Stronger than before

    When Stephen was eleven years old, his mother, a crack addict, left him and his brother in a hotel and never returned. He and his brother found themselves in foster care. He felt unloved and worthless. At the age of seventeen, he was selling drugs to pay for college. He pulled a gun on a police officer investigating a crime in the neighbourhood. He was shot. While lying on the ground bleeding, he remembered one of his foster mothers who would read the Bible to him and made him feel wanted and told him that God wanted him. He told God that he was coming home. He asked Him to save his soul but not to allow him to live. God answered only one prayer. He saved his soul and He allowed him to live. 
    He lost forty percent of his right lung as well as two ribs. One bullet remained lodged in his spine. This left him confined to a wheelchair. He spent four years in prison where he read his Bible and spent time getting to know God. His past however plagued him and he had little hope of being healed. When he left prison, he got married and had two daughters. He was unable to work because of his disability and this left him depressed. His wife had to work to support them. He began writing and took care of his daughters. He began martial arts classes to strengthen his body and for self defence.
​    One day, his instructor prayed for him to be healed, something he had long given up on. When asked, he told him that he saw God as a harsh task master and that he was a tool in His tool kit but not a very well kept one. His instructor’s wife corrected him and told him how much God loved him. Her words registered with him. Suddenly, he was able to lift the cane in his hand high above his head and the pain was gone. He was able to walk upright and no longer needed the cane. When he became fully mobile he began working at the studio. He continued writing and his wife was finally able to stop working and stay at home to take care of her family.
    Three years later, he went to do x-rays. The x-rays revealed that his right lung which was forty percent removed was more robust; the two ribs that were supposedly removed were more robust than the others. The doctor explained to him that his spinal column had calcified around the bullet. It was as if it had been re-born and was now stronger because of the bullet.
​    Today he continues working as an author and prays for others to be healed. He and his wife encourage others to trust God’s love for them so that they can receive His miraculous touch.
    I was encouraged by Stephen’s story. He went through various challenges in his life and reached so far as to tell God to let him to die. It was interesting and encouraging that God chose not to answer his prayer and let him live. Sometimes we too can become so discouraged that giving up seems our only option. You can become so tired with the mess in your life that you just want it to be over. But, God still has the final say. If He wants you to live, you will live. If He wants you to get up and try again, He will give you the strength to do just that. 
    God does not give up because we do. I think that he likes when we reach the end of our rope and feel as if we can’t go on. That’s when He knows we are ready for Him to step in and do something miraculous that only He can do. Stephen was finally ready for God … only when he had reached the end of himself.
    What also catches my attention, is that bullet that was left lodged in his body. That same bullet was what made his spinal cord stronger than it was before. Many times in life, the very thing that seems so much like a negative, is what God uses to make us stronger and an even more useful tool in His hands. 
    We may not like the negative things that come our way, but, if God allows it, it will always be for a good reason. When He says that He will work all things together for our good, He means it. He will take both the good and the bad and use them together to bring about good in our lives. Our lives will become more fruitful, more valuable than we can ever imagine. After all, anything put in the Master’s hands, He will shape into something beautiful.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. God knows how to take a mess and create something beautiful out of it. Even when you may want to give up, God knows how to take that hopeless situation and give you the hope and the future you never thought possible.

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