by Cherie Hill

Do you ever feel like life is nothing but a roller coaster ride and everything within you just wants to get off? Your joy and peace can be stolen, within moments, by discouragement and despair. We find ourselves with fleeting faith, when the troubles of life come crashing in on us like relentless waves in a stormy sea.

Though we claim to trust in a Shepherd who leads us through valleys . . . we find ourselves “wanting” . . . “fearing evil” . . . wondering if He’s really with us. With each step we take, it seems unlikely that there are any “green pastures” . . . much less “still waters.”  We’re not so sure we like His rod or His staff . . . they don’t seem to be so “comforting.” Instead of our “souls being restored,” we’re convinced, with each passing moment, our valley may lead us into a canyon.

It can be difficult to believe that God’s plans are for “good,” when life seems to be unraveling.  Yet, without doubt, there would be no need for faith. (God uses ALL things for good . . . even our doubt and disbelief) And faith is where God draws the line. It’s the place where you must make a decision to step over the line. In the words of missionary Helen Roseveare, God’s voice shouts to us in our pain . . . “Can you thank Me for trusting you with this experience, even if I never tell you why?” God’s question cuts to the heart of our faith. He calls us out, and His question begs an answer. He asks us to trust Him, even if He never answers our questions. It’s His way of making us completely dependent upon Him. He’s taking us on a journey, and He’s asking us to make a decision to trust Him at every step.

When we find ourselves in difficult and sometimes seemingly insurmountable situations . . . God draws a line. We stand on the side of questioning His ways, giving into doubt, unsure that we can take even one more step. But, there’s Jesus. He stands on the other side of the line and His outreached hand beckons us like a child learning how to walk. There’s the strength in His eyes that assures us He’s there to help us, and He will not let us fall . . . if we will take that step. Read the rest of this entry »

by Cherie Hill

You pray, but God doesn’t seem to be listening. You trust Him, but it appears He’s letting you down. You believe His Word, but His promises are coming up seemingly empty in your life. You seek, but do not find…you knock, but no one answers. If God is doing anything at all in your life…you can’t see it. The fight of faith intensifies, as it appears that not only is God running late…He may not even show up at all. By the looks of things, God’s either too busy in the lives of others or He just simply doesn’t care. With each passing hour, your Spirit grows weary…

in the waiting.

My eyes are straining to see your Promises come true.

When will you comfort me?

(Psalm 119:82 NLT)

I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched.

My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me.

(Psalm 69:31 NLT)

It’s been said that the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. You see, there are times of overwhelming confusion that come just before deliverance. In the darkness, we tend to give up just before the Light breaks through. Charles Spurgeon once said, “The wilderness is the way to Canaan. Defeat prepares us for victory. The darkest hour of the night precedes the dawn.” We love God’s grace, but we don’t like His watch. His calendar appears to be astonishingly different than the ones we hang on our walls, and we’re not sure He’s managing time, or our lives, very well at all. Unless we continue to look through God’s eyes in the mundane, seemingly empty, times of our lives, we will grow weary and our faith may fail. Read the rest of this entry »

by Cherie Hill

Like an uninvited guest, Doubt shows up at the most inopportune times—usually it’s when life is “messy”…we haven’t had time to get things in order and it appears that everything is falling apart at the seams. Just when we begin to grasp onto whatever is left of hope…Doubt comes knocking at the door. But, when we find Doubt knocking…we should be sure and let Faith answer.

Life is difficult at best; although our human instinct is to believe that our faith in God should make life “better”…nothing could be further from the Truth. We’re promised that in this world we will have trouble—we should count on it. (John 16:33) Yet, we should also trust in God’s sovereignty, supernatural power, love, mercy, and grace. But, it’s in our times of despair that Doubt takes over and begins to wreak havoc in our souls. We find ourselves between the walls of the Red Sea…assured that God has rescued us in the past, but filled with doubt, as we see the treacherous waters ready to come crashing in on us and an encroaching army ready to attack. The situation seems “doubtful.” It seems “unlikely” that God will show up “this time.” The anxiety within us builds to such a point that it’s not the waters of the Red Sea that are drowning us…it’s the waves of Doubt that have flooded our soul and our spirit cries out, “Is God with us or isn’t He?” Read the rest of this entry »

by CWAHM Columnist Cherie Hill

Do you pray? Do your prayers “work”? Why should you pray? They are questions that beg answers, yet, often times, they are questions that we can’t seem to answer. If there were ever a “time” for us to pray…it is now. We need to fully grasp our “privilege of prayer.”

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven;” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) clearly, it is “a time to pray.” We’re finding ourselves overspent and overdrawn in more ways than one; we continue to “consume,” but we’re completely empty. We cry out in desperation, and wonder, “Where is God?” And yet, He is right where we left Him—we’ve left Him out of nearly every area of our lives. We have decided to shut God out, until tragedy strikes and then we swell up with pride, call out in prayer, and expect that God should show up…when we ask Him to. The problem of prayer is not with God, but with us. Instead of asking God to answer the prayers that are devastating our hearts, we should start praying about all the things that are breaking His.

It’s quite disturbing that not much has changed in over two thousand years. Isaiah looked out upon people who longed for happiness and security—an “abundant life.” But they were looking in all the wrong places—so do we. Then, just as now, people were running to the marketplaces and to places of amusement…spending their money frivolously for things which brought them no permanent satisfaction. And yet, Isaiah did not condemn them, but looked past their gluttony and immorality and embraced them with a word from God: Read the rest of this entry »

by Cherie Hill

When they went to the tomb, they couldn’t find Him.

The Roman guards never saw Him.

The tomb was empty.

Are you a Mary Magdalene, the first to see Him, running to tell the others the Good News.

Or are you a Thomas, living a life of faith that says, “I’ll believe it when I see it!”

Or maybe you’re like Peter, you must be asked by Him repeatedly, “Do you love Me?”

Those who were closest to Him…saw Him after He’d been lifted up.

And they lived their lives, lifting up His name.

Many even died brutal deaths, in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

His message was, “Follow me.”

The message they gave their lives for, the message they declared was,

“He has risen! He lives!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Drained. Sapped. Empty. Whatever adjective you’d like to use…the message is the same—we’re running on empty. We find ourselves depleted of hope because life just isn’t meeting our expectations. We’ve exhausted ourselves seemingly to the point of no return. In our efforts to “press in” and “press on,” we seek God, yet we find our faith is debilitated because we simply haven’t been filling our time with His presence. When we cry out, “Where is God?” we find that He is there…He’s been there all along…it’s where we’ve been that’s the begging question.

Life is able turn in an instant. We can be filled with joy and peace one moment, only to be consumed with deep sorrow and despair in the next. We can find ourselves in a position before God where we’re too discouraged to kneel in prayer, much less lift our hands in praise. (Psalm 38:13-14 NIV) Our spirit becomes so vacant that we simply have nothing to say. We’re desperate to be filled; to have the joy that comes from unwavering faith, the peace that comes from trusting in a loving sovereign God, and the rest that comes from knowing that God is with us always. In the darkest valleys of life, we cling to our faith with little hope. Read the rest of this entry »

by Cherie Hill

Okay, so maybe Chicken Little got it wrong, but for many of us facing unthinkable circumstances…our sky is falling! It becomes increasingly difficult to stand firm in our faith when the very ground we’re standing on is shaking and the expectations for our lives are crumbling down around us. It’s not long before disillusionment and disappointment set in which begins to breed bitterness and resentment. As the “sky falls,” we look up at it…wondering, “Where is God in all of this?”

As our spirit begs for answers from a God who seems so silent, we’re faced with many choices in our times of despair. We can run around franticly yelling, “The sky is falling,” or we can run helplessly into the arms of the “Maker of the skies.” God’s Word tells us to do four things when we’re consumed with hopelessness and despair.

1) Turn to God. (Immediately!) How much peace have we forfeited and how much unnecessary pain have we endured…all because we fail to run immediately to the throne of God? Psalm 23 tells us that God is our source of strength in the valleys. We may not understand why God has allowed us to encounter our trials, but He has promised to use whatever pain and suffering you are enduring for your good and His glory! (Romans 8:28-29) Read the rest of this entry »

by Cherie Hill

A New Year brings the overwhelming anticipation of things to come; all of us will experience joys as well as sorrows. (We’ve been assured that “troubles” will come. John 16:33) But, in our tragedies as well as our triumphs, we tend to forget that we don’t need a “New Year” to give us a fresh start! Our God is faithful and He has given us the dawn of every morning as a sign that EVERY DAY is a NEW day!

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. (Lamentations 2:22-23 NLT)

Each night we have the opportunity to reflect on our day and grasp hold of the grace that is being prepared for the day ahead. Each day we are to reflect on our relationship with God and humbly ask Him to search our hearts so that we walk the path which leads to a life that is secured in His hands. Read the rest of this entry »

by Cherie Hill

On that magnificent night, so long ago,

Christ our Savior was born into this world.

Yet, there was no room for Him.

“She gave birth to her first child, a Son.

She wrapped Him snugly in strips of cloth and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room.”

Luke 2:7 (NLT)

There was no room on the earth that Christ came to save.

He not only brought hope, love, and peace to all mankind,

but gave us eternal life by dying in our place.

Yet, daily, we find ourselves saying, “There is no room.”

Read the rest of this entry »

by Cherie Hill

In an effort to attempt to illustrate the importance of sharing with those having less than we have, the pastor asked all the children to come in front and sit in the front pew on both sides of the church. Then, he began to hand out a few M&M’s to the children on one side and none to the children on the other side. After doing so, He stepped back and asked if they noticed anything wrong. One child, on the side with the candy, stood up and pointed to the child next to him and said “Yeah, you gave him three and only gave me two!”

Too often, we find ourselves focusing on what we “don’t” have instead of what we “do” have. We fail to focus on the ways that we can share what we have with others. Giving to others and sharing what God has given to us glorifies Him. It’s magnifying Him, instead of magnifying OUR needs… that makes Him smile. Read the rest of this entry »