Last night was an extremely rough one for me. By the time we were ready for bed; my wife was quite out of it. I had never seen her to this extent, and to be honest, I really had to fight off some strong attacks of fear. After I got her to bed, I went down the stairs and sat quietly on the bottom step in the dark. For some reason this has gotten to be a common place of refuge for me during the toughest days. I sat there for a few moments and just let the silent darkness do its work to calm me down. I finally looked up to the ceiling and began to cry out to God.
Have you ever heard someone say that they felt like their prayers never made it past the ceiling? Well, that’s what seemed to happen to me… and I am so glad that they did! When I began to voice out my concerns of what I was seeing, it felt like the words immediately ricocheted off the ceiling and came right back to me! That experience startled me enough to stop me in mid-sentence and quickly see the error of my ways.
That little small still voice inside me suddenly became very loud and asked me what or better yet WHO I was going to believe. All the scriptures that we have been standing on began to roll across the screen of my mind, and I knew that this was a test that I needed to pass.
This morning I opened up my Bible to Colossians 2:6 and read: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (CEV) When I finished the verse that same voice (at about the same volume as the previous night) said inside me, “How did you receive Jesus?” I immediately replied, “by faith.” Then He reminded me of Hebrews 11:1 saying “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for (or expected), the evidence of things not seen.” (English Majority Text Version – parenthesis mine) The emphasis being on the words “not seen.”
Vincent’s Word Studies says concerning this verse that “Faith apprehends as a REAL fact what is not revealed to the senses. It RESTS on that fact, ACTS upon it, and is UPHELD by it in the face of all that seems to contradict it. Faith is a REAL seeing.”
Well, that’s all I needed to hear. God’s peace instantly flooded my soul and calmed my emotions. I was reminded of The TRUTH of the matter of my wife’s health, got back into the faith saddle and was ready to gallop through the weekend (or as my wife would say, through a Strong [new] Beginning!).
… And when I went up the stairs to see if my wife was awake this morning, she rolled over, gave me that beautiful killer smile (hummmm, maybe that’s the wrong descriptive word… but you know what I mean!), and said “Good Morning!” Talk about a 180 degree turn about face!!!
Isn’t God Good! Have a GREAT weekend (strong beginning?), keep your eyes on the Word and keep asking yourself… “What GREAT Things am I expecting today?”
Thanks for this encouraging experience of yours.
ReplyDeleteI felt the Holy sprit speaking to me through your journey of faith. The point is about an hour ago before reading this I felt like God is far away and even though He cares but does seems to me that HE does whatever pleases HIM. God has always answered my prayers but i have 3 prayer points which to me HE is ignoring or not answering and I felt like screaming and pulling my hairs off. I got the message to read Hebrew 11v1 this morning which i read but didn't sink in (probably got too familiar with it) until I read your blog and actually made me to understand HE is still on the throne and the answer to my prayers are right on my door step (I received this by faith).
God bless.
Olan, thanks for your testimony. Isn't it amazing how God can use one person's victory to help another in theirs! (I guess that is a Biblical principle!) Thanks for encouraging ME and everyone who reads this. Have a GREAT day!
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