Hope for the Weary Mom Devotional by Stacey Thacker

Author:Stacey Thacker
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736961370
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

Going Deeper

• What part of your sameness is a blessing to your kids today?

• How does it feel to know that tomorrow, when you wake up, Jesus is going to be just as real and loving as he is today?

Jesus is my hope for today because his name was hope in the very beginning of time.

He Prays for You

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

JOHN 17:20

Brooke

I made a commitment of faith when I was just nine years old.

Wide-eyed and trembling in the cold baptismal waters, I nodded my head in agreement as the pastor of my small Baptist church asked me if I had decided to give my heart to Jesus. After it was over, my mama and a group of sweet church ladies whisked me away to a Sunday School room to dry me off, get me warm, and make me presentable. I sat in the pew for the rest of the sermon with wet hair and a warm heart, knowing I’d just done something very important… something that would shape the course of the rest of my life.

The truth is, I don’t remember one single day when I wasn’t aware of God on some level. From the tender age of nine onward (and maybe even before), I’ve known God had a plan for my life, believed he was good, and sensed him watching over me. But in spite of those things—baptism, belief, knowing—I didn’t walk closely with him until I was almost 21 years old.

For twelve years I wore the title of Christian well, but if you’d looked inside my heart you wouldn’t have seen much to prove it. I like to call myself a Pharisee, because truly that’s what I was. Jesus describes this state of the heart when he’s talking to the religious leaders in Matthew 23:25: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”

It’s painful to think about, but plain to see that this verse described the way I was living—trying to make my own way while keeping God at arm’s length. Knowing that his rules and regulations were meant to protect me, but choosing to believe my feelings—what I could see, taste, touch, and hear—over the truth of his Word.

It was a recipe for disaster, and one that left me completely vulnerable before the God I had surrendered to as a young girl… and needed to surrender to again.

But as it turns out, my self-built disaster was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I sat on my bed in my college apartment surrounded by reminders of my own attempts to build a kingdom that glorified Brooke, and I wondered how I would find my way back. Ironically (or maybe not so much), I had decided to take a New Testament class that semester, and I remembered that I needed to do some reading in the book of John for homework.

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