Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

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November 19, 2019 by Marissa Leave a Comment

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Welcome

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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The week after Thanksgiving, most of us fall into

The week after Thanksgiving, most of us fall into one of three groups: those who are feeling great about our Christmas preparations, those who are trying not to panic, and those who are blissfully optimistic that Santa and his elves will make, wrap, and deliver the perfect gifts for their loved ones on Christmas Eve.

When you’re buried neck-deep in shopping lists, tangled tiny lights, and wrapping paper, it’s easy to lose sight of why God the Son came to earth and was born in that Bethlehem stable.

I’ve got good news for you—He didn’t come just to give you more to do every December. Over the next few Mondays, we’ll look at some of the reasons Jesus came. We’ve been in John 1 for the past few weeks, so let’s start there in John 1:29:

“The next day [John] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29)

In this verse, John the Baptist proclaims one reason the Son of God walked on earth—to be the Lamb of God who takes away our sin.

The Lamb of God lived the perfect life. God’s justice requires a perfect sacrifice—a spotless lamb without blemish. Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed His Father and met the standard of righteousness that we fail to reach.

The Lamb of God died for you. Romans 8:32 says God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. After living the perfect life, Jesus Christ took the punishment for your sin as He suffered and died on the cross.

The Lamb of God rose again. First Corinthians 15:55 reminds us that the Lamb of God defeated death for us: “Oh death, where is your victory?” When Jesus Christ rose again, He proved His power to give eternal life to His redeemed people.

In His life, death, and resurrection, the Lamb of God accomplished all that was required for your redemption. He came with a mission, and He completed it. Now that’s a reason to rejoice as we prepare to celebrate His birth!

No matter what you face this week, Jesus came to be a redeeming sacrifice for you.

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been studyin

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been studying John’s description of Jesus in John 1. We’ve seen that God’s Son is eternal and all things were created through Him and for Him. Today we see that He brings light and life to a world in bondage to darkness and death:

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it . . . The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:4-5, 9)

Again, John wants us to make a connection to the creation story in Genesis 1. God created light and separated light from darkness (Genesis 1:3-4). He made the sun and the stars to give us light (Genesis 1:14-18). He created man and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). God is the giver of light and life.

Because of sin, the world God made was lost in darkness and destined for death. God sent His Son to bring the light of life:

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” (John 8:12)

Now light and life could be heard, seen, and touched in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. As an eyewitness to Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, John testifies about the “word of life”—that “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands” (1 John 1:1).

God is the giver of light and life. In Jesus Christ, God shines the light in our darkness, that we may see our sin and confess our need for the Savior who died to give us eternal life. The darkness cannot overcome the light Christ brings. He has met our greatest need—our need to be saved from sin and death—so we can trust Him with every other need we have.

No matter what you face this week, Jesus gives you the light of life.

Last week we started studying John 1 and its evide

Last week we started studying John 1 and its evidence for why we can trust the eternal, divine Son of God, Jesus Christ. Today we learn more about what the Son was doing in the beginning of time:

“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:2-3)

The Son wasn’t a passive observer of creation—all things were made through Him. We read the words “God said” over and over in Genesis 1. With each act of creation, God spoke something into existence by the power of His Word. (See Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29.) John wants us to make the connection that this Word is the Son who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

What difference does this truth make in our daily lives when we struggle to trust Christ through difficult circumstances? Elsewhere in Scripture, we see the Son’s creative work tied closely with His sustaining reign over all things. Paul writes in Colossians that all things were created by, through, and for the Son:

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17)

In Hebrews, we see this strong statement about the sustaining power of the Son:

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:3a)

God the Son was there in the beginning. All things were made through Him and for Him. Nothing He has made can spin out of His control—He upholds it all by His power.

This same Word is your Savior who gave His life for you. He is your good Shepherd, and He cares for you. His faithful care is unlimited because of His divine power—all of creation answers to Him.

No matter what you face this week, you can trust God’s Son because all things were made through Him and for Him.

The animated version of Disney’s Aladdin has alw

The animated version of Disney’s Aladdin has always been one of my favorite movies. (Probably because I saw it with my husband on our second date in 1992!) There are two scenes early in the story when Aladdin asks Jasmine to do something scary, like jumping out a window or hopping on a flying carpet. He holds out his hand and says, “Do you trust me?” Because it’s a movie, she says yes—even though she has very little knowledge on which to base her trust.

If you are a Christian, you’ve put your trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation. But when you face scary, overwhelming, or difficult situations, you may wonder if you can continue to trust Him. God’s Word gives us evidence so we know He is worthy of our trust.

In John 1, we find many of those reasons, and we’ll look at several over the next few weeks. John introduces us to God’s Son, referred to as the Word, this way:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

The Word is eternal. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In the beginning, before creation began, the Word was there. John later explains that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us”—God’s Son, Jesus Christ (John 1:14).

The Word is divine. It’s not just that the Word was there or that the Word with with God—John makes the Son’s divinity clear with the simple statement, “and the Word was God.” All that’s true of God the Father—His holiness, love, faithfulness, sovereignty, power, wisdom, and so on—is also true of the Son.

And the divine Word wasn’t just there in the beginning—He will be there in the end. In Revelation 1:17-18, Jesus says: “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.”

We place our trust in Christ because He is the eternal Son of God who took on flesh and lived and died for us. Because He is eternal, we can trust Him with our future, now and forever.

No matter what you face this week, you can trust the eternal Son of God.

I thought having teens was good for my prayer life

I thought having teens was good for my prayer life, but that was nothing compared to having a child leave for college.

It’s tough on a mama to know there’s not much I can do to help my son now that he’s out of the house. I can’t see if he’s eating well or getting enough sleep. I don’t know from day to day if he’s happy or sad or lonely or stressed. He doesn’t even bring his laundry home!

But I can pray.

This month we’ve been studying 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, and we’ve seen how God is our comfort, our hope, and our deliverer who grows our reliance on Him through times of affliction. Today, Paul closes this section by asking for the Corinthians’ prayers.

“You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:11)

Sometimes we may wonder, if God is in control and already knows what will happen, why pray? This is a complicated question, but here’s one simple answer: in His Word, God commands us to pray. But this isn’t the only reason we pray for others.

We see in today’s verse that our prayers help others. Paul wrote, “You must help us by prayer.” This truth is comforting to me when people I love are suffering from problems I can’t fix. I can’t take their pain away, but I can pray to the God of all comfort.

This verse points out another reason to pray: Prayer leads to praise. When we pray, God gets all the praise and glory and thanks for the outcome. We’re acknowledging that He is at work in our situation. We’re placing our trust in Him, knowing His plans for us are good because He is good.

And let’s remember that God’s sovereignty isn’t a reason not to pray - it’s a reason to pray. If God wasn’t sovereign, why would we bother asking Him to do anything? We have the privilege of praying to the one true God, the Maker and Ruler of all creation. He is the One with the power to answer our heartfelt prayers.

No matter what you face this week, God hears your prayers for yourself and those you care about.

This month we’ve been studying lessons about aff

This month we’ve been studying lessons about affliction in 2 Corinthians 1. When we suffer, we receive God’s comfort, grow in hope, and deepen our reliance on God. Last week we saw that Paul and his companions suffered so badly that they weren’t sure they could survive it (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). This week’s verse gives us the foundation of Paul’s hope in dire circumstances: his hope in God’s deliverance.

“He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.” (2 Corinthians 1:10)

Paul celebrated God’s past deliverance and counted on God’s future deliverance. He knew that God would either deliver him on this earth, or He would deliver him from this earth into his heavenly home. In fact, later in this letter, Paul says he would “rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

This confidence reminds me of the confidence we see in Daniel 3 before Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar. These three young Israelites were in exile in Babylon and had refused to down down to a golden idol. When Nebuchadnezzar asked what god would save them, they replied:

“If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

Like Paul, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had confidence in God’s deliverance. They also trusted God’s purposes, even if the deliverance didn’t look the way they would choose.

If you have placed your hope in Christ, God has already delivered you from sin and death through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Sometimes we may not understand why God doesn’t deliver us more quickly from our earthly trials. But when our hope is in Christ, this is the confidence we have in hard times: our God has delivered us, and He will deliver us again.

No matter what you face this week, God is your deliverer.

Hi friends! Just a little note to say that I’m n

Hi friends! Just a little note to say that I’m now offering coaching for writers! 👩🏼‍💻🗒 I've done this informally with friends for a few years, and I'm excited to make it official. 🎉❤️ You can find all the info at the link in my bio or DM with any questions!

My grandpa loved to tell the story of letting my d

My grandpa loved to tell the story of letting my dad drive a tractor when he was a young child. My dad sat on his dad’s lap with his small hands on the steering wheel as they drove over smooth ground. But when they hit a rough patch of bumpy road and the steering wheel bounced erratically, he would throw his hands in the air and yell, “Take it, Dad!”

In a similar way, our suffering causes us to cry out to our Heavenly Father for help. When life is smooth, we are often lulled into thinking we can handle things on our own. Then the rocky patches come and we have no choice but to throw up our hands and plead with Him to pull us through.

This month we’re walking through 2 Corinthians 1 and seeing how God cares for us and teaches us in affliction. We’ve seen God’s comfort and the hope He gives. This week we see in verses 8-9 that our affliction teaches us to rely on God:

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

In these verses, Paul told the Corinthians about his severe suffering—trials so severe that Paul and his companions hoped death would come quickly. But Paul saw God’s purpose in the pain.

Like Paul, when our suffering pushes us to deeper reliance on the Lord, we find He is there, gripping the wheel, guiding us through the hard times. Our greater reliance on Him is a gift He gives us by His grace.

And our reliance on Him is not in vain. When Paul felt he’d received a death sentence, he needed nothing less than One who raises the dead to life. God has proved Himself to be worthy of our reliance, our hope, and our trust. He is sufficient to see us through every affliction.

No matter what you face this week, God will use your suffering to grow your reliance on Him.

Last month, as Hurricane Ian battered the Florida

Last month, as Hurricane Ian battered the Florida coast, the water and wind were so strong that even giant slabs of concrete couldn’t stand their ground. When a storm that powerful comes along, there’s not much that is left unshaken. And yet, in 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote about having a hope that is unshaken, no matter how bad the storm gets.

This month we’re studying the lessons we learn from affliction in 2 Corinthians 1. Last week we saw how God is our comfort from 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. In the next two verses, we see how God uses affliction to develop patient endurance and unshakeable hope in His children.

“If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (2 Cor 1:6-7)

Paul knew from experience that as the Corinthians suffered affliction, they would need patience and endurance to persevere. This was Paul’s unshaken hope for them: that by the power of God’s Spirit, as they would endure because of God’s comfort.

We see a similar line of thought in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:3-5)

Our dependence on God’s comfort isn’t just wishful thinking or hoping for a possible outcome, like we might hope for good weather or a winning football team. When we endure suffering and receive God’s comfort, God gives us hope that cannot be shaken by our circumstances.

As Paul says in Romans, this hope does not put us to shame. We experience God’s presence and provision in hard times, and our confidence in His comfort grows. So the next time we walk through trials, we can more patiently endure because we know we have His comfort in every moment.

No matter what you face this week, God’s comfort gives us unshaken hope.

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