People Matter Daily Devotional: September 17

A Word From God’s Word
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NASB)

A Word From Jaime Christ
The most beautiful place I’ve ever visited is a sandbar off the coast of Haiti. It is a place where I feel intimately connected with God, where His creative spirit and His love of beauty are so evident. To get to the sandbar, you take a sea-weathered boat from shores that are absolutely covered with garbage.

When I look at my own family and our history, the years full of garbage are very easy to identify. The time surrounding my parents’ divorce was filled with emotional trash. Some of it washed upon us without our control. Our actions compounded the mess as we heaped pain upon pain. I remember feeling absolutely powerless, wounded, scared and immensely sad.

This verse in Second Timothy is an anchor for me. I’m encouraged that we have a God who cares about our families’ daily struggles and equips us for them. We’re not powerless as long as we can call on the God of the universe for help at any moment. In the most loveless moments of our lives, we are covered with the unconditional love of God. In times when our lives seem utterly out of control, God gives us self-discipline.

God has used the tragedy of my parents’ divorce to work in my family’s hearts. Sometimes we wander back through the messes we’ve made, looking for grudges or old wounds we can salvage. But we continue to learn from Him what Godly love, power and discipline look like. As we do, He restores us and heals us and repeatedly takes out our trash.

Recently, my brother got married. We spent the evening in Chicago surrounded by friends and relatives, but it felt much like standing on the sandbar in the middle of the Caribbean. I could look back and see the garbage we pushed through to get where we are today. But more importantly, my heart swelled with the personal and intimate and beautiful love of a God who continues to make all things new.

Jaime Christ is the Haiti Mission’s Team Leader and Co-Leader for Girlfriends.

A Word With God
Dear God, thank you for the way you restore our families. We pray for relatives and friends who are in need of your healing. Reveal the areas in our lives that need cleaning up. Help us to focus on the love, power, and discipline you give which conquers all timidity and fear. In Jesus name, Amen.