inspiration
Welcome from the Editor
who He is. But most importantly, at the heart of God’s faithfulness is His great love for you and me. Deuteronomy 7:8 says, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” Let that sink in…He is the faithful God, the keeper of His covenant of love to every single one of us. So as you leaf through the pages of this issue, I want you to realize that you are holding faithfulness in your hands. God has not only been faithful to you our faithful JBU family through the years, but also to our new family members who are about to embark on this faithfulness journey with us for the first time. We are so glad you’ve joined us! It’s my prayer that this issue will point you to God’s faithfulness in your life in new and deeper ways. Author Jane Rubietta kicks off our faithfulness year with her wonderful article, “Finding God Faithful in All Our Unknowns” on page 22. And we were privileged to sit down with JBU founder Jill Briscoe who challenges us to faithfully finish the race all the way home in “Faith Conversations” on page 18. Let’s take some time this new year to recount the past faithfulness of God in our lives and lift up our hearts to Him in gratitude, and to be on the lookout for His faithfulness in the coming days. May we celebrate our always faithful God! And we celebrate you our faithful JBU family of readers. Rejoicing in God’s faithfulness,
Shelly Esser has been the editor of Just Between Us for the last 30 years.
3
just between us S P R I N G 2 0 2 0
New years and anniversaries give us a moment to pause and reflect on what is behind us. And my guess is if I were to have a heart to heart with you, most of you would have incredible stories of God’s fingerprints of faithfulness all over your lives. That is certainly true for my life and it couldn’t be more true for the ministry of Just Between Us. Thirty years ago, no one—publishing executives, sometimes our own team, and many others—thought it was possible to run a magazine with a handful of part-time staff with mostly volunteers (over 30 to be exact)! But here we are celebrating 30 years of ministry to women all over the world—you! Without God’s faithfulness which, by the way, we’ve chosen to be our word for the year, we would not be here. Without your faithfulness to us, we would not be here. When I think about how faithfulness is one of the characteristics of God’s nature, I am so deeply grateful and sobered at the same time. Grateful because the God of the Universe chooses to be faithful to me through the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between—even when I am unfaithful to Him. Because of who He is, His character cannot be anything but faithful to you and me. People let us down and we let them down, but we have an intimate God who never lets us down. How refreshing to know that there is someone who we can be certain will do what He says He’s going to do. We don’t have to wonder or doubt—even though we do at times. Everything He does is an outflow of His faithfulness—He’s reliable, dependable, consistent, and loyal. He will never stray from
