The Power of Gratitude
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Sometimes gratitude hurts.
Life isn’t always kind, and when we find ourselves struggling over circumstances we wouldn’t choose, we don’t naturally feel grateful. In fact, we tend to get angry. Even bitter.
Yet our opening scripture suggests that God desires for us to give thanks in all circumstances. Every one. That includes the good and the bad.
This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, beloved. Gratitude.
Why would gratitude be so important to God? Perhaps the next verse offers some insight.
Do not quench the Spirit. Verse 19
Ingratitude stops the flow of the Spirit, hindering God’s work in our midst. Praise and thanksgiving, on the other hand, release God’s Spirit to move.
Ingratitude stops the flow of the Spirit in our lives. Gratitude releases it. Click To Tweet
You see, thanksgiving carries us into His presence.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! Psalm 100:4
When we choose gratitude—even when we’re hurting or don’t understand our present circumstances—we choose to enter into God’s goodness. That choice—to focus on what is good instead of what’s presently lacking—removes the enemy’s power and invites God in. You see, perspective is everything.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” Matthew 6:22
According to Jesus, how we view something directly relates to what we experience in our body. The light we long for comes from seeing with a healthy perspective. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. When we view things through a faulty lens—the lens of negativity—our body takes on the darkness of our wrong perspective. It actually gives the enemy a position of power in our lives—and permission to torment us.
“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Matthew 6:23
I wonder, dear one, if you wrestle with the pull of the darkness in your own life. Hopelessness, anxiety, and depression are crippling lives in greater measure than we’ve ever seen, particularly within the body of Christ.
Yet we have this promise about our Savior,
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5
Do you want to live the overcoming promises of God’s Word, beloved? Do you want to dwell in the power of the light? Choose gratitude. Find something to be thankful for, and dwell on that. Let your lips offer a sacrifice of praise, especially during times of sorrow. You will discover that gratitude ushers you into the presence of God.
I’ve watched this happen in the life of my mother-in-law over the last couple of years.
Pain in her body has kept her from doing many of the things she loves to do. She spends most of her days at home. Hurting. But I have watched a sweet peace fall over her, as she’s chosen not to dwell on what she’s lost, but rather all that she has.
She tells me, “I have so much time, time to think of all the blessings God has given me. My beautiful family. His faithfulness to us.”
And I’ve watched a beautiful miracle unfold through her. You see, the presence of God falls on her and flows through her when she speaks. A friend of mine visited her recently wanting to encourage her. Instead, she was profoundly blessed by the encouragement she received! God’s presence flowed to my friend and lifted her own weary heart.
Why? Because my mother-in-law has spent the last years dwelling in the courts of her King. Her gratitude ushered her through His gates, allowing Him to minister to her soul. And that allows Him to show up without her even trying. Her heart is already engaged with His, and He’s right there, ready to give.
When our hearts stay engaged with God's Spirit, He shows up without our even trying. Click To TweetAs we celebrate this Thanksgiving season, I wonder if we can go a little deeper. Beyond pumpkins and lovely wooden signs declaring thanks, what if we engaged our hearts? Let’s fill our bodies with light as we look at our lives through the lens of gratitude and declare our thanks to the Giver of every good gift.
As you enter His courts with your praise, He may just surprise you.
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Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4 ESV
A smile lurks at the corners of my eyes when I ponder our opening scripture.
As a child I memorized Psalm 100 in song, an upbeat chorus proclaiming the truths of the verses and then breaking into a refrain. “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, thank you, Jesus…Praise God… Thank you, Jesus…”
I still can’t read the words without inserting them into the tune. I guess there’s something to be said about the power of a melody. After almost 40 years, I can still remember the whole Psalm.
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
Granted, Psalm 100 only has five verses. But when I learned them, I was only six.
Still, just knowing the words won’t do anything for me if I don’t understand them and live by them. So what does Psalm 100 really teach us?
Let’s take a few moments to read it together, pondering its truths. After all, it bears the subtitle A Psalm for Giving Thanks and tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It may help us shift our gratitude in the right direction.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Oh, how I love the Word of God! My soul yearns for truth and my heart swells when I hear it. Celebrate with me a few of the truths listed here.
- We can know without doubt that the Lord is God
- He made us, and we are His… we belong to Him
- He is good… we needn’t fear or mistrust His intentions for us
- His steadfast love endures… forever
- He is faithful… not just to some, but to all generations
Those are some things worth praising! But now I want to settle in on the truth revealed in verse 4.
- We enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.
Listen carefully, dear one. You and I need the presence of the Living God. More than anything else we want in life, we want God’s presence—whether we realize it yet or not.
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Psalm 84:2
Beloved, the blessings of God flow through the presence of God. And here’s what Psalm 100:4 proclaims: We enter the presence of God with thanksgiving and praise.
Don’t miss this, dear one. A heart of gratitude and praise toward God ushers us through His gates and into His presence.
Ingratitude, on the other hand, separates us from Him.
You may be thinking, I don’t have much to be thankful for. Perhaps your circumstances seem pretty hopeless and all your hardened heart will allow you to see right now is your lack.
What if choosing gratitude anyway could draw you into His presence and become the catalyst to change your circumstances? What if praising God for the truths we discovered today in Psalm 100 and asking Him to empower you to believe them could even alter your day?
Consider Paul’s command about prayer from Philippians 4:6.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Did you notice that every request we take to God in prayer must be made with thanksgiving? Perhaps it’s because thanksgiving ushers us through His gates and into His courts. But look at the promise given when we approach God that way.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
Peace is what you really seek, dear one. A heart at rest. Thanksgiving sets you on that path.
May this Thanksgiving be more than a holiday. May you pass through the gate and encounter the presence of God.
The Power of Ingratitude
“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.” Exodus 13:21
Did you ever notice how God becomes just what we need from Him in any given moment?
Perhaps you haven’t noticed. Maybe, like the Israelites, you reap the benefit of His presence without ever giving it much thought. They were often so preoccupied by what they lacked, they didn’t appreciate what they were given. Instead of thanking God for His rich provision, they grumbled.
In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Exodus 16:2-3
Really? They spent their time in Egypt sitting around pots of meat? Isn’t it amazing how quickly the human mind forgets and distorts. Perhaps you’d like to see what caused God to send Moses to get them out of Egypt in the first place.
The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Exodus 2:23-25
God added these words when He called Moses from the burning bush.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering . . . I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.” Exodus 3:7,9
The memory of their groaning in backbreaking slavery quickly faded to illusions of grand feasts. Why? They were hungry. A desire of their flesh rose up and wasn’t satisfied, and that one thing became the entire focus of their thoughts. They forgot the extent of their suffering, as well as God’s miraculous displays of power on their behalf. And their momentary hunger made them twist His intentions. They threw God’s plan to rescue them back in His face, claiming He meant them harm.
Ever been there? That’s the nature of the unredeemed heart, dear one. It deceives. No wonder Jeremiah 17:9 states,
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
And that deceitful heart left unchecked brings bitterness to the soul.
Perhaps this is why scripture continually points the people of God toward gratitude. Gratitude shifts our gaze and changes the direction of our thinking. Instead of emptying the soul by dwelling on what we lack, it fills it by celebrating what we possess.
Sadly, few consistently choose the path of gratitude. Our own hunger for things we desire clouds our view and overshadows our many blessings. And that’s dangerous. Scripture teaches that refusing to acknowledge God with thanksgiving leads to futile thinking and a hard, dark heart.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. Romans 1:21-22
Ingratitude made the Israelites fools—fools that desired to run right back to the oppressive captivity they had cried out for deliverance from. Amazing.
Before we start casting stones at the house of Israel, it might be wise to shift our gaze to the nearest mirror. Is your heart content in the journey God has you on, dear one? Do your lips offer praise for the Light that marks your path, or are you preoccupied with an area that remains in shadow? Are you hungering for something so ferociously that all that God has already poured into your life feels empty?
God wants to see your heart at peace, beloved. He longs to satisfy your soul with a contentedness only He can bring. You see, dear one, only God Himself can satisfy.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14
Do you want a little joy and gladness that carries you all your days? It comes as the result of a choice. Choose to look at what God has done, not what He has yet to do. Offer Him praise and gratitude. You may just find that you encounter God Himself.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:4-5
Praise and gratitude usher us into the presence and power of God. Thanksgiving allows us to enter His gates. Praise carries us into His court. And when we encounter Him, we discover just what we needed. Emptiness fades. Our hearts fill with His very presence.
And we are satisfied.
Empowered in the Wilderness
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Luke 4:1 NIV
I imagine the wilderness isn’t high on your list of places you’d like to visit. It certainly doesn’t top my list. Give me oceans, lakes, or mountains with bubbling streams any day.
Yep. I’m a water girl. Something about the way the light glistens atop it stirs my soul. I love its sound, the feel of it on my skin, even the coolness in the air as you get closer to it. Water refreshes in so many ways—which makes the wilderness pretty unappealing.
So I find it surprising that the very first place the Holy Spirit led Jesus after His baptism was the desert.
Does it surprise you too? I mean, Scripture teaches that we’re supposed to follow the Spirit to abundant life. So why would He lead Jesus straight into the desert?
Verse 2 tells us what happened there.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. Luke 4:1-2
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me. The wilderness offered Jesus confrontation from the evil one and an empty belly. Conditions like that tend to defeat most of us. We wallow in our misery and assume that God has abandoned us.
But that’s not what happened to Jesus. Verse 14 describes Jesus at the end of His wilderness adventure:
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.
Did you catch it, dear one? Jesus entered the wilderness under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and He left that wilderness empowered by the Spirit. Notice the Spirit never left Him. But what happened in the wilderness moved Jesus from simply following the Spirit to operating in His power.
Could it be that our own treks into the desert hold that very same purpose? What if our testing in the wilderness holds the key to igniting the power of the Spirit within us?
Listen, dear one. God wastes nothing. Nor does He allow or ordain anything for our lives that He can’t bring great good from. Jesus needed His wilderness experience to fulfill His purpose. If He didn’t, God never would’ve led Him there.
You and I spend our lives trying to avoid the desert. We want to head straight into our Promised Land that flows with milk and honey, endless provision, and rest. But we fail to realize that we’ll never make it into our Promised Land without traveling through the desert. God uses the wilderness to strengthen us in His Spirit so that we can defeat the enemy camping out on our inheritance. We will need to conquer the enemy to take our ground.
So what must you and I do to become empowered in the wilderness instead of defeated by it? We do what Jesus did. We must choose to stand on truth when faced with the enemy’s temptations.
When Satan challenged Jesus to take the easy way out and turn a stone into bread to end His hunger, Jesus replied, “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone” (Luke 4:4).
Over and over, each time Satan tempted Him, Jesus quoted Scripture to refute him.
Beloved, you and I are not strong enough to defeat the enemy on our own. But when we choose to challenge him with God’s truth and stand on His Word, something beautiful happens. The Spirit within us perks up. He rises within us to give us the strength we need to remain standing.
Unfortunately most of us don’t exit our wilderness experiences victoriously. When the Spirit leads us into the desert, instead of drawing on His strength to stand against the enemy’s fiery darts, we succumb to them. We allow the enemy to govern our thinking instead of standing on truth. We feel defeated and remain that way because we haven’t ignited the Spirit within us by choosing to claim and believe the truth of God’s Word.
Many of us even prolong our stays in the wilderness by allowing the enemy’s lies to control our thoughts.
What if you and I learned to do what Jesus did? What if we chose to respond differently in the wilderness? What if we determined to stand on Truth instead of bowing to the enemy’s lies?
I think we’d find what Jesus found. Each time we exercise faith by standing on truth when we don’t feel like it, the Spirit will equip us in our need. We will become stronger and stronger in Him. And when it’s time to exit the wilderness and head toward our destiny, we won’t just follow the Spirit. We’ll go in the power of the Spirit. And we’ll be equipped to claim our ground.
Kind of sheds new light on James 1:2-4, doesn’t it?
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
That’s the point of the wilderness, beloved. God doesn’t want you leaving any of your blessings behind.
Week 4: Release Your Expectations
I’m praying that last week’s break offered you some time to get caught up in your lessons. Thank you for your patience while we dealt with some overwhelming snow conditions! Thankfully, we’re back on track and ready to advance into God’s beautiful plan.
Dear one, God wants to do amazing things in your life. But sometimes we can be our own worst enemy to seeing His blessings fulfilled. We hold so tightly to our own desires or expectations that we forfeit what God desires to pour out. May this lesson encourage you to open your hands so you can receive all that God longs to give.
Click here to print the prepared note sheet for this video.
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Week 4 Assignment
Complete Days 3-5 of Week 2 in your workbook.
Additional Suggestion:
As you work through your lessons this week, ask God to speak to you about the condition of your own heart. Do you tend to be more like Saul or like David? Invite God to change your desires and help you to fully live His will instead of your own. Begin the practice of inviting His leadership into every aspect of your day.
Cancer – A Paradigm Shift
This week’s Word comes from a friend of mine who has spent the last three years battling colon cancer. Today Wendy Stauffer, founder of Ultimate Wellness (www.UltimateWellness.jigsy.com), shares her thoughts on her journey so far.
Recently, God changed her view of her situation. Her words stirred my soul as I thought of the many times I have found myself in a battle. I have worked and fought for a particular outcome—and I have wearied myself with all the working. After reading her words, I can’t help but consider: How many hours have I spent fighting the “enemy,” when in fact I was actually fighting against God?
Think about it for a moment. Nothing passes into our lives that God didn’t either ordain or allow. Whether we like the idea or not, Satan must have permission from Jesus to attack and “sift” His disciples (Luke 22:31-32).
When things come into our lives we wouldn’t choose, we tirelessly battle against them, determined to change our circumstances to match our will. But if God has allowed our circumstances, wouldn’t that mean that we are actually fighting Him?
No wonder we get tired. You and I don’t have the strength to win that battle.
Perhaps God’s blessing for you in your trial looks different than the one you’ve been fighting for. And just maybe, dear one, you’re missing what He wants to give because you’re fighting so hard for it.
What if the secret to your great victory lies in rest, beloved? What if surrendering to God’s choice for you and allowing Him to shape your heart through it becomes the catalyst to experiencing Exodus 14:14?
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Cancer – A Paradigm Shift
by Wendy Stauffer
People are constantly saying things like, “You are a fighter, Wendy. You’re gonna beat cancer!” “You just keep fighting. You are so strong.” My dearest family and friends often put out prayer requests that read, “Pray for Wendy in her battle against cancer.” We’ve all been well programmed on how to view cancer. I see organizations crusading in the fight against cancer with billboards and slogans properly worded for defeating or beating this horrible foe.
As I’ve had time to ponder just how this battle is going, Dr. Phil’s haunting question keeps coming to mind. “How’s it working for ya?” Well, I need to be totally honest. It isn’t working! I have been so consumed these past three years being afraid of cancer, being angry at having cancer, being on a crusade to wipe out cancer, (which I think is a curse from the pit of hell), trying to figure out how to avoid cancer, feeling defeated by cancer, saddened by new reports of loved ones getting cancer, being consumed trying to rid my body of cancer, being overcome with grief and tears over cancer, that I’ve wasted so much precious time and energy on it, and it is still winning! Not only is it winning; it has gotten worse!
All of my efforts to conquer and overcome cancer have sent my cortisol levels sky high, allowing cancer deeper access to me, blocking my immune system from getting rid of it naturally. Something needs to change. To continue to do the same thing and expect different outcomes is called insanity.
I believe it’s time for a paradigm shift. What would happen if I actually stopped fighting, stopped being angry, stopped crying, stopped trying or striving to conquer or overcome cancer? One thing is certain. My stress levels would go down! What if I turned the tables on the Enemy’s strategy to engage me in this fight? What if I accept cancer? Learn to enjoy every moment of every day – cancer and all? What if I stop fretting about having it and make peace with it? That doesn’t necessarily mean I give up HOPE and don’t do anything positive. It doesn’t mean giving up and dying from it, but truly making peace with the situation I’m in, thanking God every day for allowing me to experience this and learn from this, viewing it as a way He is preparing me for future ways to bless others.
You know what I think might happen? The Enemy won’t get any more evil pleasure from tormenting me because I refuse to be tormented. Maybe he’ll just give up and move on. My cortisol levels will drop because my body won’t be constantly in a “fight or flight” mode and my immune system might actually kick in like it’s supposed to and kill the cancer cells. It will no longer be sidetracked dealing with removing cortisol. I will be honoring God and praising Him more, being grateful for each day, living life to the fullest as I tenderly care for my body, rather than declare war on cancer. As I get my mind off the cancer, I get my mind on whose I am, God’s beloved daughter, treasured, worthy of health, a royal princess. Instead of constantly being in battle-mode, I’d experience all the good things He wants me to have like peace, contentment, abundant life. I’d let go of regret and embrace all I’ve learned through this season of life, excited for how He plans to work all things out for my good according to His good purpose.
Cancer is not the enemy. I believe it is being used BY the Enemy to destroy God’s precious children. God is not our enemy either just because He allows people to experience cancer. Cancer is something that can send you into the loving arms of God to learn life lessons, like it has me.
You’ve heard the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Just like everything else we go through, this too shall pass one day, but not until I’ve been able to squeeze every drop of lemonade from it. So I don’t plan to fight anymore. I plan to put up a lemonade stand so that all who come into my life can have a delicious, refreshing, alkalizing, life-giving drink of God’s goodness from my lemons.
Anyone care for a cup of lemonade? (without the white sugar, of course!)
Unexpected Pleasures
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
My life changed dramatically a week ago. Our family brought home an eight-week-old miniature Aussie puppy.
We already had a seven-year-old Australian Shepherd that we adore. Now Annie has a tumbling ball of fur named Jack for a playmate—whether she wants one or not.
At first she appeared less than enthusiastic about his arrival. He would snuggle into her for a nap, and she would abruptly move to another part of the room.
Now Annie has discovered what many of us do when we’re willing to open our hearts to unwanted interruptions in our comfortable lives. In God’s hands, things we once viewed as intolerable inconveniences have the potential to become our greatest blessings.
The two have become inseparable. Change can really be good.
Our house has become decidedly less quiet since Jack’s arrival, mostly due to all the laughter. He continually entertains us, enthralling us with his puppy antics. I wonder if Jack realizes how funny he is. He has single-handedly redefined the word “adorable.” I think Webster should put his picture in the dictionary.
He may be cute, but he’s only still when he’s sleeping. He loves to explore, leap and pounce on anything that moves, or anything that doesn’t move, for that matter. Nothing is off limits to his paws or his curious little mouth. At least, he doesn’t believe it should be.
That’s where I come in. Someone needs to give Jack direction to save him from himself.
Left on his own, Jack would have already choked on mulch and various small stones, broken some bones leaping from surfaces that are much too high, electrocuted himself chewing through my computer charging cord, and possibly drowned in our pool. Not to mention the many times I’ve rescued him from Annie when he insisted on taking her favorite toy.
Yes, limits and direction provide safety. That’s why our loving heavenly Father provides them.
. . . what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Did you catch that last part? God has provided commands and decrees for your own good.
With the same tender love that leads me to set boundaries for Jack, God has established boundaries for you and me. His limits don’t take from us or cause us harm. No, God has outlined limits to keep us safe.
We just don’t always see it that way. Jack doesn’t either.
For instance, he wasn’t fond of his crate when he first came home with us. He had enjoyed bounding around the house all day and did not agree with our decision to place him in a crate to sleep that night. He hardly noticed the nice, soft bed for him to snuggle into or his toys to keep him entertained. His eyes focused on the bars keeping him from “possibility.”
So he whined. And I wondered why we ever decided to get a puppy.
A funny thing happened on the second night. My husband lay down on the floor next to Jack’s crate after he put him in, and Jack discovered something. He didn’t really want the intriguing things that called to him from beyond the bars. What he had really been after was companionship. He snuggled into the corner of his crate nearest Steve, lay down his tiny head, and fell asleep in about a minute.
The joy Jack found in my husband’s nearness outweighed the lure of what enticed him from beyond the boundaries we had set for him. Perhaps if we learned to enjoy God’s nearness a bit more we wouldn’t grumble so much over His restrictions. After all, they help keep us in a prime position to experience Him fully.
Jack has now discovered the crate isn’t really the enemy he thought it was. It offers something that he doesn’t have when he’s outside its boundaries. Security. He doesn’t need to worry about every little sound or movement; he’s safe inside. Last night when I put him to bed, he didn’t even wine. He drifted off in peaceful sleep and slept for seven straight hours.
Isn’t it funny how things we think we’ll hate can end up being our favorites? Something we fear can become our security. Something we view as a nuisance can turn into our comfort and joy.
Perhaps we should open up our hearts to trust God for His best. Our emotions tend to lead us astray anyway. Just ask Annie and Jack. Their renewed thinking opened them up to tremendous blessing.
Yours will too.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:2
Sounds like a good plan to me.
A Gift of Grace
Today’s Word on Wednesday comes from my dear friend and partner in ministry, Juliet Sharrow. You may have read some of her testimony in recent months about God’s pursuing love. Now she shares how His gift of grace empowered her to finally respond to Him. After reading her words, you may be blessed to know she just had the privilege of watching this beloved son walk the stage to receive his high school diploma. Whatever you may be going through, know this, dear one. There is ALWAYS hope in Jesus.
A Gift of Grace by Juliet Sharrow
From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1:16
I had spent my life running from God. Desperate for love and caught in an abusive relationship, I made one destructive choice after another. Then God did something I didn’t expect. He chose to bless me with a child.
I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant. I would love my child in all the ways I hadn’t been loved. I would somehow make it all right.
Then I got the worst news an expectant mother could hear. The doctor called to tell me that something was wrong with my unborn child. The routine blood tests they had done showed that my child would have Down’s Syndrome and possibly Spina Bifida as well. I felt like my world came crashing down. Then the doctor said something I could scarcely believe. They were recommending that I have an abortion.
I sunk down on my knees, horrified at what I was hearing! How could this be? My baby was alive; I could hear the heartbeat and I could feel the kicking. How could I destroy this precious gift I’d been given? I did not understand what I was getting into, but I knew one thing: I couldn’t end this child’s life. He was my hope! I told the doctor in no uncertain terms that I would never choose that for me or my child.
The next several weeks were a blur as medical personnel escorted me into private rooms to watch videos about children with these conditions, “so I would know what I was getting myself into.” I met with doctors who tried to explain that a woman in my situation— unmarried and with no support network—could certainly not handle a child with issues of this magnitude. They assured me I did not understand how impossible things would be. But I never wavered. Somehow I knew that God had blessed me with this child, and I would have this baby no matter what they said.
So a month after I heard the devastating news, I underwent a sonogram to see if the doctor could see the abnormalities that are usually present with these conditions. What happened next can only be described as a miracle. There were NO abnormalities. The baby was perfect in every way!
The doctor insisted there must be some mistake. And so she checked and rechecked, and decided that the baby was too small for me to be as far along as they originally thought. Her new measurements said I was one month behind where I should have been and so they changed my due date to one month later. They retook the blood tests and assured me that everything had come back normal this time! I cried as I left the doctor’s office that day.
I know now the enemy had tried to convince me to give up on my child, to destroy his precious life. But somehow God had given me the strength to hold on. Just like He promises in 1 Corinthians 10:13,
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
I believe that Satan tempted me with an easy way out. My life was not good at the time, and bringing a child into that world was what some would call crazy! But, I know that God provided a way out for me. He helped me to stand up under it. He filled me with love for my unborn child. He gave me strength to endure, and His peace soothed my soul.
A few months later my son was born. The doctors said he was 4 weeks premature. It was 4 days after the original due date they had given me. And he was perfect, not premature in any way, a healthy 6lb 4oz baby boy! He was my gift from God.
Psalm 127:3 says, “See children are a gift from the Lord. The children born to us are our special reward.” (NLV)
At that time in my life I did not deserve any special reward. I had run from God and turned my back on Him more times than I could count! But God in His infinite wisdom knew that what I needed was grace. He gave me this gift instead of what I deserved.
I needed that child because I was in a pit. A pit of self-loathing and self-despair, a pit of oppression. I was so low I could not find a way out. In fact, I did not WANT out. I felt like I deserved everything that was happening to me. God knew what I needed to give me the strength to get out of that pit. I needed someone else to live for, someone else to love. I did not love myself enough, but He knew I would love my child enough to claw my way out of that pit. That through the love of my child, I would finally turn to Him, finally seek Him instead of running from Him. I learned that when I resist temptation and do what I know is right, God will provide the strength I need to endure. And I would learn the greatest lesson of my life: that God’s grace isn’t based on what I’ve done. It’s about God giving me what He knows I need, even when I don’t deserve it.
Enter In
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6 NIV
Last week we turned our attention to what it means to live by faith. By God’s design, faith isn’t something we merely hold in our hearts. Rather, we express faith as we trust His commands through obedience. Each time we actively trust Him, we move one step further into the blessing He has planned for us. There we will witness the outpouring of His grace.
A delightful inheritance awaits you in Jesus Christ. Ground lies ahead of you that Jesus means for you to claim in His name. And yet many of us are stuck floundering in the desert while the promised blessings available in Jesus lay just beyond the river of life. Perhaps it’s time we dip our toes in and let the current of the Spirit carry us into our Promised Lands.
The Israelites once stood where you now stand, their feet camped on desert ground while their Promised Land of blessing lay ahead of them. God had answered their cries for deliverance from Egypt and led them to the banks of their inheritance. Then Moses chose a representative from each of the twelve tribes to explore the land God had promised them and bring back a report.
They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.” Numbers 13:27
Imagine that! They found the land exactly the way God had described it. God had called them to believe by faith, but now they had witnessed it with their eyes. Surely they would run toward their allotted inheritance!
Unfortunately they also witnessed something else with their eyes.
But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. Numbers 13:28
Suddenly their adversary seemed bigger than their God.
Fear overshadowed and erased their witness of God’s faithfulness. It didn’t matter that God had once again proven Himself Faithful and True, that He had kept His word and led them to a beautiful land. They quickly forgot that God had vanquished their Egyptian enemies before their eyes. In that moment, they chose to focus instead on the powerful enemy that lay ahead of them. Rather than fight and believe God for victory, they chose to remain in the desert and grumble against God for bringing them there in the first place.
So much for “seeing is believing.”
Dear one, how often do we think that if only we could witness the miracles described in Scripture, we would believe? We’ve convinced ourselves that we would easily trust and follow if we could see the things the Israelites saw. Yet the Israelites saw, and still did not believe.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
True faith comes from being certain even when we cannot see. In reality, if we do not possess the faith when we don’t see, we won’t likely possess it after we do. Just look at the Israelites. Seeing didn’t translate to believing.
But one among the crowd did believe. His lone voice rose to proclaim God’s faithfulness.
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” Numbers 13:30
Caleb chose to trust that the God who redeemed them was stronger than their adversary. The rest of them argued, claiming they couldn’t win against this much larger enemy. They spread a bad report throughout the camp, and “that night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud” (Numbers 14:1). Their fear led to this conclusion, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (verse 4).
Really? After all that they had seen God do an their behalf, they thought their best option was to head back to the slavery they had cried out for deliverance from?
You and I can be quick to accuse Israel when we read their story as history. But we also just as easily behave just like them.
Jesus stretched Himself out on a cross to redeem us, not just from sin’s penalty but also from its power over us, “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14
He has promised us victory over sin and the enemy’s power in our lives, but He calls to take up His Word, the Sword of the Spirit, and go to battle to claim it. He guarantees victory, promising that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Yet we often see our enemy as too powerful to overcome, so we refuse to go to battle. Instead we choose to grumble at God from the desert, or worse, run back to the slavery from which He rescued us.
What if you and I determined instead to be like Caleb, choosing to believe God’s promises even if no one else around us agrees? The world may tell us there’s no point in fighting, but God’s faithfulness remains sure. If we will trust Him for His promises, even if we have to stand alone, He will prove Himself. He did to Caleb.
Caleb’s faith ushered him into his inheritance. He was one of 600,000 men who left Egypt to journey to the land God promised them. He was one of only 2 that actually entered it and took possession of it. The rest of them died in the desert because of their unbelief.
Dear one, let’s not die in the desert when our Promised Lands stand within reach!
FROM WORD ON WEDNESDAY
