Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9
Joshua 1:9
![]() Days before Michael’s wedding, he contracted the Covid virus. Doctors had little hope for his recovery and encouraged his fiancée, Melanie, to inform his family about how hopeless his situation was. His oldest son, however, chose not to see it that way. He and many others were at the hospital praying for his father. Unfortunately, things got worse. Michael developed pneumonia and sepsis and even his kidneys started to shut down. The medication just did not seem to be working. While setting him up for dialysis, one of his lungs collapsed. Outside in the parking lot people continued praying. Inside, his youngest son asked God for a miracle. His oldest believed that God has the final say. Within an hour, he no longer needed a ventilator and his kidneys began to improve. He did not need dialysis. On top of that, the sepsis became a thing of the past. Not long after, doctors brought him out of sedation but he was not waking up. Doctors warned the family about raising their hopes up. They feared that the stroke could have long term serious effects on him. However, Melanie told God that although she did not understand, she trusted Him. When Michael did finally wake up, his first words were to his fiancée. He told her that she would look beautiful in her wedding dress. He said that because he knew he would see it because God had shown it to Him and he wanted to encourage Melanie. It took months of rehab for him to recover from the effects of the stroke. He, however, made up his mind that he would walk down the aisle to marry his wife…and he did. Thanks to prayer and rehab, Michael has fully recovered. There are a number of lessons that can be gleaned from this testimony, but what stands out to me is the comment made by his oldest son. He said God has the final say. Although he acknowledged the doctors’ efforts, he also acknowledged that they don’t always have the final say. This reminds me of a verse God brought to my attention recently from Proverbs 16:33. It says: “We may throw the dice but the Lord determines how they fall.” Simply put, no matter what is done, God is still the One to determine the final outcome. The doctors did everything they could and even came to the conclusions they came to. At the end of the day, however, God determined Michael’s fate. For me, this is encouraging because the best of experts can give a discouraging report, but we can trust our discouraging situation to an all-powerful God. Man may say “no” while God may be saying “yes.” I recall the story of Jairus (Mark 5:21-43). While seeking Jesus’ help to heal his dying daughter, she died. It did not even make sense anymore to ask Jesus to still come to his house. Yet, Jesus paid no attention to the words of the messengers who came to give Jairus the news and instead invited Jairus to focus on His own powerful words, “Don’t be afraid, only believe” (v. 36). You see, God still had the final say and when Jairus chose to believe and trust in Him, he was not disappointed. God still has the final say. Yes, it is very easy to go by what we see and hear. It can be difficult to muster faith when “sight” is so powerful. Yet, just like Jairus, God wants us to go not by what we see or hear but by His promise, His Word to us. God is still able to do the impossible. As Jesus Himself said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). So, be encouraged today…God still has the final say! If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. Life will at times send us discouraging news, fearful situations, all designed to cause us to give up hope. Yet, no matter what comes your way, God still determines what the final outcome will be - good or bad. Trust your life, therefore, in the hands of the God who can handle any situation. Trust Him with every mess, with every challenge, with every hopeless situation and remember … He still has the final say.
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![]() Travis and Rachel awoke one morning to a fiery inferno. Their house was on fire. Rachel’s parents lived close by and when they arrived, her mother told them to jump out of their second story window. Rachel was thirty-six weeks pregnant. She was able to get out but by that time, the fire had reached the window and Travis opted to run back through the house trying to escape. When he got outside, Rachel’s parents were pulling her unconscious body to safety. Feeling his skin burning, he immediately ran to their house next door and into their shower. When they got to the hospital, it was discovered that Rachel had suffered a brain bleed from a fractured skull and third degree burns from her legs to her torso. Doctors decided to do an emergency C-section to remove her baby. Fortunately, the baby was fine. Travis, on the other hand, had to undergo emergency surgery for the extensive burns he had sustained. Doctors were able to stop Rachel’s brain bleed and so saved her life. They both underwent various surgeries to address their injuries - Travis, three and Rachel, five. Their recovery process was a painful one and Rachel had to undergo therapy because of the extent and location of her burns. She had been in the hospital for twenty-nine days and one of her surgeons told her that her healing was where it should have been at four and a half months! Travis realised that it was a miracle they had survived considering the intensity of the fire which destroyed their home. He acknowledges that God truly stepped in and by His grace saved them. Only a bible, a photo and the shirt Rachel was baptized in, survived the fire. These were framed. They truly believe that God delivered them so that they could share His goodness to the world. They don’t see it as their story but as an opportunity for them to share who God is as well as His goodness and faithfulness through what they went through. The three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, in the book of Daniel come to my mind (Daniel 3). In their case, they refused to bow to a golden image set up by king Nebuchadnezzar. As a result, they were bound and thrown into a fiery furnace. While there, God stepped in and when the king looked he was amazed to see the three boys, free of their bonds, and in the company of a fourth man whom he described as looking like the Son of God. When they were told to come out of the furnace, they were completely untouched by the fire. As a result, the king blessed the God of these three boys, acknowledging that there was no other god who could deliver like Him. At the end of the day, the true and living God got the glory and showed Himself as God above all others! Just like the three Hebrew boys, Travis and Rachel went through a fiery experience, but God delivered them. They did experience burns and discomfort and pain, but what God did for them and through them was as amazing as what He did for the three Hebrew boys. Rachel was still able to birth a perfectly healthy baby girl who was totally untouched by what her parents had been through and during their healing process, God came through for them time and again. Many have been and some are still going through fiery trials and, like Travis and Rachel, the season is a difficult and painful one. Yet, God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. He could have prevented the fire but He did not. The reality is, we will not have a testimony if we don’t go through some fires. We won’t know or fully experience God’s goodness and faithfulness if we don’t go through difficult times. We won’t know comfort unless we experience pain or tragedy. We won’t know strength unless we experience hopelessness and weakness. The enemy may send challenges to destroy us but God allows them to enable us to see who He really is and to tell others about His goodness. So, be encouraged. God is still a present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). He has not left or forsaken you and He never will. Just trust Him. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. God is not untouched by what we go through. He does care and allows both good and bad in our lives to show His goodness and faithfulness to us. In turn we get the opportunity to share our experience and be an encouragement to others. ![]() Gail, an associate pastor, was actively involved in ministry overseeing the church’s food pantry and leading global missions trips. One day, after helping unload one of their trucks, she jumped down from the truck and damaged her right knee. When she visited the doctor, she was advised to use hot and cold packs. She did not want to undergo surgery so, for the next ten years, she was content to use over-the-counter drugs and a knee brace. This enabled her to continue her volunteer work at the church even though it took her a longer time to get things done. Gail continued praying for healing so that she could continue doing what she wanted to do for the Lord. By the end of 2022, at the age of 81, Gail accepted her situation, believing that things might not change. She was getting older and decided that she would have to live with it especially since she had asked God a number of times for healing and she had not been healed. On the night of December 30th of that same year, she returned home exhausted from a full day at the church. She was watching christian television when she heard a word of knowledge about someone with problems with their right knee. She believed that she was that person and began moving about, as instructed, doing what she could not do before. The pain was gone! She began praising the Lord thanking Him for healing her. Six months later, she went to the Middle East on vacation. They had to do a lot of walking and she believed that she would not have been able to do that much walking if God had not healed her. God had healed her just in time for that trip! The delay in her healing meant more to her because had God healed her the first time she prayed for it, she would not have kept on praying and believing. What I like about this story is that God is not hindered by our age or time. We may be concerned with the fact that we are getting older and we may wonder when God is going to fulfil certain things in our life. Gail’s testimony, is a reminder that once we are alive, and no matter what age we are, God is able to do great things in and through us. It may take a few minutes to get some things done or it may take many years but God’s timing is not ours. For Him, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day (2 Peter 3:8). His Word also says: “At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen” (Isaiah 60:22). Furthermore, as much as we don’t like delay, what may seem like a delay to us, God sees it as perfect timing. The things that He is teaching us while we wait may be even more important to Him than giving us what we ask for when we ask for it. With God, there will always be a bigger picture. It’s about trusting God, trusting that He knows what is best, trusting that He has our back and that He will never do anything to intentionally harm or discourage us. If we have to go through our situation longer than we had hoped, He will give us the grace and strength needed to make it through. We can still have hope, we can still be encouraged, we can certainly still have peace, even though things are not what we would like them to be according to our timing. God will never leave us in a situation uncovered. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. We all have set times for when we would like certain things to take place. Yet, in God’s perfect timing, everything will fall into place exactly as they should and when they should. God is never late, His timing is always perfect and He is quite able to use what we see as a delay, to do beautiful things in and through us. Be encouraged! ![]() I was inspired by the story of Sydney, an American Olympic Gold medalist, who, for years, struggled with anxiety and fear as she battled with the need to be perfect. Sydney started running when she was only six years old. While in high school, she performed well and became one of the top hurdlers in the country. At the age of sixteen, she qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. However, in spite of her success, she struggled with anxiety and fear. She felt that this was borne out of her need to be perfect in everything. She unfortunately did not medal at this Olympic Games and returned home to critical comments on her failure to receive a medal. From that point on she realised that she had to deal with the fear because she did not want to go on living the way she was. Her failure to win first place in any race proved difficult for her. At the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, in 2019, she placed second. She was devastated. Although she grew up in a Christian home, she never truly trusted God. These failures forced her to cry out to Him. She realised and acknowledged to Him that He was the only One who could help her deal with the anxiety and fear. During Covid-19, she took the time to seek God. She discovered through the lens of His Word that she herself had nothing to offer Him but that the righteousness of Jesus covering her life is what is presentable before Him. At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, with a new focus on God, she finally succeeded in achieving gold medals in the 4x400 relay and the 400 metre hurdles. She has learned that God has not failed her and that even when she may lose she still wins because she is able to learn from the experience. She used to cross the finish line and feel empty inside but now she has joy no matter the circumstances. She is now running with a new purpose, a new goal and the goal is not to win a gold medal but to run the race of the christian life well. It’s about setting her mind on things above and wanting to honour God. Many of us can probably identify with the fear and anxiety that Sydney felt. In different areas of our lives we may feel the need to be perfect, believing that perfection equals success. However, as Sydney learned, true success is found in Christ and in a relationship with Him. He does not expect us to be perfect. In fact, He willingly works with us to help us become someone we can be proud of, someone who honours God in both failures and successes. Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us to run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We can’t run this race alone, we were never meant to. God has promised to be with us every step of the way. He is the only One who can help us to truly succeed - not according to the world’s standards but His. Jesus chose twelve disciples and none of them were perfect and none of them would have been chosen by human standards. Yet, Jesus chose them because of purpose, His purpose for each of them. God does not need or choose perfect people - there are none anyway. He chooses willing hearts desirous of pleasing Him; He chooses according to what He has planned for each of us. I believe that Sydney discovered that God’s standards were a lot less stressful than her own and that she did not have to do life on her own. He would be with her every step of the way to help when needed. That’s a powerful and liberating lesson to learn. God loves us just as we are and is able to do beautiful and powerful things in and through us … just as we are. He is not looking for perfection, just a heart willing to please Him. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. We don’t have to be anxious about not having it all together. God loves us in spite of our shortcomings and failures. He doesn’t expect from us what He knows we cannot give. He only wants us to hand it all over to Him and watch how, with His help, we can live a life of peace, joy and fulfilment in spite of our limitations. |
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February 2025
AuthorThis blog provides inspirational nuggets inspired by the Word of God and serves to encourage and motivate Christians in their Christian walk. |