"Keep up your courage...for I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me" Acts 27:25.
This has been prepared, and what is sent out is done so with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and with prayer that all that is shared may continue to be used to bring an encouragement through testimonies regarding the faithfulness of God.
How this nation needs prayer...this nation needs healing....we all need prayer...and many lives need healing, both physically and spiritually and God promises to restore health to us all. Each time we are sick we know that it is the Lord who heals us and that He uses doctors and medicine and prayer....but our ultimate healing is in heaven as that is where He will restore all who believe in Him. As we wake each year on 9-11 we are reminded of the attacks that struck this nation and of how this nation turned to God in prayer....how difficulties turn our hearts to God as we are reminded how we need Him and how He desires that we come to Him when we face hardships. Two years ago today on 9-11 we faced a second 9-11 in our lives....the greatest attack and battle that we had yet to endure....the Lord gave Randy and me Jeremiah 30:17..."I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, says the Lord" and through His Word which are His promises to us we can keep our courage as we have faith that all will happen just as the Lord tells us. We clung to Jeremiah 30:17 as we went to the hospital to see the doctors....remembering that no earthly circumstance can hinder the fulfillment of Gods Word in our life and we must look continually at His unfailing Word and not at the uncertainty of this ever changing world and our ever changing circumstances.
We did not know how this promise of God would unfold that day but we knew the Lord promised to heal...either physically but most importantly spiritually as we are promised healing once through our salvation and then the fulfillment of a healing that takes place as we enter heaven to be with the Lord forever. But we knew that God promises healing...as we trust in Him. Immediately we felt the many prayers of the saints that day … with so much love and support as the day unfolded...as we entered into the valley of the shadow with many uncertainties...but we had a faith that was unshakable knowing that the Lord was governing this day and it was our part to wait patiently on Him and to put our trust in the one who was in control of all our tomorrows. As my heart began to fret...I knew my faith had to be the anchor of my soul. A faith that required me to go deeper, to trust His love when our eyes are so dim and to look up in submission to Christ...to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ...to endure to the end which we knew would require us to lose every ounce of our being to gain all of His peace through all He was asking of us as we continued to walk together through the doors of the hospital along with Christ on this very day in 2017.
It continues to be my prayer each day that God would show me how to yield myself up to Him completely...that through times of distress and through times when God is calling us all to move forward in places where the path is unknown...we would step out in faith even though the 'reasons why' we cannot always see but we can believe. To continue to walk forward as in the words of Paul etched within our hearts that speak of a trust in God that is not questioned..but a faith that says ..."Keep up your courage...for I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me" Acts 27:25.
As we desire to know the Lord more, He will never keep us in a box but He will give us more land to possess and more victories and more places in our lives to overcome. We all need the difficulties in our life to enlarge our character and grow our faith. Recently a woman shared with me how through her tribulations she has been enduring it has caused her to be drawn closer to Christ and how He has now asked her to step out in areas of faith that were so uncomfortable to her before. Through her endurance God is using her own pain and sorrow to help another as the Lord comforts her heart despite all she is going through and through this difficult the Holy Spirit has used her to minister and to share Christ with another woman broken and in her same situation. Through her endurance she is now praying out loud for the first time with others, studying her Bible more and praying throughout the day...growing in steps of faith that are filling her heart and now all that God is doing in her she is being blessed as she pours out the hope she has been given into the lives of others...with the same comfort He has given her. Her sympathy for others has been elevated in great ways as she has experienced suffering in her own life....and in the giving to others she has experienced a fulfillment in her heart that through her own sorrow there becomes a great bond that has connected her with others. This is the beauty of the Lord.
And yes, this too is the life of faith...that we would not be surprised at the fiery trials that come upon us and test us as though something strange has happened to us as 1 Peter 4:12 tells us....but that through the testing of our faith through even the darkest of times....that we would still believe with yet an even greater faith and then expound and exhort from the Scriptures to others as we ourselves wait patiently on the Lord and endure as the Lord asks of us to hold the burdens He has given us for Him. To endure...is to not to need an understanding but only to believe that God will bring good out of what He is asking of us. If we trust in Him He will bring glory out of it all...glory to His name. Through it He will shape us into a vessel for His eternal purposes. It is a yielding each day and a purposeful exercise of our faith put into action that requires us to take the focus off of ourselves as to what is happening to us but to focus on what He will accomplish through us. To have our hearts inline with His very heart, who, for the “joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame” and counting all things loss that we might win souls to Jesus and bring glory to God. That all the Lord’s people would have more of His heart with the greatest of trust in the One who has a purpose for everything and He promises us that even each of our trials line up accordingly as part of His plan.
"Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and firm conviction that Your will governs all" (E. E.). The Most High One is the Most High One over all the earth. Over our health, finances, over all our affairs and over the affairs of the world. We cannot understand all that the many families are feeling who lost loved ones on 9-11 several years ago on this day....the many lives who have suffered greatly...and yet there is still much good that has come out of it as God continues to work as His Spirit continues to roam over the earth while His church is still here...despite the evil that is in the world. In this age of grace He is drawing many to Him...and using our lives...as many continue to pray and yield their lives to Him for His eternal purposes.
This day resonates greatly in my own heart as two years ago this day we received news of Randys diagnosis as he waited throughout the weekend knowing something was not right...and on 9-11 we woke up and headed to the hospital. My husband already had raised his faith once again...as he always did when the unknown was before him always enduring in quiet humility when the storms tried to crush and break him only to see him bore up by his words of continued comfort to us all....always saying that we "wait on the Lord for all things are in His hands". Throughout his life and service to God I learned to give all of my heart up to the will of God and to assist him in his calling and to minister to others as the Lord has ministered to us....and to try and fulfill my marriage vows faithfully. To serve him in the smallest of things and in the greatest of things....and serving with him the God in whom we trust. To be his support...through all God called him to endure in his life of service....and now to wait on the Lord this day two years ago...as God asked me 'Do you believe?"....Waiting and following Him with firm conviction that His will governs all....regardless of my feelings...regardless of my desires...regardless of my own plans...when everything is not turning out as I believe they should....I knew I served a God who was Sovereign and held our lives in His hands....it was I who was called upon to believe...to believe once again on every promise of God in His Word and every command in His Word I knew I must purpose in my heart to obey.
Todays Word that I read this morning in my quiet time I am sharing with you all below as it ministered greatly to me. This morning as I had been thinking of this day and remembering the significance it is to me I read what was a beautiful reminder of my husbands faith...a faith that we too read of in the life of Abraham...and the blessing we have been given of the examples of those who have endured to the very end...and ultimately of Jesus' example.
How many great men and women of faith who have endured with each trial, pressing forward, waiting on the Lord for His unfailing Promises in each of their circumstances....knowing that they were indestructible until the Lord would call them home......and through each step of the way they could testify of God answering and delivering them as they waited on Him....and to the very end when they then received the fulfillment of all that was promised, receiving the promise of eternity with the Lord. I am so thankful for the example of my husband...and that of many others of great faith whom God used to encourage others....those men and women of great courage who stood on the Word of God and who understood that temptations and afflictions would come but it is God who would carry them through. They showed us all how to suffer without being discouraged and their hearts were hearts that served, loved and held on tightly to the Lord and after waiting patiently they received what they were promised, they were richly rewarded.
"After waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised." Hebrews 6:15 ~
Abraham was tested for a very long time, but he was richly rewarded. The Lord tested him by delaying the fulfillment of His promise. Satan tested him through temptation, and people tested him through their jealousy, distrust, and opposition to him. Sarah tested him through her worrisome temperament. Yet he patiently endured, not questioning God's truthfulness and power or doubting God's faithfulness and love. Instead, Abraham submitted to God's divine sovereignty and infinite wisdom. And he was silent through many delays, willing to wait for the Lord's timing. Having patiently endured, he then obtained the fulfillment of the promise.
Beloved, God's promises can never fail to be accomplished, and those who patiently wait can never be disappointed, for believing faith leads to realization. Abrahams life condemns a spirit of hastiness, admonishes those who complain, commends those who are patient, and encourages quiet submission to Gods will and way.
Remember, Abraham was tested but he waited patiently, ultimately received what was promised and was satisfied. If you imitate his example, you will share the same blessing". (Cowman. SELECTED)
May we imitate the godly and beautiful examples of all those whom God has put in our lives....that we too would share the same blessings. All those whose faith has endured as they have walked out each day yielded to Him. A faith that is always waiting, believing and depending upon God and His Word....a faith that is always believing that their Father in heaven knows best because His ways are far beyond our own and His thoughts are not our own. My husband prayed continually for his own heart...and often the same for all he knew...that he would be found faithful to the end because his one aim in life was to be a servant of the living God and how he desired to live a life pleasing to His Lord at all costs and no matter the cost he knew the price was small compared to the price Jesus paid at the cross for the salvation he was given...and even at all costs he could still always maintained a peace because every part of his being, his life, he laid daily at the feet of Jesus. This prayer is the same for me today as I pray for myself and for all whom God has put in my life.
May God grant us faith through whatever we face that we would never give up all hope of being saved....but that we would endure and keep on...and continue to say.... "Keep up your courage...for I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me" Acts 27:25
Michelle A. Guerra
Comments