Encouragement From a Friend

A friend of mine, Everett, has faced some recent difficulties in his life and decided to write a letter to his friends testifying about what God was doing through these times. I thought I would share several excerpts from the letter with you:

I believe God let me worry to show me just how useless my worrying is. It accomplishes nothing, it changes nothing. God used my hopelessness of the present and fear of the future to show me I can’t handle the problems of this world alone, to show me I can’t solve my problems by myself. And only when I have nowhere else to turn will I release my stubborn hold on my belief in myself and turn to Jesus and put all my faith and trust in Him. Only then will the problems and worries of this world be conquered by our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is showing me through His church, His awesome and miraculous power and it is difficult for me to learn to release my trust in my own strengths and abilities and reach out to take Jesus’ hand and trust and believe in Him.

God’s ways are a little hard for a simple farm boy to understand. But that is where faith in the truth of God’s word comes in handy. In Isaiah 55:9 the Lord declares, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

This is a good thing and should be such an easy lesson to learn if I wasn’t so stubborn and bullheaded. Thankfully we are blessed with a patient God who loves us. A young Christian wrote me she had learned . . . “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass but instead to learn to dance in the rain.” What a lovely lesson.

I have had my own share of trials lately, and will admit that I am bullheaded and stubborn too (part of my type-A personality!) However, it is my prayer that God will use these situations to help me grow closer in my relationship to Him and so that I might testify as my friend Everett of the goodness and patience of God.