Nancy Grisham, Ph.D.
By Suzanne O'Keeffe, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –It is Nancy's desire for whoever picks up her book, to learn and know that by applying Jesus' promises, one can work through even the hardest of challenges and come through in a spiritual abundance. This book is not about making things easy, it is about becoming more intimate with Him and living for His purposes. Nancy has learned it is about the love of God, and our freedom to embrace that love joyfully from Him, regardless of the disappointments.
LEANING INTO GOD
Nancy describes the divorce she was not expecting. The pain and disappointment from the loss of her marriage caused her to learn how to lean into the One who loves her. She correlates the receiving to that of a football playing, opening their hands to the ball headed their way, taking it and running with it. Since God is love, and never acts outside of His nature, Nancy shares we need to guard against assigning our idea of love or the influence of others because we then put up roadblocks to the infinite love and compassion of who He is. We know the true love of God through Christ and the fact that His love never changes, regardless of our circumstances or beliefs. The bottom line is that we can know that we know the love of "God through Christ, even when we may not feel His love."
TAKING A BREATH IN HIM
At the end of each chapter Nancy poses "Think about it" questions, backs it up with Scripture and then encourages the writer to follow through by reading and giving thought to the versed while thanking God. She challenges the reader to get away from old mindsets and patterns of thinking about the Lord, while encouraging all to enjoy Him knowing that He likes being with us and that we should give Him our full attention so He can "enables us to live with our minds cleared of the things that distract us from Him." Even though there are so many things in our lives and surroundings that would "push back" and prevent us from resting in Him, He encourages us to stop, "take a breath, and recalibrate our focus on Him." According to Nancy, there is not formula, no set in stone way of doing this. It can take place as she sites, in a grocery store where one woman took her shoes off in a grocery line because she sensed His nearness in such a way, it became holy ground.
The point is that the foundation of knowing the goodness of God is essential.
MINDS OF TRUTH
Blast away lies and old mindsets by renewing your mind in the Word, and know God more intimately by spending quality time with Him, as you would a friend. Learn to know who you are in Christ, read the Word and recognize you are His and therefore are blessed. Stop rehearsing, and nursing the condemning thoughts, and try thinking God's way. By studying Jehoshaphat's prayer in II Chronicles 20, you will learn the five principles that will lead to the truth while in the search of Him.
* Declare God's Greatness
* Recall God's Faithfulness
* Ask God for His Help
* Acknowledge You're Powerless
* Keep Your Eyes on
Overcoming fear and trusting God may not be easy to do, but He is the One who has all the answers and wants to help you. Nancy shares that there were three important women in her life that she lost to cancer. Those battles could have consumed her, but by looking to Jesus, and trusting Him, battling her thought-life, and praying God's Word brought victory. In the places where you can barely keep your head above water, those are the times she says we don't quit. Allow God to narrow our view and "fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen." Nancy writes that during the events when we don't think we hear from God, we just want to give up the journey, we need to keep waiting on the Lord. "Faith sometimes requires long stretches of believing A God without seeing any outward evidence. She cites as proof a time when a mortgage payment was due with no apparent means to make it. She spent some time in prayer calling out to the Lord, and the next day a friend invited her to lunch. Not knowing her situation, her friend proceeded to tell her that she and her husband felt to make her mortgage payment!!
STAY WITH HIM
In the closing chapter Never Give Up on God, Nancy describes the importance of letting go of the past, and God bringing things full circle. The opening pages of her book describe the unsettling event of her divorce. In closing she wrote of unpacking boxes from a move and finding her wedding album which still held pictures of her ex-husband. A few months before his unexpected death, Nancy had been in contact with him, wanting to have a form of reconciliation. During a phone call they had, several times he said, "Every day of my life I have regretted...", but he was interrupted and had to hang up. Her last words to him were, "God has forgiven you for everything." Thinking about that call and looking at her wedding pictures, Nancy shares how she had to face the rejection, pain and disappointment that felt like it had just happened. There came a moment of healing from God and she gave up her past and embraced her "moving day" forward. It's not that we let go of our memories of our life, we just don't let them dictate our future choices. In the final pages, Nancy attests to the fact, "The abundant life in Christ isn't just to make us more comfortable. It is daily living in Him for His greater purpose."