Welcome! We’ve created a Special Series for you this month! We’ll
take 4 weeks and focus on 4 elements to ‘Reset’ our lives for Him.
We’re calling it ’4×4 Reset’. If you missed the introduction, you
can find more details here. Each post will feature a READ IT
(scripture verse), a SEE IT (motivation), & a DO IT (challenge/
call to action). Our 4×4 Reset Toolbox is available and has links
to all the posts and to our resources, including our Build a Firm
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#4x4Reset!

How to Hold onto Jesus for All You Are Worth

My mom was 22 years old when she experienced the worst day of her life — before and since. A midnight plane crash, as family and friends watched unable to stop this dreadful nightmare, injured the co-pilot, pilot, and my parents, and then took the life of their firstborn child.

My mom tells me it was in the wake of that unbelievable storm that she learned how to hold onto Jesus for all she was worth.

I have held her words close to my heart for many years now, but never truly understood their merit, their weight until facing my own worst day — the worst season of my life.

Walking through the valley of infertility and undiagnosed chronic pain for two years had already left me reeling to trust in this God who had seemingly been faithful to me my entire life, but somehow was failing me. I remember thinking, “God hates me,” and even articulating those words to my husband when grief felt like a mantle, absorbing its way into my own skin, leaving me wondering if I would feel anything on my own ever again.

That’s when the call came — the one where I found out that my parents, living in Haiti, could not be reached after a 7.0 earthquake had rocked that tiny nation.

For 17 hours my sister and I held vigil, calling, messaging, researching every aspect, person, organization, news site that could give us any scrap of information.

At Hour 14, I felt my faith and sanity slipping. I said to my sister, “I’m not thinking right. I need to go pray.”

I barely made it into my bedroom, scrambling to close the door, before I fell to the floor and tears burst from the most guttural place in my soul. I forcefully, without the slightest of inhibition, reminded God of His promises to me and to my parents that they WOULD indeed SEE their children’s children. And there…in that rawest of moments, He opened a glimpse of the future and showed me my parents laughing and playing with their as-of-yet-unseen grandchildren, securing the promise from His word into my broken heart.

Almost 3 hours later, we finally heard from my parents, that they were alive and safe!!  To say that was the most amazing relief I have felt in my life, would simply be an understatement.

My personal journey of recovery since that time has been arduous and tiresome, joyful and faith-challenging, holding-on-to-Jesus-for-all-you-are-worth-filled.

I am an analytical girl whose mind is a breeding ground of activity that the devil often uses to destroy the threads of peace the Father is weaving into my mind. And yet, the more I put Him in my focus, and not the storms that assault me, the less the enemy’s words consume my soul.

Here are a few Scriptures and a prayer that helps me to place my thoughts under his thoughts….may this encourage and strengthen you today.

READ IT::

SEE IT::

DO IT::

No matter what your situation, God has a promise and a truth JUST FOR YOU. Ask Him for it with faith that He loves you enough to give you that assurance and then…hold onto that promise for all you are worth. When your mind begins to wander or falter, lift your eyes to Him, holding tightly to the promise He has dropped into your heart. THERE…you will find peace.

“Jesus, I thank you that you give me perfect peace when I focus my heart, my thoughts, my attention on You. ___________ {fill in your situation} is really scaring me and consuming my mind. I make a choice today to lift my eyes to You, knowing that You have a plan, a way out or through, an oasis in this desert, even when I do not see it.  I choose to set my hope on You, Father, maker of Heaven and earth….and me. Remind me of your promises TO me today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”