You Can Let Go

I find God speaks to me in the strangest ways, at the most unexpected times, whispering through His megaphone. And coincidentally, on "Father's" Day, my heavenly Father decided to speak to me through my own voice...with His words.

It was on a Rope Course. I watched...for obvious reasons (lol)...who does this?--My husband and our sons. But something happened that I didn't expect. And when God showed up...when He spoke, I KNOW they are words that YOU need to hear too.

***

It was our Bodie, age 7...little guy. Legs barely long enough, arms not quite able to reach...but he wanted to do it...and of course, we encouraged him. But he was on his own.

When you're on the rope course, you can't be close to each other, so he was by himself, and I watched from a close distance. And then it happened--He got scared. As he crossed a high wobbly bridge with individual suspended steps, he had made it to the last step, but he was afraid...his legs weren't quite long enough to make it to the last platform. And he looked at me with fear.

"I can't do it!", he said.

"YES! You can", I replied.

"NO! I can't!, he yelled through fear and anger"

"Bodie, there's only ONE last step...swing and then jump! You can do it!"

As I could tell his fear was that he would fall, I reassured him...

"Bodie, look at me! The harness above you is holding you...there is NO WAY you are going to fall!!"

"You can let go!", I calmly assured him.

It was obvious that he just wasn't trusting what he actually KNEW to be true. It was to hard. And even though he was holding on to the ropes beside him, he couldn't let go. And holding on kept him from being able to move forward. If he would have trusted the harness, he could have swung and made it (easy for me to say sitting on the sidelines!).

So in an effort to rescue him from his fear, I said, "Bodie, you can come back...you can do it...you can come back the way you came...you've already done that part before!" He looked at me and began taking steps. His fear calmed...because he knew he was coming back to where I was. Going the other direction...where the platform was...where no one was waiting...there was no assurance... and that filled him with fear that paralyzed him from moving forward. And so goes our life...and faith.

In that moment, though I didn't realize it at the time, I was having a conversation with God. I was Bodie.--God and I have had this conversation many times...maybe you have too..."I can't do it!" ... "Yes, you can! You won't fall!" But in life, even when we KNOW God is there and we're not going to fall...fear gets the best of our faith. And our fears can calm when we know that we can always turn to God...in those moments when we just can't go on. When we're certain we can't take another step. When life is too hard and prayers go unanswered, God is there every step of the way. And faith often feels like we're suspended by a single harness more than 50 ft. above the ground...we look down, instead of UP to the One Who is holding us! We forget, in faith, God is our harness. He will NEVER let go. But we should.

We should let go when He tells us to--Immediately. Four years ago, I was "hanging", suspended, paralyzed by fear...and one day, in a single day, everything changed. A spirit-filled woman looked into my eyes and said "You can let go." Time stopped. I knew God had spoken. But he didn't stop there...I went home and opened my mailbox to find a devotional that read, "Dear Cherie, You can let go."

You need to hear this too. "You can let go." God's got this. Whatever it is. Trials, troubles, unanswered prayers. He's promised:

"He will not let you fall" Psalm 121:3

So whatever it is that is paralyzing your faith, keeping you from trusting God...let go of it. God is holding you, there is nothing to fear. Take just one more step...His glory in your life is waiting for your faith. 

"Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience the LORD's favor.." Psalm 27:13

SOON TO BE RELEASED! 

Giving everyone a sneak peek! : )

Deeper Faith

All too often, your time with God seems empty, lacking everything you were hoping for, as you pray through your doubt and cling to whatever faith you have left. It’s difficult at best when you can’t see anything happening. You pray, but there are no answers…and if there are, they aren’t the answers you were looking for. In fact, often times your prayers seem to take you into deeper despair. You question if God is there, if He cares, and whether or not faith is really worth the fight.

But we miss the point. We see things on the surface and grow weary in the waiting. We give in and give up in the silence and our impatience hinders our hearing God. We fail to understand that it’s in the silence that God is trusting us more than we’re trusting Him. In the silence, faith is demanded—God is taking our faith deeper. Because it’s when mountains are moving, and when seas are parting…we don’t need faith at all. That’s when our faith has taken sight…oh how we’d rather walk by sight instead of by faith. But God’s ways are higher than our own…and we have to trust they’re better.

God has promised to answer you when He calls to you—the obstacle is believing that His answer is truly what’s best. We tend to build up walls, when God doesn’t show up when we want Him to and in the way we want Him to. You see, persistence in prayer doesn’t mean your faith overrules God’s perfect will for you…nor should you want it to—you’ll know that you’ve gone deeper in your faith when you find peace in trusting that God HAS heard you and that He WILL answer in His perfect way, in His perfect timing. It’s going beyond experiential faith—deeper faith gives you deeper peace…and you need that.

Our greatest desire in faith should be that God would take it deeper—deeper than our faith has ever gone before. And it’s when God answers that prayer, that we must grasp His ways, realizing that God may very well allow circumstances in our lives (the ones that threaten our faith and take it into the depths of doubt) to draw us nearer to Him—to deepen our faith. (And make a “note to self”…going deeper in your faith, trusting God more, will never be easy.)—Pray for patience and God is going to put you in situation that tests your patience in extraordinary ways. Pray to be prosperous and successful, and though God blesses you, He’s going to ask you to share your great reward. Pray for health and He just may ask you to care for someone who is ill. Always be ready for God to take your faith DEEPER…and be willing to dive ALL IN…don’t just get your feet wet.

So, pray, persistently, knowing that God WILL answer…press through the walls of doubt and into His presence where you’ll find peace, joy, and endless glimpses of His glory. And above all, never give into your fear—pray with all that you are that God will take your faith DEEPER.

Beyond the Shadow of Doubt

We want to have faith, but doubt gets in the way. Doubt disrupts our day and we can't help but throw question marks at God. We trust in Who He is, but we're not sure we fully trust in what He does and doesn't do. We argue in prayer that nothing makes sense, things aren't adding up, and we forget Who we're talking to. We've forgotten we were told, "Trust the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5 GW) Our desire for God's ways to make sense causes conflict within our faith that keeps us from getting past the doubt and leaves us trapped within it. Doubt can cast a sizable shadow, and we need to obey God so that we can get from under it. 

"Yes, be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! 
For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” 
(Joshua 1:9 TLB)

Our doubts call our faith to action. We can't sit by and wait for doubt to pass. There are days, months, even years, where the shadow of doubt lingers because it feels welcome. We've simply never demanded that it go. God tells us to "banish" doubt, and there's reason for that. He's told us to forbid it, abolish, and get rid of it. But there's only one way to conquer doubt and that's through our faith. We either believe God or we don't. And quite frankly, we wish it wasn't that simple because that puts the ball in our court and not God's. We'd rather God be responsible for our faith, not ourselves. But God's given us everything we need to stand firm in our faith, we simply let doubt get the best of us and we tend to throw in the towel a bit too early. What we fail to realize is that doubt has its purpose and if we'd see it for what it can and should be, we'd find our faith capitalizing on it.

"If faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power? Doubting can only turn negative when it begins to overpower an individuals ability to defeat sin and look to Jesus for guidance, wisdom, and forgiveness." 
-Gary Parker, The Gift of Doubt

Our doubt comes from our unbelief that God will do what He says He'll do. We can't escape the shadow of  doubt, that cloud will come, it's part of life...it's what we do with doubt that's the key. 

So what promise of God are you doubting in your life? Are you doubting He'll protect you or provide for you? What is it that's too difficult for Him? Don't allow your doubt to keep your faith from believing what it knows-God does the impossible. Period. 

Download FAITH UNDER CONSTRUCTION 

FREE until Sunday October 26th!

(The only time it will be free in 2014!)

GET IT HERE

Faith is hard. And the most difficult truth about faith is that it won’t answer all of your questions in life and it won’t solve all of your problems, either. 

Faith is about trust, not about being certain . . . and that’s not how we hoped faith worked. 

We talk a lot about building our faith, but when God is at work in our lives, 

there seems to be a lot more demolition going on. 

"Faith Under Construction" is a devotional that will begin the renovation of your soul 

and prepare it for the building that will take place throughout the rest of your life. 

Bestselling Christian Living author, Cherie Hill, takes your soul into the depths of faith, 

and the excavation will bring about a transformation of your spirit 

that is stable and secure, ready for anything. 

OVERCOMING THE OVERWHELMING

We tend to find ourselves overthrown and overwhelmed by the problems in life that consume more time and energy than we have. Even the easiest of obstacles can seem insurmountable. We say “yes,” when we should say, “no.” We feel ill-equipped for the tasks at hand and fear of failure can get the best of us. Anxiety rises to the occasion and we’re overwhelmed and overcome to the point that we’re just not sure where our next breath is coming from.

Something has to change to overcome the overwhelming circumstances of our lives. We can learn from pastor and author John Ortberg who asked spiritual philosopher Dallas Willard how to be “spiritually healthy.” Finding himself run ragged, as we all do, something had to give. The answer was not what Ortberg expected: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” John Ortberg noted that advice, and assuming there must be something more, he asked Dallas Willard what was next in overcoming the overwhelming. Dallas’s reply was, “There is nothing else.” Taking it in, Ortberg concluded that his hurried schedule was the culprit of his being overwhelmed—our situations are no different. We daily find our schedules overfilled and we’re empty. Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung put it this way, “hurry is not of the devil. It is the devil.” And God’s advice to that conclusion is this: “Resist the devil, and he will run away from you” (James 4:7 ISV). We can’t allow ourselves to be anxious. God’s told us not to:

“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6 ESV).

And there lies the command that yields a promise we desperately need … peace. If we’ll pray about everything, give thanks through anything, ask for God’s help, without worrying and trusting in Him completely, we’ll get peace:

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 ESV).

Don’t miss out on God’s peace--it’s the key to overcoming the overwhelming. Seek God and His will in everything you do and say. He’ll tell you when to say “yes,” assure you when you need to say “no,” and help you with every step of faith He asks you to take. Pray that God will help you to “ruthlessly eliminate” the responsibilities and relationships that aren’t a part of His plan for your life and you’ll find yourself overcome with peace instead of the overwhelming. 

Keep Making Me

My Prayer is nothing less than the lyrics of Sidewalk Prophets 

"Keep Making Me"

Make me broken
So I can be healed
‘Cause I’m so calloused
And now I can’t feel
I want to run to You
With heart wide open
Make me broken

Make empty
So I can be filled
‘Cause I’m still holding
Onto my will
And I’m completed
When you are with me
Make me empty

[Chorus:]
‘Til You are my one desire
‘Til You are my one true love
‘Til You are my breath, my everything
Lord, please keep making me
Make me lonely
So I can be Yours
‘Til I want no one
More than You, Lord
‘Cause in the darkness
I know You will hold me
Make me lonely

Amazon Publishing Launches Christian Imprint: WHEN YOU NEED A MIRACLE

I am SO thrilled to be a part of the new Amazon Publishing imprint, Waterfall Press. Praying that God will work mightily through the publications! Coming in April: WHEN YOU NEED A MIRACLE...The Seven Secrets of Faith!

PRESS RELEASE PUBLISHER's WEEKLY

Secrets of Faith from the Founder of ScriptureNow.com 

and Author of the eBook Bestseller Waiting on God.

Life often feels full of impossible tasks—needs you can’t meet, wrongs you can’t forgive, obstacles you can’t overcome. And in the midst of these crushing challenges, you’re supposed to have faith in a God you cannot see? Yet, if you walk in faith, you’ll find God paving a path full of miracles and blessings through all of your trials—if you trust Him, no matter what.

However fearful or horrible your situations become, remember God has allowed them—or even placed you within them—for a reason: to give you an opportunity to ground your faith in Him. It is only when you’re at a total loss, only when you have no recourse but to fall to your knees and cry out for His intervention, that’s when miracles happen.

Through a decade of pain and suffering, bestselling author Cherie Hill discovered how God meets her exactly where she needs Him. Now it’s your turn to learn how life’s trials are just an overture to His miracles.

Faith's First Aid

Life has its way of driving us into despair and testing our faith in ways we wish it wouldn’t. We can find ourselves so troubled by the circumstances of our lives that we easily forget Jesus has assured us that we will have trouble (John 16:33) and that He’s commanded us NOT to be “troubled” (John 14:10). Our state of distress, affliction, difficulty, or need, tends to cause our faith to hemorrhage until our faith flatlines—our faith is in desperate need of “first aid.”

We live in a fallen world, so we can be certain that troubles will come, but if your faith is prepared with “first aid,” you can keep life’s circumstances from severing your relationship with God and infecting your peace and joy. Whether you’re going through a divorce, suffering financial failures, or struggling to live through diagnosis of cancer, God is able to mend your heart and bring about greater glory than you can imagine. The key is being prepared so that you don’t panic. But just in case you do, and life’s challenges get the best of you, Faith’s First Aid is this: Keep your problems in perspective, God’s perspective.

We tend to allow life to control us instead of trusting in the One who oversees and controls our lives. And God’s perspective changes everything. When we’re driven to our knees, we have nowhere to look but up, and when we’re looking up, God’s grace pours down. It’s when difficulties start to dissect our faith, we need to clearly understand that we can prevent its destruction by simply doing what Jesus told us to do, “Let not your heart be troubled.” If we’ve been commanded to do something, we have both the capacity and power to do it. We may not “feel” like obeying, but obedience is not about yielding our will to God’s. It’s a choice to control our feelings and emotions in order that we might walk firmly in our faith so that we might experience God’s glory. It will never be easy, so don’t expect that it will be. You’ll find yourself at the feet of Jesus more often than you ever thought would be necessary, but there’s a reason you’re there. God’s perspective allows us to see that “all things work together for good.” And we can only come to embrace that truth if we’re given the opportunity to experience those things that we’d never imagine could or would be used for good—heartbreak, suffering, pain and emptiness. And realize this: God doesn’t work all things together for good “when” we want Him to, and “how” we want Him to. It’s all in His perfect way and his perfect timing.

When we’re in the place “in between,” where the pain has not yet been used for gain, we can follow the example of David in 1 Samuel 30:6 and “encourage ourselves in the Lord.”

“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”

David made the choice to “not let his heart be troubled.” He had every reason to be troubled beyond comprehension, as the circumstances that lied before him were unthinkable. When life’s troubles were too overwhelming, David sought the Lord, a word from Him, and then he encouraged himself in God’s faithfulness. He trusted God and he became king within 48 hours. Be assured of this: God is full of surprises. And He can move suddenly, in an instant, without notice…and every trouble you face will be trumped with His triumph over them.

The Bust Out

Sometimes there are movies that are so analogous to your own life that they move you to tears and rip your heart wide open...while mending it all at the same time. "The Hurricane" with Denzel Washington did just that as I grasped the deep and powerful message within the true story depicted in the movie. Everyone needs to see this movie, it's more than a story about injustice, it's about what happens within a person when they transcend it. And that's what a life of faith is all about.

I couldn't help but reflect upon my own life as I watched the pain that consumed an innocent man as he spent nearly 20 years behind prison bars. I've been behind prison bars, not literal ones. I'm guessing you're within prison walls too, or you've been so in the past, they're just walls no one can see. You might be imprisoned by fears, doubt, addictions, sin, or the sins of others...they may not be literal walls, but they're just as real. And the only thing that will bust you out is the love of God.

"Hate put me in prison. Love's gonna bust me out." ~Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

The thing is...when you're in a prison that has no visible walls, it's easy to give into what binds you up. But Rubin "Hurricane" Carter reminds us of what we need to remember in our faith:

"It's very important to transcend places that hold us."

And what we find, as we take a look at our lives and the bars we daily sit behind, is that our prison walls are often "built upon a foundations of lies." We give up and give in to our circumstances instead of transcending them. And it's only the Word of God, given to us out of His love, that will bust us out. Because when we're asked why we believe, it's His Promises that enable us to believe even without the fullest extent of proof. Faith goes beyond that. When Rubin "Hurricane" Carter asked Lesra why he "believed" him, without proof, he replied, "I just know." And that's what our faith must live on, the fact that we just "know." We know truth, so we can fully trust God, even while we're behind bars. Even when our heart is breaking and injustice reigns.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter faced judgement when he was behind bars and when he was on the other side of them. We all will face that judgment by others. God busts us out, and others want to judge how, when, why and where He did it. People "think" they know what you're living/lived through and take it upon themselves to judge your guilt or innocence. They choose to play God in an attempt, whether consciously or not, to throw you back into prison. Yet, what they don't realize is that something happens within the soul, when you're suffering through your own personal hell, something that transcends even the harshest judgment:

 

I reflect on Mr. Carter's words so powerfully spoken as he sat imprisoned, an innocent man:

"I will bend time to my own clock. When the prison is awake, I will sleep. When they sleep, I will wake. I will live neither in their cell, nor in my own heart, only in my mind and my spirit."

It was nearly nineteen years, only I didn't recognize my jail walls until only ten years ago. And then the reality of my prison taught me to trust in the LOVE that would bust me out...God's love. I learned to "bend time to my own clock"...I didn't live in the cell that existed in my situation, nor in my own heart, I transcended by devoting myself to Christ in my mind and spirit. You can too. Whatever walls surround you, God's love can bust you out. And He will do it in the most unexpected way...as "The Hurricane" discovered, it was writing his story that set him free and helped him to transcend the place that held him. Through the years, I found God leading me to write, even as I sat for years, empty, behind the prison walls that were the my circumstances in life. It was God's way of setting me free, even as chains bound me. And His glory that is being daily revealed, as my ashes are made into beauty, is breathtaking. I daily fall to my knees in a silence that consumes my spirit and floods my soul.

Whatever you're going through right now, it may not be just; in fact, your circumstances may even seem far beyond redemption, but they are not. Whatever has caused you to be imprisoned by the walls that surround you, know that it's God's love that will bust you out!

Image credit: tiero / 123RF Stock Photo

Waiting in Faith

Image credit: stevanovicigor / 123RF Stock Photo

The hard cold truth about faith is that you'll continually face fear and you'll constantly doubt and question whether or not God can be trusted. When you're faced with difficulties that linger on for months, years, even decades, you're sure to put God on the stand ... pain and suffering tends to cause us to question God's ways more than our own ... and we find ourselves debating as to whether or not God is still on His throne. When you're imprisoned by uncertainty and consumed with tendency to walk by sight, rather than by faith, know this: GOD IS WITH YOU. Even though you can't see Him, He's there...when you're uncertain if He cares, His love is unchanging and His grace is what will break open the gates of heaven to bless you in ways that you'll never fully grasp. Wait in faith. 

Our frustration tends to come from not being able to see what God is up to and we find ourselves convinced that He's not up to anything at all, because the evidence of our lives shows no evidence of it. If we only trust in what we "see," we'll never reap the miraculous blessings that can only come from the "unseen" realm. And life will continually bring us to places where there's no place to run and nowhere to hide. Our only escape is through God's grace, as we trust in His presence and power to give us the peace we need to walk in His will. (And His will always takes us into situations that are far beyond our control and ability to endure...God uses every desperate circumstance to drive us into His loving arms.) And as we struggle to trust, we'll find a million and one things that will distract us from our faith. We have to fix our eyes. Our perspective during our pain and sufferings of life changes everything, and we need to stay focused upon God continually so that we might see what He sees.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, 

but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, 

but what is unseen is eternal."

~2 Corinthians 4:18

Though we see our lives falling apart, as our heart is breaking to pieces, God sees a miracle waiting to happen. Whatever it is you're going through, God is setting the stage for a miracle as you trust in Him. Don't allow yourself to walk by sight. Know that every step of faith brings you closer to the blessings He has in store for you ... and you'll have to take steps of faith in His strength more often than in your own. Each and every day, you'll have to make the DECISION to trust God, because your feelings will tell you not to. You'll need to continually grab hold of God's promises to you and trust Him for them even when reality is telling you a miracle is impossible. (Just remember, it's only through impossibilities that miracles happen!) What you can't see is that God is working behind the scenes, orchestrating every detail of your life to perform a miracle that goes far beyond anything you can comprehend. Trust draws the curtain of heaven and the glory that will be revealed to you, in a very personal and intimate way, will forever assure you that God is with you.