Give thanks...

    My New Year’s post last week began on a thankful note. I was choosing to be thankful because of all that God brought me through in 2022. Interestingly, I have heard more than one person admitting that 2022 had been a challenging year for them. It had been for me as well. I had lost my grandmother in April and I almost lost my own life in October. So, my need to be thankful is borne out of the various challenges that took place that year and the reality that God chose to bring me through each one.
    This brings me to my video testimony for this week. Ross, a high school football coach and teacher, found himself struggling to breathe over a period of several days. He thought he had caught a cold but when his wife, Stephanie, couldn’t take it anymore, she took him to the hospital where it was discovered he had contracted Covid-19. The doctors had little hope that he would survive. Stephanie reached out to his school, family and friends for prayer. She finally reached, as she put it, her "Abraham and Isaac moment" where she told God if He wanted to take him, she would lay him down. She did admit to God that what she wanted was perfect healing for her husband, however, she would surrender to God’s will for him. He spent the next month in a coma and on a ventilator. She was finally summoned to the hospital because they felt that they could do no more for him. She went with her friend and her sister and they prayed and worshiped for about seven hours. Miraculously, his blood pressure began to improve. Some weeks later he came out of the coma and was finally released. He had spent seventy-seven days on a ventilator but God brought him through!
    One of the things that caught my attention was Stephanie’s "Abraham and Isaac moment." As much as she wanted her husband to make it she realised that ultimately God has the final say and she chose to accept God’s will over her own desire. That can be so difficult to do, yet, I believe that when we can reach to the point where, like Stephanie and like Jesus when He faced death on a cross, we can say God this is what I want, nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done. There have been various times in my life when I too have had my own "Abraham and Isaac moment." God has brought me to the point where, when faced with something tragic or challenging, my choice is to surrender the outcome to God. The fact is He knows what is best for me and whatever He chooses will always be in my best interest. Trust isn’t easy to do but it can bring a peace that just doesn’t make sense.
    The next thing that caught my attention is Ross’ closing remarks at the end of the testimony. He had spoken to friends in the nursing profession and they admitted that there was no medical explanation why he should be alive, that it was one hundred percent a God-thing. The only thing he could deduce is that he is alive because God decided that he should be alive. In other words, God chose to keep him alive. So many times, we lightly thank God for life. It’s almost like a cliché. But think about it. Every day, you don’t just wake up to see a new day. God CHOOSES to give you life to see a new day. Now that is something to be thankful for! And, if God chooses to give you life for each new day, it means He has something good in store for you. God doesn’t just nonchalantly decide to make you live to see a new day. He is intentional! He is intentional about His desire for you to live; He is intentional about the blessings He sends your way; He is even intentional about the negative He allows you to go through because He knows He is just as intentional about bringing good out of it for you. 
    After suffering a minor heart attack in October 2022, I would thank God each day for choosing to give me life to see a new day. I know He didn’t and doesn’t have to make that choice but He does and I am certainly grateful for His choice. It tells me that He has a plan for me each day, He has a plan for my life overall and it’s a plan to prosper me not to harm me, a plan to give me hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).       
    God has the same good plan for you. God is intentional about His plans for us, just as He is intentional about His blessings over us. So, take the time to be thankful. Don’t just focus on the negative and on what didn’t go right, focus on the One who helped you through each challenge, the One who ultimately helped you make it through another year and who brought you to a new one. Be thankful for His faithfulness. He doesn’t have to be faithful, He doesn’t have to love us but He does because He chooses to.  So just be thankful!!!
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so now and give your new year the best start you can give it. Life is going to happen whether you like it or not but, you can be grateful that God will always choose to be there, to take care of you, to love you, to see you through…

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