What (Or Whom) Are You Holding On To?
Faith @ Work Monthly Message: June 18, 2007
Susan Jameson
Sometimes God shows us things in the valley that we'll never see on the mountaintop.
This was the lesson Susan Jameson learned, and shared with us at last month’s luncheon, as she struggled with devastating loss in her family recently. Although Susan’s faith was shaken to the core, God never loosened His grip on her, and she came through a very difficult time with renewed hope and a message to share.
In December of last year, Susan’s niece, a college graduate with a promising future in music, committed suicide. Then, a couple of months later, her son and daughter-in-law, who were expecting their second child, suffered the heartbreak of a miscarriage. These heart wrenching events drove Susan and her family to desperately seek God for comfort, strength, and healing. What she received from Him was more than she could have imagined.
One of the important things that He taught her was that she needed to learn to be transparent, real, and vulnerable with people in her life. God orchestrated the presence of a network of friends and family to come alongside her, but she had to be willing to let her guard down and accept their help.
Another lesson she learned was the danger of focusing too much on self—loneliness became bitterness, which then became fatigue, and distancing of herself from time with God. Susan said, “I had no peace because I wasn’t trusting Him.” When she came across Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,” she remembered that trust is a choice. She realized that in order to learn how to trust again she had to not just think about Him, but fix my thoughts on Him.
The third lesson she learned was that trust goes hand in hand with surrender. We have to release our grip on our dreams, our plans, and our family, and cling to God instead. What (or Whom) are you holding on to? The only thing that will never fail us or disappoint is Christ!
Let us know what God is doing in your life. Send us a testimony of how God has used this challenge in your life and we'll share it with the Faith @ Work community. Send in your testimonies to kwarin@comcast.net. - Editor
Susan Jameson
Sometimes God shows us things in the valley that we'll never see on the mountaintop.
This was the lesson Susan Jameson learned, and shared with us at last month’s luncheon, as she struggled with devastating loss in her family recently. Although Susan’s faith was shaken to the core, God never loosened His grip on her, and she came through a very difficult time with renewed hope and a message to share.
In December of last year, Susan’s niece, a college graduate with a promising future in music, committed suicide. Then, a couple of months later, her son and daughter-in-law, who were expecting their second child, suffered the heartbreak of a miscarriage. These heart wrenching events drove Susan and her family to desperately seek God for comfort, strength, and healing. What she received from Him was more than she could have imagined.
One of the important things that He taught her was that she needed to learn to be transparent, real, and vulnerable with people in her life. God orchestrated the presence of a network of friends and family to come alongside her, but she had to be willing to let her guard down and accept their help.
Another lesson she learned was the danger of focusing too much on self—loneliness became bitterness, which then became fatigue, and distancing of herself from time with God. Susan said, “I had no peace because I wasn’t trusting Him.” When she came across Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,” she remembered that trust is a choice. She realized that in order to learn how to trust again she had to not just think about Him, but fix my thoughts on Him.
The third lesson she learned was that trust goes hand in hand with surrender. We have to release our grip on our dreams, our plans, and our family, and cling to God instead. What (or Whom) are you holding on to? The only thing that will never fail us or disappoint is Christ!
Let us know what God is doing in your life. Send us a testimony of how God has used this challenge in your life and we'll share it with the Faith @ Work community. Send in your testimonies to kwarin@comcast.net. - Editor