Take Heart: Moving from Victim to Victor

By Giselle Timbie

Whether listening to world news or dealing with our own personal life situations, it can be challenging not to feel discouraged and overwhelmed at times.

Take Heart will take you on a journey of hope and purpose. You will receive along the way solid biblical perspective to set you on the path of victory, even in the most difficult circumstances.

You will be encouraged to:

Answer the question,

Whats the use? See your weakness as a good thing. Receive and embrace Gods special assignments to you. Consider what it means to be full of faith and the Holy Spirit Follow Jesus in a dynamic way Take Heart will inspire you to live the life you were created to live!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490839660

Giselle Timbie

Giselle Timbie and her husband David have served as missionaries in the Middle East for fifteen years. In addition to being evangelists, counselors, and Bible teachers, they have given seminars on a variety of topics including: principles for biblical counseling, marriage, and parenting. They currently reside in New York City where they minister with the Christian Embassy, an outreach to the diplomats and their families who are serving at the United Nations. Giselle and David have four adult children and three grandchildren.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-3967-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3968-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3966-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014910557

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/19/14

Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART I: TAKE HEART!

Chapter 1 What’s the Use?

Chapter 2 Essential Weakness

Chapter 3 Running with Perseverance

Chapter 4 Keeping the Towel

Chapter 5 Giving It to God

PART II: SHINING FACES!

Chapter 6 The Face of an Angel

Chapter 7 Faith versus Fear

Chapter 8 Faith versus Control

Chapter 9 Faith versus Sight

Chapter 10 Faith and the Spiritual Battle

Chapter 11 Full of the Spirit

Chapter 12 Portrait of Connection

Chapter 13 Full of Grace and Power and Wisdom

Chapter 14 Created for Good Works

Conclusion

Endnotes

This book is dedicated to my husband and best friend, David, who has constantly encouraged me to write.

Preface

L ife is full of temptations to lose heart. Perhaps you can identify with the apostle Paul who described himself as being afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. The details of our circumstances differ, but most of us are acquainted with what it is to be discouraged and ready to throw in the towel. After all, what’s the use?

The sport of boxing has given us the expression Throw in the towel. When the boxer is being beat up and the coach feels that the boxer is unable to continue, the coach literally throws a towel into the ring to indicate surrender and that the boxer is conceding the fight.

God never intended for us to throw in the towel during the lose-heart situations in which we find ourselves. Rather, He wants us to keep our towels and wrap them around our waists as servants would, following the example of Jesus as he washed the disciples’ feet.

Have you ever told God that you want Him to use you? Is your heart’s desire for God to accomplish something great through you? God’s answer often comes as He sends us as His servants into places and situations that are most difficult.

Our human response in those situations may be to see ourselves as victims of evil or injustice. There is no denying that evil and injustice are tangibly pervading the world. We can feel overwhelmed, defeated, and even broken. But God has other plans for us—plans to turn defeat into victory and the victim into the victor.

So, how do we turn the towel of surrender into the towel of service? If our service for Him is in the context of difficulties, how can one persevere without losing heart?

As you read through this book, I pray that God will speak to your soul through the Scriptures and that you will be encouraged to embrace your lose-heart situation and turn it into an opportunity to glorify God in and through your life.

Introduction

G od has given me the privilege of traveling to many countries on many continents. I am particularly captivated by the life and culture of the Middle East. One of the most poignant memories I have of being in the Middle East is visiting Golgotha and the Garden Tomb.

There is some debate about where the historic events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ took place, but the location that is referred to as Gordon’s Calvary had a deep impact on me.

Golgotha and the Garden Tomb are virtually side by side, but they offer a stark contrast. The crucifixion is believed to have taken place at the foot of the mountain called Golgotha. In English, the word Golgotha is translated as skull, an apt name for this mountain that bears a striking resemblance to a skull. The crosses were mounted in the barren stone quarry that was situated at the base of Golgotha. In front of the quarry was a public highway, making it a convenient place for Romans to carry out crucifixions. All who passed by could see the gruesome demonstration of the strong arm of the Roman government.

By contrast, the garden where Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb is was full of life. If it was then as it is today, then the lush garden would have been filled with the scent of flowers and the comfort of trees shading the visitor from the hot Judean sun.

For me, it was a very powerful experience to walk through the garden and hear the Lord Jesus being worshipped by groups of visitors from around the world. What a foretaste of men and women of every nation, tribe, and tongue who will one day be worshipping around the throne!

But, by far, what had the deepest impact on me was standing just outside the tomb. The reality of what happened there that day overwhelmed me. I was overtaken by the incredible sense that I was standing in the place where the world was profoundly changed forever.

Often, I refer to the resurrection as though it was quite ordinary. I might talk about it in the same way that I tell someone that I made meat loaf for dinner last night. But the resurrection changed everything!

In that moment, my heart understood, in some small measure, the indescribable power of God. I pictured the violent earthquake and an angel with the appearance of lightning rolling back the stone to reveal the empty tomb. It is no wonder that the guards who had been assigned to secure the tomb became like dead men!

They Didn’t Get It

Throughout the gospels, we are told that Jesus repeatedly told the disciples that he was going to be killed and, on the third day, rise again. But they never seemed to get it. Finally, the hour came. Jesus was nailed to the cross at Golgotha, where He died an excruciating death.

The days immediately after His death must have been interesting ones for the disciples. We don’t spend too much time thinking about those days because we know what happens next.

Even though Jesus had told His disciples what would happen next, they didn’t seem to be living in anticipation of the resurrection. None of them waited in the garden to have a front-row seat. None were on the streets telling people, Just wait! You’re going to see something really awesome! Rather, John’s gospel records, The doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews (John 20:19).

Two of them walked down the road away from Jerusalem. Jesus joined them, asking what they were talking about. Luke, who recorded the story in Luke 24:13–32, simply states, They stood still, their faces downcast (Luke 24:17).

Their discouragement was at least in part explained by the next words which were spoken by the disciples: We had hoped. They had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel (Luke 24:22).

The disciples continued to say that it was then the third day since Jesus had died. Some women had gone to visit the tomb, but when they got there, His body was gone. Angels appeared to tell them that Jesus was alive. This incredible report was confirmed by other people who went to the tomb to see for themselves.

But for these two men who were walking away from Jerusalem, not even this report affected their outlook. They were stuck between the cross and the empty tomb, and they had lost heart. They had Jesus’ promise of what was coming (not to mention the compounding evidence), but the grief and pain of the moment blinded them to the wonder of what was to come. ‘How foolish you are,’ Jesus said, ‘and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory’ (Luke 24:25)?

In chapter one, we will come back to this encounter on the road to Emmaus. Luke records that after Jesus left His disciples, the two men asked each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?

That brief encounter with Jesus effectively took two men who had lost heart and filled their hearts with understanding and hope. May our own hearts be touched by our risen Lord as we examine the Scriptures together.

PART I:

Take Heart!

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It is written: I believed; therefore I have spoken. Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but