April--Beyond Doubt to Hope and Cheer

Charis Corner: Stories of Grace in a Broken World

By Kari Mahara

2 Corinthians 10:3-5: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Life is an ocean. Water surrounds me, stretching in all directions as far as I see.

Sometimes it’s calm. The blue water is smooth, beautiful. The sun rises in the east and sets in the rest, its vivid colors bursting from the horizon across the sky and rippling along the water. I’m at peace. I don’t need a life jacket or floating device. I float on my back, content in my circumstances.

But then the storms come. The tumultuous clouds block out the light of the sun or turn red as blood in warning of what is to come. Waves rise and fall, tossing me about, a mere leaf in the arms of a tornado. Fear flies in with the wind, choking me. What can I do? Who can help me? The words I AM resound in my mind. God can.

I call out, and He wraps His arms around me in an instant, a life jacket strapped to my chest. I cling to it and wait out the storm. But what happens when the storm passes? Do I continue clinging to the life jacket? Or do I relax, take it off, and toss it the side?

I’m in the middle of an ocean. Yet sometimes I forget the danger of my circumstances, lulled into security when the waves are calm. Then the sky darkens. The wind whips my hair. The waves crash into me, and I frantically reach for my life jacket again, swearing this time not to take it off.

Until the storms come again. This time, I pray for deliverance and know this will pass. Each time, I choke on salt water and feel bruised by the waves. I surrender control, but it’s not enough. My anxious thoughts swarm me again and again, haunting me with their half-truths and lies. The enemy taunts me.

But this time, I’ve had enough. This time, I turn my gaze to the Heavens and reach out my hands. Jesus walks to me on the water. He waits for me. I pull myself up onto the surface of the water and call out, “Enough!” I claim Jesus’s words as my own. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

When the winds die down and the waves smooth into ripples, Jesus’s smiling face fills my sight. For once, I didn’t let Satan’s lies consume my mind, but instead I stood strong in Him and resisted the enemy.

Psalm 94:19 (NLT): “When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.”