the pain and angry thoughts hit. Yanking
me back from muddy waters of unforgive-
ness and steadying my feet on God’s truth:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones,
holy and beloved, compassionate hearts,
kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
bearing with one another and, if one has a
complaint against another, forgiving each
other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you
also must forgive. And above all these put
on love, which binds everything together in
perfect harmony. Colossians 3:12-14
As the thoughts came barreling in, I
prayed these verses over myself, asking God
for the humility and meekness that I was
obviously lacking. I also invited him into my
temptation, asking for his help in the very
moments when I realized how I was falling
back into bitterness. It seems simplistic,
but it made all the difference. Going to
God’s Word and interrupting my hot angry
thoughts with a quick prayer for him to
intervene in my temptation. I think of the
verses where God tells us to ask for help in
our weak moments:
For we do not have a high priest who
is unable to sympathize with our weak-
nesses, but one who in every respect has
been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let
us then with confidence draw near to the
throne of grace, that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:15-16
God never intended for us to fight our
flesh or the devil on our own. He gave us his
Spirit and his word, and we so desperately
need it.
10 HimPower November/December 2018
These feelings still return, over and over
again. But my hope is, that as the years pass
by, the hurts my family causes each other
won’t sour into the hardening of our hearts.
Instead, may we allow God to use the pain
to tenderize us, making us ever more reliant
on him. Shifting the hopes and dreams that
we had placed so carefully and expectantly
into the arms of others and transferring
them back into the only embrace that can
bear their burden- the everlasting arms of
our Father. He is our home and our refuge.
And when we fall, which we will, it is his
arms on which we must rely to catch us.
(Deuteronomy 33:27a) As so beautifully
penned by Florence White Willett:
I thank You for the friends who’ve failed
To meet my soul’s deep need;
They’ve driven me to the Savior’s feet
Upon His love to feed.
I’m grateful too, through all
life’s way
No one could satisfy,
And so I’ve found in You alone
My rich, my full supply!
—Florence White Willett
As God meets our heart’s deepest
longings, we can finally accept our fami-
ly’s failure to do so. And here the churning
waters of our souls find peace.
Juliane Wiebracht is a homemaker in Longview,
TX who shares God’s love with women who are
incarcerated.