Cross My Heart Ministry

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
Psalm 13:5

Do you remember the old game show $10,000 Pyramid (or $15,000, $25,000 or $100,000—depending on the decade you tuned in)? Teams of two worked together, one giving clues to help the other guess the word or phrase in the box on the screen. I loved playing along and calling out clues to the television screen—convinced that my clues were helping!

If the box said unfailing, what clues would you give? A few may come to mind:

• dependable
• steadfast
• reliable
• constant
• without error

Love, on its own, is a powerful word. With Valentine’s Day approaching, we see the word love everywhere. We love our spouses and our children.  We love life and the opportunities it provides. We love God, we love His Word, and we love serving Him.

All that love flowing from us is made possible because of God’s love first flowing to us.

God’s love is unconditional, sacrificial, and providential.

In the book of Psalms, the Psalmist uses the word unfailing 33 times to describe God’s love. When unfailing is an adjective describing love, we can only be referring to God’s love. No human love is unfailing; because we are fallible, we are incapable of unfailing love. Only God Himself will never let us down. Only He loves us with an unfailing, everlasting, dependable, steadfast, reliable, constant, without-error love.

It’s so perfect, it borders on unbelievable.

It’s so wonderful, our hearts can scarce take it in.

Whether I am obedient or disobedient. Whether or not I skipped my quiet time, yelled at the kids, or disrespected my husband. I may have been selfish, insensitive, and prideful. I may have let down a friend, and blown an opportunity to help when it was within my ability to do so. But God still loves me. He keeps loving me.

His love is UNFAILING.

Do you believe that? Do you live like you believe that?

Once you truly take hold of this beautiful truth, it will change how you live. It will reshape your motivations. It will color your day and transform your why. It will bring freedom from condemnation, from feeling compelled to perform. It will elevate have to until it becomes want to … or even delight to.

Take a moment and soak it in, revel in it, be amazed by it: God’s unfailing love.

And then pause to praise along with the Psalmist:

…I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Unfailing love is indeed cause for rejoicing!

If you have subscribed to our YouTube channel, you may have already seen this week’s teaching video from II Kings. If not, we hope you’ll take a few moments to watch as Laura shares insights from chapters 5 and 6 of II Kings — the story of how God chooses an unnamed “young girl from Israel” to fulfill His plans.

If you have not already, we invite you to visit us on YouTube and become a subscriber today!

A prior version of this post from Laura was published on
AReasonForHomeschool.com

When I typed love in the BibleStudyTools.com search box, 526 verses popped up.  You and I can most likely anticipate (and even quote) many of them:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

We love because he first loved us.
I John 4:19

But the fruit of the Spirit is love…
Galatians 5:22

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Matthew 22:37-39

A myriad of others—verses we have written, quoted, cross-stitched, calligraphed, memorized, savored, and prayed back to God over the years—could be added to the list.

Look again at the list above. Besides the word love, what do they all have in common? They are found in the New Testament.

Does an unconscious part of us view the God of the Old Testament as the God of righteousness and judgment, while the God of the New Testament is one of love and compassion?

He is the same!

To celebrate HIS GREAT LOVE, our Write the WORD focus for February is love. That’s probably predictable since it is Valentine’s month, but what might be unexpected is all of these verses will come from the Old Testament. When evaluating that list of 526 scriptures, I found 326 in the Old Testament—far too many for our 28 days of Write the Word in February!—so I pared down even further and chose all our love verses from Psalms. (Even then, there were 143! It was excruciating to choose only 28!)

As we celebrate love this month, we may send gifts and valentines to our spouses, our parents, our children, our grandchildren, and many others we love. But let’s begin by celebrating the One who loved us first. The One who not only is loving, but is the embodiment of love. The One who, in creating love, makes it possible in every other relationship. He is love personified. He is God Almighty.

As we love our way through Psalms, we will be empowered and motivated to pray God’s Word back to Him. We will take note of beautiful, almost-poetic prose that the Psalmist repeats over and again:

• Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens…
• His love endures forever…
• Your unfailing love…

We will note that God’s love is good, it is great, and it fills the earth. Savor these words. Write them out. Pray them back to Him. Let them marinate in your heart and mind throughout each day. And let them prompt praise back to the One who created love and who loved you first.

Visit our Downloads page today for your own copies of this month’s Write the WORD bookmark and optional S.O.A.P. study pages, then prepare to write verses about God’s great LOVE during February.

In this week’s teaching video from our study in II Kings, Laura discusses the story of the Shunammite woman from chapter 4. Although we don’t know this woman’s name, we can relate to her and learn from her:

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An earlier version of this post by Laura
was originally published on AReasonForHomeschool.com

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18-19

Dwelling in the past robs us of our present and sabotages our future. God speaks to us powerfully through the prophet Isaiah when He says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”

He does not tell us to erase the past or ignore it. He does not say we should not apologize for our part in past sins, or release forgiveness for what was done to us.

He says, do not dwell on the past. Don’t live there! Is your past—either what you have done or what was done to you—eating you alive? Is your past on a loop in your mind, replaying the pain and hurt, day after day?

Just as it’s impossible physically to walk without stumbling while looking over our shoulder, so we cannot function in life if we are consumed with looking back—dwelling on—the past.

Those old hurts, conversations, disappointments, all the shoulda/woulda/couldas, are behind us. We cannot go back and change what has happened, and dwelling on these things only adds to the pile of regret, shame, and sadness. It makes our present another layer heaped onto the sad pile of the past.

What is the way forward?

How can we move on?

Is it possible to make our today and tomorrow different from our yesterday?

Yes. With God.  He is the way-maker.

He wants to do a new thing. He will make a way for it to happen. Yes … even in the wilderness of your life, Isaiah says, as he paints a beautiful, hopeful picture of “streams in the wasteland.”

Regrets. We all have them. They may be professional, behavioral, mental, emotional, or relational.

The relational ones, at least for me, are the heaviest to bear. I made so many mistakes raising my children. As I was lamenting these regrets and crying out to God, “Oh, if only you would turn back the clock. I would do so many things differently.”

God spoke to me in that moment. He has spoken to me many times. While never an audible voice, I know when it is Him. I heard His voice in my heart: Laura, even if I were to do that, you would not do anything differently. Life has taught you many lessons. You needed to live to learn them.

Profound words from a wise and compassionate God. Life-changing words.

Life is indeed a classroom. What happens to us, what we do and do not do, all become lessons to be learned for the future. A teachable spirit means we learn from the wrong choices and allow those lessons to shape future decisions. Refusing to learn, on the other hand, means we may make the same mistakes over, and over, and over yet again.

Owning what I’ve done wrong, asking forgiveness, and releasing forgiveness have all helped me to realize: It’s what you do next that counts.

The Gospel—the good news—means that in Christ we no longer need to be defined by our past. If we could fix it on our own, the Cross would not have been necessary.

Do you know my Jesus? Have you acknowledged your sin and need for forgiveness? If you are forgiven by Him, is it time to forgive yourself? It’s time to MOVE ON … stop dwelling in the past and start living in the present!

Are you ready for His new thing? If so, stop dwelling on the past!

This week was the first of our Spring study in II Kings! We hope you’ll enjoy the introductory teaching video here:

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“LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?”
Psalm 15:1

I’ve been reading Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, and am reminded that God is always at work and He invites me to join Him in that work. I’ve been convicted to consider how often I have asked God to join me in my work – to come to my tent and bless what I have planned – instead of asking Him what He has planned and how I can be a part of it. The difference may be subtle or it may be substantial.

In the verse above David puts the focus on GOD’s tent and GOD’s mountain. He wanted to join God – to be where God was. His prayer was not asking God to come to his tent. Rather, David wanted to be part of what God was doing.

I’m learning to shift the focus of my thought life and my prayers. I’m learning to begin by asking God what His plans are, how He is working, and how He wants me to contribute. I’m determined to dwell in God’s tent rather than ask Him to come dwell in mine.

This short verse also reveals a gospel nugget to be mined out. David’s question, “Who may dwell…who may live…?”  reminds us that none are worthy to dwell in God’s sacred tent or live on His holy mountain. But because of Jesus, I am declared righteous. I can join Him. What I could never earn on my own has been given to me as a gift.

I invite you to join with me in praying Psalm 15:1 back to God:

O God, thank you for the gift of righteousness in Jesus. It is “righteousness by faith from first to last!” Help me to live by this faith. Help me, God, to learn to pray differently – to focus on Your plan, Your way, and Your will. Forgive me for often asking You to come dwell in my tent—to bless my plans. I want to dwell in Your tent! I want to follow You plan! Thank you, Holy Spirit, for gently reminding me even as I began in prayer today that I needed to realign what I was asking. Thank you for being a gentle teacher and guide. Lord, what are you up to today? And how can I join You?

In this week’s devotional video, Laura shares some thoughts from the first chapter of her upcoming Bible study in II Kings. We invite you to listen, and then to pray about who God would like you to look on as “precious in His sight.”

“I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
Psalm 4:8

Was David declaring these words through clenched teeth?

Was he singing these words with a happy heart?

Was David giving thanks from a place of serenity and calm … and was that calm the eye of a storm while the proverbial tornado swirled around him?

The longer I live, the more convinced I become that choosing to dwell with God – choosing, as a friend recently said to me, to be on the side of the fence with Jesus – is what matters. The battle may be real. Circumstances may be hard. Life may feel unfair. People may be mean. The culture may be crazy. All these may be what you and I see as we look around. But hear me on this: none of it has to penetrate our personal reality.

Circumstances do not get to define who we are. The Cross did that – and still does that.

We may look around and feel fearful, frightened, unsafe, and anything but peaceful. But when we look up, we find our due north – we see Him. And He provides the spiritual equilibrium we need.

As women of God, our identity is wrapped up in Jesus. Unhappy circumstances need not rob us of peace and joy.

God is sovereign over events in our world. He is above the culture, above the hurt and pain and struggles in this world. Whether He causes it or allows it, He is aware of it and will use it for my good AND HIS GLORY.

I look out and I can easily become frightened or angry. I must shift my focus up – to God. He has not stepped back. He is not unaware. He is not uncaring.

He is working.

Do you believe that? Is it truth only in your head that needs to migrate to your heart? If you are like me, believing it yesterday was for yesterday. Today is a new day to settle that truth anew.

Whether today brings tears or laughter, whether the biopsy is positive or the bank balance is negative, or whether scale is up or down, I am at peace because I know the Prince of Peace. I am safe – not just today, but for eternity. I can rest and revel in His love and provision.

Would you pray the words Psalm 4:8 back to God with me?

As emotions swirl and tears flow, may each of us sleep in peace – knowing that real peace can only be found in You. The world, the culture, and sometimes even our Christian brothers and sisters rob us of peace and safety, but You are unchanging. You are steadfast, faithful. You are God Almighty.

God, transform us in the days and weeks ahead in this new year. Equip us to be women who do not just cry or become angry, who do not complain or criticize others, but who point others to Scripture, to You. I pray our happy times and our hard times always point to You. Holy Spirit, remind us that You are always working.

Thank you for the peace that comes in knowing that even though our circumstances may be anything but peaceful, You are the Prince of Peace. Use these challenges to shore up our faith in You and understanding of how You work in and through them. Be glorified in all this, God. Transform us through whatever comes.

Thank You for the sacred privilege of being Your child. Thank You for the gift of life to come in heaven and life on earth today. Help us to steward our lives and our experiences well. I will choose to rest in Your love and Your peace. You and You only keep me safe. I choose today to dwell in You. Thank You, Jesus, for loving me and keeping me safe—today and forever. Amen.

In this week’s devotional video, Laura discusses Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and His great gifts to us today: