alone in our struggles.

In Daniel 3, God’s people are living as exiles in Babylon. Three of the Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, face a difficult choice between worshipping a golden image or being thrown into a furnace.

In the minds of these three men, the decision is a no-brainer. In fact, the confident manner in which they defy the king’s order to bow down to the idol sends him into a rage.

After the men are thrown to the flames, the king’s fury changes to confusion. “Wait a minute,” he says, “how many men did we throw into that furnace?”

A fourth man, whose appearance was “like the son of the gods,” walked with the three men in the furnace (Daniel 3:25).

We all know how this story ends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are pulled from the furnace without even a scent of smoke on their clothes. But we know from experience that this type of deliverance isn’t always God’s plan for His people. Sometimes the flames feel like they’re killing us. We may not be pulled from the furnace until we reach heaven. So what can we take away from this story?

Dale Ralph Davis puts it this way in his commentary on Daniel: “Christ did not keep them out of the furnace but found them in it. He does not always shield you from all distresses and dangers, but it is in the loneliness, the betrayal, in the loss that the Fourth Man comes and walks with you.”

If you belong to Christ, you never walk through suffering alone. He has found you, and He will never leave you.

No matter what you face this week, your Savior walks with you in your struggles.

(An earlier version of this devotional originally appeared on my website on February 22, 2016.)

Be Still {No Matter What Monday}

April 3, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

I’ve had some stressful driving experiences, but nothing comes close to the time I was lost in Brooklyn, New York, during rush hour on a Friday afternoon. I took the exit into Brooklyn and needed to cross several lanes in a short distance to make a left turn and stay on my predetermined route. (This was in ancient times, before GPS and phones with map apps!)

But it was New York, not Arkansas. Not even the driver with a front license plate identifying him as a priest would let me pull in front of him. I didn’t make it to the left turn lane, and I was lost. My surroundings terrified me, and I didn’t know how to find my way to safety. All I had was a paper map, panicked tears, and desperate prayers.

Sometimes life feels similar to those jam-packed streets of Brooklyn. We’re confused and overwhelmed as we struggle to find our way . But Psalm 46 tells us we have a refuge in times of fear:

“‘Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!’ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (Psalm 46:10-11)

When I hear the words “be still,” I’m reminded of the relief that washed over me as I parked in front of my friend’s Brooklyn apartment. Her knowledge of the city protected me from panic and fear as I blissfully followed her around the city. Her presence was a refuge in an environment that felt scary when I was alone.

When life feels chaotic and confusing, I can be still. I know the One who knows all things. He is God—I am not. He is with me, and He is my fortress. He will show me the way.

Whatever you face this week, you can be still and trust the One who knows the way.

God is Always at Work {No Matter What Monday}

March 27, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

The Israelites were in an impossible situation again. They’d barely finished eating their unleavened Passover bread when Pharaoh changed his mind and decided to reclaim his slaves. A wandering throng of men, women, children, and livestock were now being chased down by the world’s most powerful army. We know the end of the story: the walls of water let the Israelites escape before crashing down on Pharaoh’s chariots. But before the happy ending, I wonder how the Israelites felt.

The vast sea was ahead of them, but what did they see behind? Was there a giant dust cloud as 600 chariots charged through the desert? Could they hear the hooves of the horses and feel the ground shake under the weight of the giant army?

Exodus 14:19-20 tells us that the pillar that accompanied them on their journey out of Egypt moved between the Israelites and the approaching Egyptians as night fell. Could they see the army chasing them or the water parting? Or did they spend a terrifying night clutching their children to their chests, crying out to the Lord for a deliverance that seemed impossible?

Some of you know how those endless, dark nights feel. You cry out to the Lord, but you don’t see the waters parting yet. You’re still drowning in fear, grief, uncertainty, difficulty, or worry. Where is God? Why hasn’t He swooped in and saved the day?

I don’t have an easy answer for you, but I know this: God is always at work. One day, the sun will rise, and we’ll see the parted waters of rescue. He will not abandon you, His beloved child.

No matter what you face this week, God is always at work.

P.S. Have you heard Ellie Holcomb’s new album, “Red Sea Road”? I’m listening to it constantly right now, and I think you’ll like it, too. Click here to hear her perform the title track. It’s SO good!

P.P.S. What’s your #NoMatterWhatMonday? Join me on Instagram and use the hashtag to remind us all of a truth or a verse that you’re clinging to this week. I’d love to see your #NoMatterWhatMonday!

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