Walking in the Word with Breast Cancer

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 I love the reminder in Jeremiah 29:11 -  I turn to it often when I feel myself dropping into that pit of despair. In the darkness of our pits, we can forget He is sovereign.  We can no longer see things that may have once been obvious to us, and we have a tendency to just want to be rescued. We desperately want Him to rescue us from our trial, much the way the Israelites did. We can become incredibly self-absorbed as we get wrapped up in self-pity when that’s not happening. We can't see our way out, so we turn our sights in, and that nearsightedness can lead to hopelessness.  But we have his Word, and His incredible promises, and we need to turn to them when we feel most lost. He knows our future and He promises it will be filled with hope. We just need to trust in His plan, and not our own. God has us exactly where He wants

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29:11 Such powerful teaching for me in this passage. Though the focus will be Jeremiah 29:11 this week, it's important that we set the context for why God said these things to the Israelites to fully understand and apply His words to our life. In the verses that come just before the well known Jeremiah 29:11, the Israelites had been praying to God to rescue them from their exile in Babylon, and they were waiting for the word from Jeremiah that God was indeed coming to rescue them from their difficult trial - and soon.  But the word didn't come that He would bring them home, the word came for them to stay. Not just stay, but set up shop there - build houses, plant farms, have families. Those are long-term plans, which means He didn't plan to rescue them for quite some time.  He wanted them to stay because He had something IN the tri

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 Having spent so much time with these two verses over the past three weeks, I've grown to love them in a whole new way. He is near to us.  He cares for us in our trials. He loves us.  As followers of Christ, we know this, but life can be so hard sometimes. Sometimes we face a trial that seems unbearable, and the knowledge that He is for us, that He is near to us in our pain, and that He is working all things for our good can feel more like head knowledge than heart knowledge. When the hard season of trials don't seem to be passing quickly, and we see no end in sight, when we just want Him to just remove us from the difficult situation, or when the pattern of trials upon trials starts to feel cruel, we can be left feeling like we are alone.  If God is sovereign over everything in my lif

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 But the LORD delivers Him out of them all. How does He deliver us out of our afflictions?  He delivers us by teaching us how to set our hearts on Him. We choose who or what we set our hearts on. So often, we let people or circumstances set the condition of our hearts - we know this is true because of what our meditations land on. Just listen to your thoughts for a day. Our meditations reveal our idols.  If my thoughts are consumed with a condition at work, or a situation with my kids, I have set my heart on the wrong things. Instead of allowing my heart to be set by others or my circumstances, I need to choose to set my heart on the word of God. Realigning my heart to the Word of God can be challenging in the deeper trials, but spending frequent time in His Word helps me to adjust what I set my h

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 We are also reminded in 1 Peter 1 that we endure trials so that our faith would be tested and grown. Grieve, trial, test - these are the 3 words he uses to describe what He is doing in our lives. When we first come to Christ, we are like a metal ore, that needs to be boiled down, and changed to be made into a beautiful gem. He is refining us slowly, but beautifully through our trials - growing us in understanding, in trust, in love and compassion for others, in our ability to glorify Him. God will take us to places in our trials we never intended to go in order to produce in us what we cannot achieve on our own.  We need to be comfortable encouraging one another in the uncomfortable-ness of life.   If you are God's child and you are suffering, then you need to trust that you are getting exac

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 So, why are we so broken hearted? Because we live in a broken world. And why does God allow trials in this broken world? So that we desire redemption more than we desire comfort, so that we may recognize our need for a Savior, so that He will take us to the edge of ourselves and see that we are not enough without Him, so that we will see His glory.  We don't want to face the things He allows into our lives because we want peace, or comfort, or happiness. Our sinful nature says to God - if you love me, you will make it easy for me.  That’s sin. Sin makes it all about me, my comfort, my ease. As long as sin lives inside of me, there will be a desire to make things easy for me.  And since we live in a broken world, that brokenness will enter our lives because our Savior has decided we need this

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 Few things depict the gospel more clearly than moments of suffering. So often, when we read these verses,  we believe and we pray that His deliverance from our afflictions is relief from our trials, but we miss the purpose of our trials. We think the comfort He promises comes from rescuing us from the trial, but solving the problems in the way we want them solved isn't where the comfort is to be found. The comfort comes from a greater understanding of who He is. It comes from changing our perspective and shifting where we place our hope.  Living in this broken world, our sinful hearts place our hope in all the wrong things...material possessions, our job, our children, our homes, or even relationships. We look for life in these things, and when they fail us, that's when we end up broken h

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 The LORD promises to deliver us out of all of our afflictions...but how exactly does He do that?  When we are deep in the valley, it can be so hard to feel His comfort.  It comes down to what commands our meditations. What are we focusing our thoughts on? Far too often it’s the suffering that holds our attention. We think on it, roll it around in our minds, and imagine the worst. We don’t let it go.  In moments of suffering, biblical faith never calls you to deny reality.  But if you cannot do this without being consumed by the thoughts, then you don't have biblical faith in your trials. Our suffering should not be the focus of our meditations - if it is, it's time to capture your thinking.  Our meditations should be on the Lord. He should be what rules out hearts, our minds. You

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 In order to feel the nearness of God when our hearts are broken, it's crucial that we have a theology of suffering that is aligned with biblical truth. In other words, the lies in our beliefs about our trials need to be identified and those lies must be replaced with the truth.   When you're suffering in a trial, you don't just suffer what you're suffering, you suffer *how* you're suffering. What are the temptations in your thinking when you're suffering that's keeping you from the nearness of God?  Identify those lies and replace them with the truth.  Sometimes we're tempted to doubt God's goodness - where is God, why would He do this to me?  When you come to question the goodness of God, you stop going to Him for help - you won't go to someone you don

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous. In other words, the righteous will experience many afflictions. We need to understand the more we grow in righteousness, the greater the number of trials we must expect to endure. Sadly, this is in direct opposition to what many may believe or teach about God.  Some Christians falsely believe that the more our faith in God grows, the easier our lives will become. I just need to be better or pray harder and God will fix all the things wrong with my life. That's not the way it works. You see, if that was the case - if God was our genie in a bottle and just gave us everything we wanted -we would only grow in selfishness. We would only be focused on what we want for us and what would make our lives easier, but we would not grow in compassion for others.

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.   19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 If we live our lives as if our afflictions will be many, we will be ready for them when they come. God warns us many times in scripture that we will endure trials in this life, so we can prepare for them. When we’re prepared, our trials don’t take us by surprise, and they’re a lot less likely to knock us on our heels. When we’re ready, we’re more likely to see our struggles as part of His grander plan, we can see His purpose and His good when things appear to go wrong.  Sometimes trials seem to come out of nowhere, and the deepest challenges seem to hit us where our hearts are most tender. If we’re not prepared, if we haven’t put in the armor of God, the trial can seem more than we can bear. We desperately grasp at solutions to rid ourselves of the trial, and we often make foolish decisions we r

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous ~ these verses remind us that life is going to be hard. We are going to endure trials, and they are going to happen often. The reality is that we live in a broken world full of broken people so our hearts are going to be broken and crushed from time to time.  Somehow knowing those trials are coming, and knowing that He has a purpose for every one of those difficult circumstances helps me to understand the bigger picture. It makes them a little easier to endure when I understand there is a reason He has allowed so many trials into my life.  Sometimes God uses our trials to grow our faith and our trust in Him, sometimes He wants to align our deepest desires with His deepest desires, sometimes He wants to refine us or challenge us to become more like Him

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 At our greatest time of need, when we feel the most alone, our Father God is the closest to us. When our hearts are broken in pieces, He is so very near to bring comfort and healing. We may not always feel His presence during these difficult times, but He is with us nonetheless.  There was a time I wasn't even sure how to feel His presence. I didn't understand how to feel close to something that didn't seem to be tangible. There were those times where I felt His presence - sitting in church on Sunday's, at moments in my marriage once my husband was a believer, when I served Him, in fellowship with another believer, but intentionally finding His comfort when I needed Him wasn't something I understood how to do. I didn't know how to "be still" with Him.  It was

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 It can be hard to allow God to be near to us when we're broken hearted. Sometimes our inaccurate perception of God will cause us to run away from Him during the seasons when we hurt the most in our life.  We may fear that He might want to take advantage of our vulnerability and bring even more pain into our lives. Perhaps we're angry He allowed something into our lives that hurt more than we feel we can bear, or maybe we trusted Him for something that He chose to not allow. Or sometimes we pull away because we just think He doesn't care.  But God is not like that. He doesn't kick us when we are down, and He is not indifferent when we are suffering.  He is our Father.  And His Father's heart is deeply moved with compassion for us as He runs to be close to us so that He can

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 Our verse this week sums up the compassion of the LORD: He is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Who better to go to when we are in need?  As people, we have a deep tendency to turn to people for our comfort when we’re hurting. Before I was a believer and I found myself broken hearted, I always turned to people for comfort. Some people turned to shopping, some to eating, but I was always looking to people to fill that void when I needed encouragement. I often felt alone, and found myself working hard in life for the approval of others.  I turned to people when I needed comfort, but I was looking for them to fill a hole in my heart that only God could fill. The problem with looking to people to fill that void is that our expectations for others often far exc

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.  - Psalm 34:18-19 Everybody has had their heart broken in some way — maybe by disappointment, fear, shame, rejection, or ridicule. Perhaps we've experienced a deep loss, or we're watching someone we love endure a difficult trial. Whatever brought us there, the weight of our heart at those times can be so heavy it's feels unbearable.  We can feel so alone, as if no one really cares or understands our heartache. But God is with us in those moments. It is in those deepest, most hurtful heartaches when He is closest to us. He wants us to know how deeply He cares for us, how He longs to fill the void in our lives with His great comfort and His great strength, but that can be difficult when someone else is there comforting us.  Yes, He does send friends into our lives to comfort and encourage us when we nee

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. - Colossians 2:6-7 This verse is ministering to me today as I take another difficult step in my walk with God. He continues to teach me out to lean on, trust, and be confident in Him. The more challenging our life circumstances, the more we need to lean on our confident trust in him.   During difficult times, our natural tendency is to rely heavily on our own understanding. However our human understanding is not up to this task, it will fail every time.  Because the world is in such a fallen condition, it may seem as if He's not in control. But we can take heart as we live in this broken world, and know that his eternal purposes are being worked out through our tragedies exactly as He intended. Our troubles are part of his majestic Master Plan, and they're achieving eternal glory that far ou

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. - Colossians 2:6-7 Spending a week meditating on this verse has impacted my heart in such a positive way. Walking through this difficult week and having thankfulness in the forefront of my mind every day has opened my eyes to all the little discontents I have in my life, the places my heart complains because I don't have my way, and to all the places I shift my focus off of Him and on to my fears and worries.  When you ask Him to show you your heart, He will open your eyes to what you've been blind to seeing yourself. We live in a world that breeds discontent, fueled by fear. Pay attention - it’s remarkable how quickly we go to complaints when things start going wrong. When the waters rise, our eyes focus on what needs to change instead of focusing all He has done for us.  Be content wit

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. - Colossians 2:6-7 Abounding means very plentiful or to be overflowing, so we are to be overflowing with thanksgiving - all the time, to everyone we meet. Is that who we are?   Sadly, no - it's not always who I am. Increasingly so, though, and more recently so, especially after spending a week on this verse, it is who I am...but the world grabs a hold of me pretty quickly and shifts my focus to all the things that are wrong. It's a constant battle to keep an attitude that is abounding in thanksgiving, but it's one I keep fighting because it has so significantly transformed my inner peace.  As I struggled with difficult circumstances this week, fear has tried to creep up and anxiety tried to take over, but spending a week in this verse has continually reminded me to be thankful in all

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. - Colossians 2:6-7 We all live in danger of drifting away, becoming complacent in our relationship with Christ if we don't actively pursue His Kingdom. This is why we are commanded here to walk in Him as we were taught.  The enemy is a deceiver, and will move in slowly through our discontent to shift our focus off of our walk with Him. Many times, it's the little things that cause us to drift away - we get annoyed or hurt by someone in the church, then the busyness of our lives makes choosing time with Him a little more difficult, and before we know it, we're a million miles away from Him. It happens all the time. It's happened to me.  This passage is about what we need to do to maintain the close relationship with Christ, and how to guard against drifting away. We are to walk in

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. - Colossians 2:6-7 God created us to be thankful - from the very beginning, we were created to worship and give Him thanks for all He has done. But ever since the fall, we have failed in our ability to express gratitude in a way that continually glorifies God. We aren't satisfied with what God has given us, and we want more.  Ingratitude can be traced to the root of all our sin issues - our fear and anxiety, our depression, our pride, our greed, our anger - at the root of each of those sin issues is the sin of ingratitude. We are not thankful for what God has given us, and instead focus our eyes on what He has not given us, or we focus on what we want to change.   We need to focus our eyes on all that He has blessed us with, and get our eyes off of all that is wrong with our lives. And that

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. - Colossians 2:6-7 Thanksgiving is essential to our walk with Christ. It isn't supposed to be something we "do", it is supposed to be who we are. Everything about us should shout to the world that we are thankful for who Jesus is and what He has done. Everything we say, everything we do, everything we think - it should always, only say that we are eternally grateful for the way He has stepped into our lives and taken care of our greatest problem, our own sin, and that He is sovereign over everything that we could possibly face. But does it?   It's not like we shake our fists at the sky and yell at God in front of the people in our lives. In fact, most of us work to even tell people in our lives how thankful we are for what God has done for us. But what Paul is commanding in this pa

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. - Colossians 2:6-7 God has invited us for a walk with Him on the journey of life.  And along the way, God is changing us. Sometimes I grow impatient and want instant, complete victory over all my sins and problems. Sometimes I grow discouraged; a lifetime of battling sin and seeking victory can seem overwhelming. But as I walk with Him and grow spiritually, there is definite change happening.   Here's one thing I've learned in my most recent trial:  If I am ever going to be the person God intended me to be, my focus must be on the next step. Just that step and nothing else. One day at a time.  When we strain to see the future or when we fear what may be coming, we won’t have the energy or strength for tomorrow, the enemy will have succeeded in intimidating us—and we'll have missed the op

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. - Romans 8:28-29 When you really embrace the massive, unshakable promise in this verse, your life takes on a whole new stability. People who live by this truth are the freest, strongest, and most generous people in the world.  They don't fear what is coming, they live by grace in the moment, trusting in His plan and in His future grace. They don't get tossed in the waves of emotion when a crisis hits, or when that difficult person walks into the room. They aren't tripped up by the challenging moments because they know and trust that God is sovereign over everything that is happening in their lives. They lean in to their trials rather than avoid the conflict because their deepest desire i