Well, here in Southeast Texas, there can be no doubt that the seasons are changing – between the heat and a crazy thunderstorm that seems very closely related to a hurricane,complete with no electricity and downed trees everywhere, it’s summer, people.

I don’t know what this last season of your life has been like, but my last season has been fairly difficult. I’ve actually beendealing with the big C – cancer. Now before you gasp and feel too sorry for me, I have a great prognosis and have just finished chemo, awaiting a decision on surgery. Honestly, it could have been so much worse. But, between cancer and this not-so-friendly little thing called chronic pancreatitis, it’s been a struggle.

But I’m here to tell you that…I survived! And, God, being so good and faithful, has been with me every step of the way and has taught me SO many things, about Him, about myself, about people. I can’t say that it’s something I would’ve ever chosen to go through, nor do I want to go through it again, but I know these precious lessons I’ve learned, I wouldn’t have learned if I hadn’t gone through it.

In the beginning, my husband and I had so much peace – it was crazy! I can truly say that it’s the first time, maybe in my whole life, that I’ve experienced “the peace that passes all understanding.” And that is so cool! I have fantastic doctors, who from the beginning, said,

“Oh, you’ll be fine; you’ll be cured.”

And, I said,

“I’ll take it!”

So we started down the long tunnel of treatment: eight rounds of chemo and five consecutive days of high-powered radiation. I thought,

“OK, seems straight-forward enough. I can do this.”

Of course, being Believers, we understood that when we enter into a time of trouble, we should take that trouble to God, first. Immediately! And we did. My husband, who has been the absolute best care-taker and partner I could have ever imagined, “surrendered everything to God.” And, I started treatment.

Enter: pancreatitis. I had had a severe bout with pancreatitis, that ended with an inpatient hospital stay back in July, and I knew I had some leftover issues with it, but it hadn’t reared its ugly head in several months and a cancer diagnosis pretty much trumps EVERY other medical issue, so I didn’t spend much time thinking about my pancreas. I just kept following my low-fat diet and concentrated on beating the cancer…until after my third chemo treatment.

One night, as I was getting ready for bed, I started hurting. And,I mean HURTING. Side note: I’ve given birth and pancreatic pain makes that feel like a paper cut. I was hurting in my upper abdomen, chest, and back. I honestly thought I was having a heart attack. Long story short, it was a severe attack of pancreatitis, which landed me back in the hospital for 13 days and 4 endoscopic surgeries, to put in stents, and other really gross stuff you don’t want to read about. As a result of my lovely pancreas, I had to stop treatment for two months. I lost even more weight. Worst of all, it was a huge blow to me, emotionally and even spiritually.

My prayers during this time went something like this,

“God, really? Cancer isn’t enough? Where are you? Are you, like, taking a nap or something? This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!”

See, while I thought I had surrendered this trouble to God, in reality, I’d held on to my own ideas of how this process should look, how it should feel, how long it should take, and on and on. Each time I would pray, God would gently remind me that He was in control and ask me to do more than just surrender this sickness to Him,

“Please surrender this PROCESS to Me, Sherra. I have your best interests in mind and I am working.” Insert long sigh here.

See, I hadn’t surrendered this process to God and I was kicking and screaming and crying because I wanted God to do things my way. I forgot that God is the one who has the GOOD plan for my life; I forgot that He sees way down the road of my life and knows what needs to happen for my ultimate good. He realized that, in order for my health to truly be restored, my pancreas needed to get healthier. And, He was right. Dang it.

And, so I had to do just that. At the end of my last hospital stay, my oncologist ordered an MRI of my tumor – something she said they never get to do with most patients, but because I was already in the hospital (wink), we could. The MRI showed that after just three of my eight chemo treatments, my tumor had already shrunk significantly! Yay! We were all so excited! 

Psalm 37:5-7b tells us,

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act.

Maybe you’re in a tough season of life right now and don’t understand or like the process – I so feel that all the way down to my toes! But, I can tell you, from firsthand experience, the BEST thing you can do is to trust in God’s process for your life – in times of triumph and in times of trouble. He sees way more than we do and He is always, always working on our behalf.

A legacy is something that is passed on to future generations. This month marks ten years since my mother met her Savior face to face causing me to think a lot about her and her legacy. People remember her as a kind, soft spoken pastor’s wife and an amazing educator. She always exhibited love, even to those we might deem unlovable. As a wife and mother, she faithfully cared for us. She prayed endlessly for us as she spent time daily in the word. As a grandmother, she loved fiercely and prayed fervently for her grandbabies. Her commitment to her Savior was evident to all who knew her. Her legacy is one of prayer, love, grace, and beauty all stemming from Jesus.

As I’ve thought about her legacy, I am brought to a place of asking about my own legacy. What am I leaving behind that is being passed on to future generations? Reading through 1 Kings 15, we see descriptions of legacies that have been left by some of its kings. 

“Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days.”

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭15‬:‭14‬a 

“David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”

1 Kings‬ ‭15‬:‭5‬

“He (Baasha) did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.”

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭15‬:‭26‬ 

Life is fleeting, but what we do and how we live will be remembered. We will all leave a legacy of some kind. Will we be remembered for complaining, being ungrateful, just getting by, putting ourselves before anything and anyone else? Will we be like Baasha doing “what was evil in the sight of the Lord” and causing others to sin? Or, will we be remembered like Asa, “true to the Lord all his days”, and like David who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord”? While my mother isn’t in the Bible, I have to ask if we will also be remembered like her, living a life of prayer, love, grace, and beauty stemming from Jesus? 

When our lives are over I hope we will be able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬ I pray our legacies will be, “(your name) fought the good fight, (your name) finished the race, (your name) kept the faith.”

Dear God, help us remember that what we do in life does matter and will be remembered by those we leave behind. Let us live lives that leave legacies of love, grace, truth, and faithfulness.

6 months back, my family and I got our first foster placement. It was an answered prayer, a gift from God. We were told this was likely going to end with us adopting this baby, because we were told that no-one else had a chance to adopt him. And up until 2 months ago, that’s what we thought was going to happen. And then our worlds were crushed. Our foster baby was being replaced with his biological father, something we didn’t know was going to happen until it was already happening. Even though we were happy for our baby that he would grow up with his father, we were going to miss him very much.

It felt like God was ignoring my prayers. I wanted this baby to stay. We all loved him so much. He wasn’t just a foster baby, he was family.

Question after question & tear after tear went by.

After 1 month (felt like eternity), we finally got to see our loved baby again. The amount of grief felt before couldn’t even compare to the amount of joy felt now.

God showed us how He was answering our prayers through it all. He wasn’t ignoring us, He was comforting us. He wasn’t letting us cry for no reason, He was letting us realize our need for a savior like Him.

Is this you today? Are you wondering why it doesn’t feel like God is answering your prayers?

Take hope dear friend, joy is coming. God is answering your prayers in the midst of your heartache.

He is with you right now, wherever you’re reading this.

“who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” 2 Corinthians 1:4-5

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Sometimes I think I’m too real on here, but do you ever just mess things up?? This mouth y’all. Stuff just flies out sometimes. Don’t get me wrong I’m thankful I am not where I used to be, but I have a long way to go.

A few weeks ago, two days in a row I was convicted over things I said. I have a tendency to replay conversations in my head and sometimes it’s just not good. One of the things was an innocent, joking comment and the person accused me of being a fake Christian and the next day I was in a high stress situation and may or may not have said a bad word. What. In. The. World. I was feeling pretty defeated and then driving along I heard a song I’ve heard a million times and these words just hit home.

🎶Sometimes on this journey, I get lost in my mistakes

What looks to me like weakness is a canvas for Your strength

And my story isn’t over, my story’s just begun

And failure won’t define me ’cause that’s what my Father does🎶

Cory Asbury was singing right to me.

The enemy wants nothing more than to back us off the plate. He doesn’t play fair. Two small mess ups had me feeling totally unworthy and useless. Thankfully Jesus has bigger plans, He knows exactly who I am and what works He has prepared for me.

I can’t waste time feeling defeated. I have to repent, move on and keep fighting the good fight. I was able to use the first situation and hopefully turned it to good. A bonus was that the Lord revealed something I needed to put out of my thought process. In the stressful situation only Jesus heard me and I’m confident He forgave me.

Today is a new day; whatever is holding you back. 🗣️ Let. It. Go.

I can’t say it better than Jeremiah.

Lamentations 3:22-24

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

Hallelujah 🙌🏻

God is writing and creating your masterpiece. It may not be the puzzle you wanted to assemble, but I assure you it is a masterpiece.

Handcrafted and knitted together by a King who loves you.

“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

We hear this scripture a lot. Especially during the graduation season. We bring it to memorization. We trust in it. My question is do we really listen to it? Listen to the meaning?

He has plans for you.

They might just be totally different than your own. That is beautiful. Often times our life can feel like a messy, messy, out of place puzzle.

There are so many good pieces that we hold close to our heart. Then there is the group of bad puzzle pieces that a lot of the time we just rather not speak of. We would rather them get lost within the rummage of life. As we listen to the love of Christ and walk with him, entrusting that he knows the plans he has for us, know that the puzzle may be full of pieces we want to get rid of.

You can’t get rid of them though.

You have to hold on tight for the ride. Allow the Holy Spirit to walk you through those tough moments within the masterpiece. You have to trust his plans will prosper. I am so confident that when you trust his plans and trust in his will for your life that you will back up and realize one day that it is a masterpiece hand knitted by a loving God. Realizing in order to walk according to his will it took some ugly puzzle pieces to complete the puzzle. Be thankful for them. It’s not what we would call a masterpiece within our human selves, but it is very much crafted by the almighty King. He’s a redeemer and covenant maker.

I want more of you Jesus. I want more of your plans.

⁃ More of knowing that you know what’s best.

⁃ More of knowing that you know what I need.

⁃ Knowing that you designed and know me better than I know myself.

I could never get enough of you. I could never get enough of trusting in the masterpiece you are knitting together.

Did you know as Christians we are to live on earth as citizens of Heaven? God expects us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy to spread the gospel of Christ His Son. We are to stand together in the faith, encouraging one another, agreeing wholeheartedly with one mind and one purpose. It is a privilege to trust in Christ and to have the ability to spread His word. It is even a privilege to suffer for Him! In order to carry this out we must always have the attitude of Christ.

What does it mean to have the attitude of Christ? First of all, we must walk in humility. Humility is an attitude of spiritual modesty that comes from understanding our place; freedom from pride or arrogance. It means that our hearts should always be tender and compassionate with no selfish ambition, free from trying to impress others. We should always think of others as better than ourselves. Jesus was the perfect example of humility.

“Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Philippians 2:6-8

As human beings our nature struggles with pride. We tend to feel like it is weak to be humble especially in situations or circumstances when people attack our beliefs and motives. We may really be trying to do the right thing and when someone questions that we go straight to wanting to defend ourselves. That is PRIDE!! Jesus was attacked in every way that we are and more. He still chose to die an embarrassing and painful death on the cross. He was beaten and ridiculed for us, knowing that we would continually sin against Him, but so we can be forgiven. That is HUMILITY!!!! We struggle with forgiving people who just simply hurt our feelings 10 years ago. Pride hinders our spiritual growth and causes strife, but humility helps us grow in the truth and grace of Christ, who saves our souls.

Having the attitude of Christ is also having love for one another. God is love and sent His only Son to die so we can have eternal life. There is no love greater than this. God commands us to love each other to show others that this is the characteristic of a Christian. It is how the world can and should be able to identify us. To love like Christ we must experience a true heart change. This does not come naturally but as a result of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in us. We are to have a love that is unconditional, sacrificial, and forgiving and it should be for everyone, even those that may not love or like us back. The more we surrender to loving others the more God lives in us and our love becomes more perfect.

“If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And He has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.”

1 John 4:20-21

So remember to walk in humility and encourage and love each other in the faith! Have a tender heart and compassion and a little extra grace for each other, knowing just how much grace we receive from the Heavenly Father everyday!!! Let’s have the attitude of Christ!!

The word “ministry” has sort of been “boxed in” to be a word that requires a professional title.  We think of pastors, small group leaders, and other leaders of the church body to be the people doing “ministry”. However, ministry requires no title at all. Instead, it requires a call, and the good news is we’ve ALL been called to ministry.

In The Great Commission, Jesus tells his disciples “go and make disciples,” (Matthew 28:19-20). If we are going to call ourselves disciples of Christ, then we can’t just ignore this call to ministry. Let’s break this verse down a little more to see how we can apply this daily. The first word Jesus says here is “go”. This doesn’t have to be across the world, to a foreign country, or leaving your job to become a pastor. “Go” can be to Motiva, or being a truck driver, a mail man, a CEO of a tech company, a stay at home mom, a teacher, anything! You can reach people and spread the good news of the Gospel wherever you are planted.

The next thing we are called to do is to “make”. Now, we can’t be effective at making disciples if we’re harsh and act like we know best. Instead, we are supposed to love them where they are at in that very moment as Jesus would. Be the one who goes the extra mile for someone. Smile at a stranger. Leave a large tip at the restaurant. Hold a door for someone. Share your faith publicly. Be unashamed of the Gospel. Ask someone you see struggling if you can pray with them.

Through these actions, people will want to know why you’re living this way and how you’re so full of joy doing it. You’ll lead people to Jesus best when you’re acting like Him and walking with the Holy Spirit.

This is ministry.

All of those acts that I mentioned above and so many more can be ministry. Don’t put the work that Jesus has called us to do in a box. We were created for more than that!

Sometime within our first years of marriage, my husband and I went tent camping with some friends. One couple had brought their boat for everyone to enjoy some time out on the water. Growing up as a kid, water activities were not a frequent part of our lives mostly because of my mother’s fear of water. I remember feeling nervous on the boat. The anxious feeling that can come when you are not in control and your mind races with all the things that could happen.
My husband and others took turns riding a kneeboard. I decided I would do something outside of my comfort zone and attempt to ride it. Standing near the bank, I knelt and strapped my legs onto the board. As I held onto the pull rope, the boat slowly began to go. After a little ways out, I lost my balance falling over with the strap still holding me to the board. Frantically, I got the strap undone and even though I had a life jacket on, I’m sure my face showed some doubt. My husband, knowing how my mind tended to go to the worst case scenario, stood up and shouted from the boat, “Lisa! “ to get my attention. Once he did, he said, “Just stand up!”
I was still able to touch and that immediately brought assurance and hope. Once I could get a sure foundation under me, my perspective about my situation changed. Now that I knew what to expect, I went on to try several more times. Balance is definitely not my strength! We still enjoy camping, and I love being out on the lake fishing (no kneeboard). The story of that first attempt is something that still gets a head shake and laugh from my husband. Really, it’s fine, you can laugh.
Yes, this is a silly story, a moment of fear that I can now laugh about. But, I thought about how many times I find myself in circumstances where my automatic response is fear and panic. Those moments when my thoughts and imaginations make me believe I’m in over my head. I’m frantically looking for some kind of assurance and hope- a place to securely stand. As humans we want and need security in life. Take away security and it is soon replaced with anxiety.
God, with just the utterance of a few words, the heavens and earth were created. At His word the very foundations were established. “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.” (Psalm 33:9 NIV). “Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” (Psalm 119:89).
God’s Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ. “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says, “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone.It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken.” (Isaiah 28:16 NLT).

Jesus talked about this foundation in Matthew 7: 24-27 ESV. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been found on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
How do we stand on this foundation? We trust His Word. We abide in His Word. We apply His Word. We have faith in His Word. Because of the foundation of Jesus’s death and resurrection we can have an eternal perspective. Living with eternity in our minds helps bring assurance and hope that can sustain us in daily life as we face hard things.
“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever”. (2 Cor, 4:18)
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand ( In Christ Alone by Stuart Townend)
If today finds you searching for assurance and hope, this is what I say to you, “Friend! Just stand up!”
Lisa