OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH...

"You of little faith," Jesus replied, "why are you so

afraid?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds 

and the sea, and it was perfectly calm. 

(Matthew 8:26, BSB)

These words Jesus spoke to His disciples came to me and convicted me when a friend called to share some amazing news.

We had been praying for one of the members of our Bible study group who had been taken to the Emergency Room for nausea and shortness of breath. Defective heart valves had led to heart failure, which caused pneumonia, and she was now lying, intubated, in the ICU. 

For me, this was a very deja vue experience that brought back memories of my own similar experience over seven years ago (documented here) when those closest to me thought I was not going to make it, but the prayers of my church family and friends who did battle for me in the spiritual realm prevailed, and I am still here today to bear witness to it.

My fervent prayer was for the Lord's mercy and grace, and that He would glorify His name by granting her the same miracle He had granted me.

And then came news that the pneumonia was getting worse--not better. Our friend's organs had started shutting down, and they expected her heart to fail within the next 24 hours or so as well.

Even though I know and believe that only God knows the number of our days, my faith started to waver. Maybe her healing was meant to come on the other side rather than here in this world? 

Allowing myself to be moved by circumstances and what my senses and intellect were telling me, rather than by trust in God who is in control and has the last word, no matter how convincing things may look in the natural, I changed my prayer to one that the Lord would keep her comfortable and let her pass peacefully into the arms of Jesus.

Back to the phone call I mentioned at the top of my post. 

Our friend had been taken off of life support, and my expectation was that the next words would be that she had passed, but no. Much to everyone's amazement, she had started breathing on her own--and talking--and had even eaten some eggs. Plans were being made to move her out of the ICU and into a regular hospice room. Wow!!!

Later, in my quiet time, when I opened my Bible to the reading for the day, it was the story of Lazarus, and my eyes fell on Jesus' words in John 11:4--"The purpose of this illness is not death, but for the glory of God" (TLB). 

WORDS OF HOPE AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR 2025

And God is able to make all grace abound to

you, so that in all things, at all times, having

all that you need, you will abound in every

good work. -- 2 Corinthians 4:8, BSB

Although there was much to be grateful for, 2024 (from my perspective) did not end on a very good note. It was actually quite bewildering.

As I tried to make sense of it all, Lisa Anne Tindal's words in her blog post, The Driver, spoke to my heart. They were so timely. Over and over they played in my mind as I stood at the gate leading to 2025, preparing to board a train headed for an unknown destination: "God is driving the train. Only He knows where it will go. We are just riding."

Unlike other years, there were no expectations, no resolutions, no plans. Just an openness to whatever God has in store. Thy will, not mine be done. 

I may not know where this ride will take me or what this journey into the new year will bring, but I choose to sit back and relax, and enjoy the ride. I choose to put all my hope and trust in Him to guide and uphold me along the way, knowing that He is in control and sees the whole picture, which I do not.

Two reassuring messages with very similar themes reinforced the wisdom of this choice.

The first was in yesterday's Our Daily Bread's New Year's Eve message about the hand of God. It started out with the following lines from Minnie Louise Haskins poem, God Knows:   

 

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

The second was from today's Streams in the Desert, about trusting God when we cannot see what loss, sorrow, or trials are accomplishing. These are the times that drive us to His throne of grace where "the Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way."