Author: Christine Wyrtzen

Our last dog was a beautiful golden retriever named Mollie. She was a rescue and was four years old when we got her. When we brought her home, I turned to her and said, “You just had your last bad day!” 

Getting to know Mollie’s quirks took some time. For four years, Mollie had been neglected and shoved in a back yard. She had no shelter from the weather. She was a captive to the heat, cold, rain, thunder, and lightening. Though safe and with us, her fears continued to play out. When Mollie went to the door to go out, we’d open it and she’d turn and run away. When we’d call her to come back, she’d run further down the hall. 

It took us a good eighteen months to understand why she was so conflicted. Though she wanted to go out, she was afraid we’d trap her outside. We tried a bunch of things but here’s what finally worked. We opened the door, stroked her, then turned our back to her so she felt no pressure from us. With the choice truly being hers, she cautiously walked outside.

Quirks can be a nuisance without love. Think of what happens while we wait for Mollie to decide whether or not to go outside. With the door open during a Georgia summer, the heat poured in the house. In the winter, the heat escaped and cold poured in ~ all because our dog needed time to make up her mind.

Each of us have a story. We come to God with triggers. Some are afraid of silence; others, of noise. Some have a fear of crowds; others, a fear of being alone. The comforting thing is that God knows us intimately. He knows how to scale the wall with just the right words and experience so that we’ll lose our shyness and trust Him. He’s not stumped by our quirks nor do they put Him off. Patiently, He works with each of us. Cajoling and encouraging, He offers Himself as a companion.

Ever feel like you’re forever imprisoned by your past? Like you’re making no progress? God has the key to steps forward. Go to the open door.  

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Psalm 131:2

When a mother weans her child, she must deny him what he wants and then comfort him when he realizes he can’t have it.  She weans him because it is necessary for his growth into a new phase of life.  She appears cruel to the child, yet he doesn’t think twice about turning to her for consolation.  Because she loves him, she persists in the training but also aches at the pain she is causing.

So it is with God.  He weans me off things that are not good for me.  He often withholds healing for a greater good that is a mystery for a time.  He delays deliverance for reasons I might never know.  The life of faith is not for the fainthearted.

So when things don’t feel right, when my heart is churning, when I’m tired of waiting, when my old wounds don’t appear to be any less severe, when I’m sick of myself, when I want what I want, when I dig deep to try to will my soul to be quiet to no avail, it takes grace beyond what I can manufacture to run to the One who could fix everything that plagues me ~ but doesn’t.  I could be tormented about why He restrains Himself, why He withholds, why I continue to live in the period of the ‘not yet’, but at that moment, I need Him to comfort me. 

There are periods in every life when answers aren’t provided.  What can be counted on are everlasting arms.  He is about comforting instead of fixing.  The song of the One who rocks us as children can still be heard. 

Your grace carries me through to glory.  Amen

Hold not your peace, oh God of my praise.  Psalms 109:1

Has the Word of God ever tormented you?  Conviction is one thing; torment is quite another.  God is not a tormentor, and yet, when it’s the Word of God that appears to eat at you, it can play tricks on your perception of God. 

Paul warned believers of Satan’s cunning abilities.  But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  2 Corinthians 11:3  The Word, rightly revealed, brings me closer to Jesus. But Satan will quote scripture (as he did with Jesus) and use it in ways that trigger issues.  How will I know that it’s him working against me rather than the Spirit of God convicting me?  I will be led astray from my devotion to Christ.  I will find myself backing up and beginning to feel distrustful.  I’ll give you an example. 

Earlier in my life, Satan did a number on me by linking two spiritual truths together.  1. God loves me just the way I am.  And 2.) God’s will for me is to change to become more like His Son.  Combine those and the meaning can mess with you.  How can God love me just like I am if He wants me to spend my life changing to become like Jesus? 

The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart.  “You once lived in a world where you were only loved if you acted perfectly.” The light of Jesus poked through the fog. I recognized my skewed interpretations.      

Where are you shy of Christ?  What causes you to back up from Him rather than move closer? Perhaps God’s Words have been used against you. There’s no need to lose this battle. You have the Spirit of God inside to guide you into the way of all Truth, pinpointing the very junctures where confusion and unbelief were born.

Reveal the misconstrued scriptures and set captives free, beginning with me. Amen

You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.  Psalm 77:14

In the Genesis account of Abram and Sarah, Sarah’s cycle of womanhood was long over.  Logic.  Science.  Both proved that it was humanly impossible to bear a child in old age.  She and Abram had spent the breadth of their marriage asking God to open her womb but at some point, she stopped believing.  When the announcement was made that she would have a son, Sarah laughed at the thought of such a physical impossibility. 

Miracles aren’t miracles without the ‘impossibility’ factor.  Is this not why faith is so difficult?  We are surrounded by circumstantial physical evidence that disproves feasibility.  If I have a history of not having seen God’s power move on my behalf, then I will always lean toward logic and move away from what seems ludicrous.  History begs to control belief.

What might I ask God for today if all reserve was moved out of the way?  Where would others laugh in my face and rehearse the evidence against faith-filled prayer? That points precisely, perhaps, to what God would, and can, do.  “But you can’t ask God for that!” Satan whispers.  His taunts, like arrows, come at me in thoughts but also through the mouths of friends and family.  He is not above using faithless believers to parrot faithless words.  So few walk by faith and I should remember that the next time a brother or sister in Christ comes with their ‘prudent’ warnings.

God has placed me in many impossible situations throughout my life.  There were times I had to pray for a miracle or there would be some horrible consequence.  For survival’s sake, I hung onto faith, stood in the Word, and prayed for a miracle.  Faith is hardest when I’ve invested years of prayer into my request.

God defies the odds.  He cares nothing about physics, past evidence, and present obstacles.  He who spoke to the earth, a planet that was once dark and lifeless, and but was transformed into a stunning environment full of limitless possibilities, is the same God who can do anything miraculous in my world.  There is something more critical to pray for than the request itself ~ it’s that my faith would remain if God said ‘no ‘– or ‘wait.’

  For what should I trust You that defies all odds?  I’ll go there.  In Jesus name, Amen

For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from Him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  Psalm 62:5-6

Faith is a filter.  All thoughts and feels should be sifted through it.  This is the process of taking every thought captive.  This is what encourages a resolve to wait on God though a situation begs human intervention.

Faith reminds me that God is ruling when it appears mayhem is prevailing.

Faith reminds me that God is watching when I fear He’s lost interest.

Faith reminds me that God is active when I see no evidence of it.

Faith reminds me that God is omniscient, and I am not.

Faith reminds me that God is sovereign over all surprises.

Faith reminds me that God is redemptive when life seems full of wasted pain.

Faith reminds me that God is fiercely protective when His children are vulnerable.

Faith reminds me that God is just when evil temporarily prospers.

Faith reminds me that God is a Father who is never fatigued, distracted, nor disinterested.

God is the faith-giver wherever I’m running on empty today and wherever fear is on the throne.

Let faith arise!

Birth faith in new places.  Deep places.  Amen

Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.  Psalm 94:15

Love and trust are the foundations of any relationship.  If either one is destroyed, a deep fracture threatens the future of that connection.  

Our enemy knows how relationships work.  He knows that if I’m secure in my Father’s love, I am dangerous to his evil enterprise.   I will burn brightly for the advancement of God’s kingdom.  I will give my life without much thought.  How can he win against such undying loyalty?  By devising a smear campaign. He levels accusations against God that make perfect sense to me if I rely on logic and circumstantial evidence to determine my perspective.  

There have been times in my life when God ‘appeared’ to be guilty. Satan had rallied his troops. Questions about God’s goodness came at me and tormented me.  Instead of shunning them, I fed them.  Distrust grew and weeds overtook the landscape of my heart and choked out all remnants of my faith.  

There was a cure.  When prayers weren’t answered the way I thought they should be, I had to be willing to stand in the truth that whatever God’s reason, He was still trustworthy.  In a climate of disappointment and against the backdrop of perceived damning evidence, the Holy Spirit fanned the winds of faith across the panorama of my faithlessness.  He inspired belief instead of doubt. 

My love for God is in tact and I’ve learned that love is more than feelings.  Love has an iron will that is fueled by faith.  I trust God even though His glorious resolution to my problems are out of my range of vision. 

Lord, the foundation of my faith rests upon the pillars of Your righteousness. Amen

Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Psalm 31:4

I have often found myself hemmed in.  I didn’t see it coming.  I traveled along, thought things were fine as I acted upon the advice of well-meaning people, but I ended up at a dead end nonetheless.  I tried to re-trace my steps to find someone to blame only to discover that my way was shaped by well-meaning companions who were also doing the best they could to dispense advice.  They just weren’t God.  So, I stood in a place where it was impossible to go forward and equally impossible to go back.  It was as if I ascended a mountain through switchback turns and the only way was forward. 

Perhaps you know what I’m talking about.  You probably also know that while we rail and fret, God is listening.  It isn’t our anxiety that brings Him to the scene to start problem solving.  He knew long ago that we’d be here.   He went ahead and put everything in place to make a way of escape.  His sovereignty allowed the trap so He could devise a glorious solution for our salvation and His glory.  What’s difficult to see is that the trap is really our friend.  It seems preposterous that it’s our doorway to glory, but it is! 

Traps are illusions.  Traps take us to hidden doors that only God can see.  Traps lead us to God’s arms.  Traps show us that God is the hero of our story.  Traps reveal the brokenness and limitations of the people around us.  Traps reveal the power and glory of our Father.  Traps end one way of life and introduce us to a better way.  Traps offer us the chance to embrace new spiritual paradigms.

Perhaps what I’m cursing under my breath is really something for which I should give thanks. I also need to stop looking for what I think salvation will look like and ask God to give me supernatural vision for the door that leads to spacious places.  This wall is God’s window to my future.

I will stop crying and dare to believe.  Amen

But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children.   Psalms 103:17

I’ve done it.  Have you?  I’ve not only attempted to live in the present, which is God’s will for me, but emotionally, I’ve lived in the past as well as the future.  None of those options is good for me. 

How can I know if I am living in the past?  When I rehearse it and wish there had been a different outcome.  I review what was done to me and fantasize what life could be like had I not been victimized.  I also review my sins, even the unintentional mistakes I made from not knowing better, and ache to travel back to fix them.  I live in the wonderland of wishful thinking and the grief of how it is.

How can I know if I am living in the future?  When I borrow tomorrow’s trouble and decide that I can’t possibly handle what’s coming.  I assess the way things are today, forecast the future, and cast it in stone. Believing that my prediction is accurate, I succumb to fear and unwarranted grief.  How many times have I said ~ “I can’t handle tomorrow because . . .”

How can I have peace about the past?  By believing that God is a redeemer of it.  I can’t mess anything up so badly that He can’t bless me with abundant life.  His mercies started afresh at 12:01 a.m. this morning so I put the past behind me and stand in the faith of His goodness.

How can I abandon a fear of the future?  By trusting that He’s already there.  Nothing I do is going to take Him by surprise.  The scriptures about tomorrow are rock solid and will sustain the weight of my expectations, and my successes and failures. 

The past and the future are out of bounds.  I’m not supposed to play God.  He is the only one who operates outside of time.  He equipped me to live today on the wings of momentary grace. 

For my yesterday’s, redeem.  For today, sustain.  For tomorrow, bolster my faith that You’ve got it covered.  Amen

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have given me relief when I was in distress.  Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!  Psalm 4:1

When I’m in trouble and need someone to help me, I tend to remember the last time I was in distress and someone came to show me compassion and kindness.  The memory of it makes my heart long for it to happen again.  You’ve heard women say to one another, “When I’m sick, I just want my mother.”  Whether our mother is still living or not, the desire for her to care for us like she once did is so real that it leaves us aching.  No matter how old we are, we wish she would come.

This is what David is feeling in this prayer to God.  He begs for God to answer him and come to him like He did the last time David was in distress.  David is remembering the power of God’s arrival. While the memory is robust, it doesn’t eradicate the need for another miracle.

I can’t live on yesterday’s memories.  While they may inspire me and build my faith, my need for God will accompany me until eternity.  I will always need to be His child.  I will always need a Father.  I will always be small.  I will always need reminders that He is bigger than my storms.  I will always come to the end of myself.  I will always need all that He is.

What keeps God coming time after time?  His grace.  His faithfulness.  If He gets tired of hearing distress calls, I’ll be in trouble.  But unlike human beings, he is anxious for me to need Him.  The more I desire Him, the better he likes it.  There’s no such thing as ‘too needy’ with God.

When any of us face an ongoing struggle, the kind that spans years, we have down days when God speaks into our discouragement and gives us the fuel to make it another 24 hours.   The next day, however, brings new battles.  Though I don’t plan to plummet into unbelief, if things look dire, I can echo David’s cry. 

“Be gracious to me, Father, and answer me.  Hear my prayer!”

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  Psalm 91:1

 ‘Secret place’ in Hebrew is mistar ~ ‘a concealed place where treasures are stored.’  This place is actually ‘in Christ’ and the treasure ‘is Christ’.

The secret of my hiding place is that there is spiritual power there.  It is resident in Christ and when I am near Him, He imparts it to me.  I rest in my spirit though I’m physically stressed.  I’m strong like steel even though people around me expect me to break.  Though all hell unravels, I am of sound mind and possess unshakeable calm. You have been a place of safety for the poor and need in times of trouble. Brutal enemies pounded us like a heavy rain but you were our shelter.  Isaiah 25:4

So, why do I temporarily leave this place?  Because life throws me a curve I didn’t anticipate and I focus on my circumstances.  Or, a faithless person talks me out of my peace.  I cave to their flawed logic and sink like Peter in waters way over my head.

For every child of God, there is a secure fortress.  There is no storm too furious.  No foe too mighty.  No tragedy too hopeless.  No grief too consuming.  I am a child who runs home continually, reminding my enemy all the way ~ “Wait till I tell my Father.” He doesn’t like that, by the way.

I’m going to believe you.  Every foe today is already defeated.  They are very well aware of their end and just pretend to wield a power that isn’t theirs.  I’m not fooled and holy laughter erupts from my spirit.  In Jesus’ name, Amen