Casandra Martin

“For he himself is our peace…” – Ephesians 2:14a

Sometimes my entire decision about what I am going to wear is based on my shoes. Do I crave comfort? Do I need something dressy? Is it sandal weather or are boots required? I build my outfit from the feet up.

God pictures peace as the shoes that we put on as we get ready to walk in the world. Many times we think of peace as something that we hope follows as we move through life’s circumstances. The Lord tells us that peace is what we put on to help us be ready to face whatever life throws at us.

Peace is an active trust in the sovereignty of God. It is a decision to stand in whatever situation we find ourselves believing in the truth that God is present, God is faithful, and God is moving for our very best good. Peace doesn’t mean that everything around us is calm and under control. Peace is the decision to trust that God is in control – even if I don’t understand, can’t see, am blinded by tears, or want something different. Peace flows from putting on shoes that will help me walk with my hand in His.

My Jesus Resolution today is to put on peace. When I get dressed in the morning, my entire outfit for the day is determined by the kind of shoes that I decide to wear. The same is true for my soul. Peace grows out of the decision I make to trust the heart of God. Today I can stand in the middle of whatever circumstances life throws my way because God has given me the shoes I need to walk in His steps.

“He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” – Psalm 23:3b 

Have you ever gotten lost? Really lost? So turned around that not only couldn’t you figure out where you are going, you are not even sure how you got where you are? Being lost is disorienting and discouraging. You think you are making forward progress only to run into a dead end or find yourself somewhere you never meant to be.

It is easy to get lost in this world. In the blink of an eye, we take a wrong turn, make the wrong choice, or follow the wrong set of directions. We end up looking around our circumstances, our relationships, and our souls wondering how we ended up so far from where we wanted to be.

God knows my tendency to get lost. His righteousness is the answer. It is a GPS system for my heart. Covering myself in His righteousness protects me from wrong turns, foolish decisions, and the dangers of ending up where I don’t belong. The righteousness of Jesus Christ shows me how to walk in the right path, make the right decisions, and live in the right way.

Walking in righteousness works the same way as following the directions on my GPS. I have to trust the path that God tells me to follow. I have to listen to His voice and watch for His instructions. When I get off course, I have to let repentance follow the “recalculating” directives meant to draw me back to His side.

My Jesus Resolution today is to put on righteousness. I don’t want to end up lost, alone, scared, and trapped because I followed my own intuition or listened to the directions of the world. I want to be in the presence of God. Jesus came to earth in order to become the right way to God. His steps define the path I need to take. His words are the instructions I need to follow. His cross is the marker that points me in the right direction.

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” – Ephesians 6:11

Fear is scary. I know that sounds redundant, but fear has a way of worming itself into our hearts and minds and eating away at our souls. Fear has a way of slipping in and taking up residence in our thoughts and emotions. It begins to steer our actions and define our choices. Most of all, fear has the power to change how we see – our circumstances, the people around us, the resources available to us, and how we see ourselves in the mirror. Fear grabs hold and refuses to let go.

God understands the power of fear. He knows how it paralyzes us, chokes out our joy, steals our peace, and robs us of our confidence and ability to go forward. Fear is not the opposite of faith. Faith is the antidote to fear. Faith lets us listen to the voice of God even when fear is screaming in our ears. When we listen, we hear two words that will make all the difference. “Put on…”

Putting on is about more than donning something external. When God tells us to put on the armor of God, He is encouraging us to soak these characteristics deep into our souls. They become shields that guard our hearts, buffers that blunt the attacks that threaten to topple us, and defenders that protect what is most precious. When truth, righteousness, faith, and the rest infuse into the deep places of our hearts they ignite courage. Putting on Christ makes it is possible to be brave.

My Jesus Resolution today is to be brave. I don’t have to cower and let fear dictate my movement. God’s invitation to put on His armor is a step into courage. It is a chance to let faith confront my fear. It says that I choose to believe that there is a different, confident, joy-filled way to live. Being brave isn’t about never being afraid. Being brave means letting God, rather than fear, have the last word.

Bullying is big news these days. Bullies have always been around, but today it seems like they have more tools with which to inflict their pain. As our society becomes more fragmented, as television and video games put a golden spin on those who are aggressive, and permissiveness permeates our culture, the number of people who carry the scars of being bullied explodes.

Satan is the original bully. He pushes and prods and torments, striking where we are most vulnerable. He isolates us. His attacks make us feel unworthy, unwanted, and unwelcome. Without a remedy, his lies color the way in which we see the world. They drain our hope, feed our fear, and push us to live defeated, just-get-by lives.

God knows. God sees. God cares. Isn’t that what we most need to hold onto when the attacks come swiftly and furiously? When our hearts are being bruised and our faith is taking a beating, He steps in and hands us a gift. Armor that will protect us from the bully.

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” – Ephesians 6:13

God doesn’t want us to run, cower, hide, or live fearfully. He empowers us to stand up, stand firm, and stand with courage. The bully’s goal is to break us. By putting on the whole armor of God, the Lord makes it possible for us to live whole, healthy, joy-full, abundant lives.

My Jesus Resolution today is to remember that Jesus is the answer. When the bully takes a swing at my heart, I am going to be deliberate about standing with God. I am not alone. Fear is not bigger than His faithfulness. Grief doesn’t run deeper than His grace. Helplessness is defeated by hope. The bully wants me to be a victim. Standing with Jesus, I get to live in victory.

Weakness is not a happy word. In our culture, weakness is the great shame. It doesn’t matter what form your weakness takes, our society values strength. We pay pro athletes enormous sums of money to entertain us with their strength and talent. We give honor to people who are business savvy and take on the world. We elevate those who demonstrate their intellectual strength and admire those who walk with strong convictions. People who are weak have no place on the cultural stage.

Here is the truth. We all struggle with weakness. We all have messes, deal with discouragement, wrestle through hardships, and have places where we fail to measure up. The world challenges us to maximize our strengths, hide our weaknesses, and pretend that there are no tender, vulnerable places in our hearts.

In answer to the world, God reaches out His hand and whispers good news. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” – Ephesians 6:10

I don’t have to be strong. Not on my own. It isn’t up to me, my wisdom, my ability to figure it out, or my power to make it all work. I can lean into Him. I can depend on His power and rest in His might. I can allow my weakness to be transformed by His strength.

My Jesus Resolution today is to find my strength in Him. It isn’t easy. When discouragement, doubt, trouble, or temptation pops up, the first thing I am aware of is my own weakness. But that isn’t the end of my story. Because Jesus holds my heart and my hand, I can face the shadows because of His light. I can deal with uncertainty because of His faithfulness. I can let go of fear because of His grace. My weaknesses are real, but God’s strength is stronger.

I have a bruise. It is evidence of my toe coming into contact with something hard and unmovable. The bruise is sensitive and tender. It makes me think twice about where I put my foot. I am a little bit shier about moving forward and walking in the unknown.

If I am honest, my soul is bruised too. The world has crashed into my heart and left scars, wounding me and making me shy about moving forward with confidence. Some of the bruises are there because I ran headlong into places I didn’t need to go. Some are the result of tripping and falling over the world’s expectations and measures of what it means to be good enough. Some crashes I can see coming. Others take me by surprise and leave their mark. With each bruise, I walk with a little bit more fear. It is a paralyzing cycle.

Jesus doesn’t want me caught in this cycle of fear that wounds and bruises my soul. He promises to heal us, wrapping our bruised, wounded hearts in His tender mercy. He gives us the tools we need to walk through the world and face the crashes, bumps, struggles, and surprises with grace and peace. The armor of God that Paul encourages Christians to wear as they walk in the world is designed to protect us from the wounds which the world wants to inflict on our hearts. This armor is not theoretical or abstract. These are the practical tools that Christ gives us in order to equip us to face the world’s hard places.

My Jesus Resolution today is to trust Jesus with my wounds. We all have bruises, scars, and hurts. It takes trust and surrender to let God in and allow Him to touch the tender spots in my heart. I tend to believe that it is up to me to protect myself from getting hurt. Jesus not only has the power to heal what is broken and bruised, but to empower me to walk with faith and confidence through my day.

How often do you celebrate? Birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays come around once a year and we look forward to those celebrations. But the past season has taught me that while celebrating big moments is great, learning to celebrate in the small and ordinary moments may be even more important.

When we talk about celebration, we often think of parties and big to-dos, however, the word celebrate means “to rejoice in, observe, to praise publicly, proclaim.” When I let that definition soak into my soul, I realize that I want to be someone who celebrates daily. I long to rejoice in the presence of God. I want to open my eyes and observe His movement all around me. I want to be a person who publicly praises Him for His might, His grace, His love, and His care. Celebrating means proclaiming, each and every day, who God is and what it is that God has done for me.

What can you celebrate today? I want to celebrate the moments when my children help me see God. I want to celebrate warm quilts, hot coffee, sudsy soap, and soft pillows. I want to celebrate the piles of laundry, dirty dishes, and floors messy with toys. I want to celebrate God’s grace in struggles, His love in loneliness, His faithfulness in discouragement, His power in weakness, and His light in the middle of dark times. I want to see His fingerprints on all of my moments, rejoice in them, and proclaim that He is good, He is here, and He makes today worth celebrating.

My Jesus Resolution today is to celebrate the small things. Too many times I reserve celebrating for “big” moments and miss the opportunity to rejoice in the small, ordinary places where God is at work. Celebrating isn’t always about balloons and streamers. Sometimes the best celebrating is done in the quiet, hard places when I am able to hold God’s hand and find joy in the truth that He will never let go.

Happy New Year! Today 2014 stretches out before you with unlimited possibilities. This year is a blank slate, a new start, a chance to begin anew and let your heart take a new shape.

That is more hope than some of us feel like we deserve. We all desperately long for new beginnings. We ache for fresh starts and do-overs. But the baggage of the past has a stranglehold on our hearts. The weight of guilt and shame cause us to stumble as we seek to take steps in a new direction. Overwhelming, impossible, and defeated are the words that rise to the surface as we try to figure out how to take our hurts and let them heal.

Here is the good news God most wants you to know – He specializes in u-turns, do-overs, transformation, and fresh starts. It is His delight to walk into our messes, face our impossibles, and defeat our giants. We can’t, but He can. Too many times our New Year’s Resolutions are about rolling up our sleeves and working harder to be better than we were before. Too many times those kinds of resolutions are destined for failure before we even start. Deep down we know it, but hungry for change, we try anyway. There is, however, a resolution that comes with a guarantee. It is The Jesus Resolution.

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” – 1 Corinthians 2:2

My Jesus Resolution today is to recommit myself to living in The Jesus Resolution. This resolution isn’t about working harder, but surrendering more deeply. The call of The Jesus Resolution is to allow God full access to every part of my life and live wholly in the transformation He longs to work in me. The Jesus Resolution challenges me to give up surface happiness for deep joy, shallow living for the abundant life, and self-reliance for complete dependence. Learning to look like Jesus is the answer to the ache that is buried deep in my soul. Today I am going to let God take control of what I think, where I go, what I do, and who I am. My resolution – to look more like Jesus. Will you make The Jesus Resolution with me?

Photographs are treasures. They capture the moment, helping to cement the details that so often slip away in our busy lives. In snapshots, we can see growth, recall joy, laugh at mistakes, remember lessons learned, and count blessings.

Before this year slips away, take a snapshot of your walk with God. Take a minute to answer the following questions. God has been at work in you, around you, and through you for His glory. Notice His hand. Trace His fingerprints. Listen for His heartbeat. Stopping to capture these moments brings Him honor, softens our hearts to His movement, and helps us catch a glimpse of the transformation God is working within us.

1. Where did you see God most clearly this year?

2. What joy lifted your eyes and heart to heaven?

3. What struggle made you more aware of God’s presence?

4. Where did God surprise you this year?

5. What passage of Scripture came alive for you this year?

6. Which of God’s promises was especially sweet this year?

7. Where did you step out in faith and meet God in a new way?

8. When did grace wash over you most profoundly?

9. What sacrifice freed you to walk more deeply in His steps?

10. What is one way in which you look more like Jesus than you did a year ago?

My Jesus Resolution today is take a snapshot of the way God is working in me. Photo albums are fun because they tell a story. God is writing a story in my soul. It is a story of His grace and the deep purpose to which He calls me. Today I am going to answer these questions. I am going to write down the answers and put them in a transformation album. Each year I am going to come back, answer them again, and over the years, marvel at the way God is moving. As I look at these snapshots, there is one image that I want to see becoming increasingly clear – the image of Jesus.