I was thanking the Lord last night for all He's done for me this past year and decided that I wanted to share some of it with all of you. He truly does still work miracles!
I don't want to go into a lot of detail, so let me just say that I have lost everything I own, except for the clothes on my back and the clothes my children were wearing 3 times in my life. And I really do mean "everything". It did teach me that "things" aren't so important, but at the same time, security became very important to me, including "financial security". During that time i also went through a period where I was severely depressed and in a psych ward for two weeks. This was all before I was saved--about 16 years ago. I was a mess and so was my life. That was when I began searching for God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. I knew He was the only one that could help me. I don't want to repeat myself so if you would like to read about how I came to be saved, I posted about that here:
http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18086&highlight=Love+Jesus!
I need to give you just a bit more background so you will understand just what an amazing God we have. Almost 10 years ago I got hurt at work and became disabled due to chronic back pain. The disks in my back are all messed up and cause me to live with a great deal of pain every day. This happened AFTER I was saved however and because I was unable to work, unable to even get up from the couch for the first year, I spent all my time studying the Bible and praying.
However, a large portion of people who live with chronic pain also have to deal with depression--for obvious reasons. It's not easy to live with this kind of pain day in and day out, knowing it won't go away. It was only with the Lord's help that I was able to continue to grow in Him and keep any depression from getting a hold on me. It was 3 years after I was injured that the Lord gave me Fresh Hope as my ministry.
As many of you know, my husband got laid off from work last January, so it's been almost a year now. I will admit right up front that this has been one of the hardest tests I've ever gone through, especially considering my background. If it wasn't for the Lord, I know I wouldn't have made it through even the first few months much less through 11 months with my sanity intact. I am dead serious about this.
There is NO way that I could have handled this before I was saved. There was no way I could have handled this even two years ago. If the Lord hadn't made sure that I had grown enough in Him to face this, I would have fallen flat on my face and probably been in a psych ward within the first three months easily. As you can easily see from the background information I gave you, depression should have been able to grab hold of me very easily, and without the Lord it would have.
I "should" be anxious, worried, tense, scared to death, angry, and full of fear, but I'm not. I really truly am not. I do not feel fearful at all, nor do I feel anxious or worried. Oh, I have my moments when i go to the Lord and tell Him that I just don't see how we can possibly keep on going; or tell Him that I really can't handle much more. In fact that's what I was doing last night. It was then that He reminded me of all of this and of just how far He has carried me. Yes, He is carrying me. I could not, and cannot do this for myself. I swear that to you. I am not strong emotionally, but He is. It was last night that I realized just how truly miraculous this is.
That's why I decided that I had to share it with you all. I'm not special. The Lord will do this for anyone, not just me. I used to wonder what made Peter and the other apostles change so much--how they were able to be so strong and face beatings and pain and eventually death for Jesus. I knew even then that God doesn't change and that if God had done something for them that caused this change to come over them, that He could and did still do it today. I even knew back then that most people in the church talked about it, but even they didn't have it. I wanted it though. I wanted to have that change in me.
The Lord led me to a few verses that seemed to prove this to me and made me want it even more; I knew that somehow this had to do with our salvation. Here's one of the verses:
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
Ever since the day I was saved, I have seen God's power at work in me. The more I grew in Him, the stronger His power worked in me and the more He did. In fact, it was really His power that enabled me to grow toward maturity in Christ and still is. But I have never seen His power more obviously at work in me before now!
I truly know and am experiencing what Paul meant when he said that the Lord stood by him and strengthened him. (2 Timothy 4:17 ) It is really amazing! He is really amazing! I do not know His purpose for this in my life, at least not beyond teaching me to trust Him fully for all things.
I do hope and pray though that what He is doing for me will encourage others. I do not know how things will all work out in my life. Will we lose everything again or not... (again for me anyway lol) And while losing everything is certainly not something I would desire, nor is it something that I would look forward to, I do know that if it does come down to that, that the Lord will still be with me strengthening me and carrying me through the experience so that it really won't hurt all that much.
That's the other part that amazed me last night in my talk with the Lord. I realized that as much as I love our little house, and all our "stuff", that lack of money and lack of a job cannot take away from me the things that are the most important of all to me, and that's the Lord, my husband, my children and their families and all of you here. (and of course our kitties lol) Those I will always have, because even if some die, I will see them again in heaven and will never lose their love, so I really am secure!
So while the world reels because of all the economic problems, we who are in Christ Jesus and shielded by His power can rejoice as our lives prove what an awesome God we serve!!!
1 Peter 1:3-7 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
I don't want to go into a lot of detail, so let me just say that I have lost everything I own, except for the clothes on my back and the clothes my children were wearing 3 times in my life. And I really do mean "everything". It did teach me that "things" aren't so important, but at the same time, security became very important to me, including "financial security". During that time i also went through a period where I was severely depressed and in a psych ward for two weeks. This was all before I was saved--about 16 years ago. I was a mess and so was my life. That was when I began searching for God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. I knew He was the only one that could help me. I don't want to repeat myself so if you would like to read about how I came to be saved, I posted about that here:
http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18086&highlight=Love+Jesus!
I need to give you just a bit more background so you will understand just what an amazing God we have. Almost 10 years ago I got hurt at work and became disabled due to chronic back pain. The disks in my back are all messed up and cause me to live with a great deal of pain every day. This happened AFTER I was saved however and because I was unable to work, unable to even get up from the couch for the first year, I spent all my time studying the Bible and praying.
However, a large portion of people who live with chronic pain also have to deal with depression--for obvious reasons. It's not easy to live with this kind of pain day in and day out, knowing it won't go away. It was only with the Lord's help that I was able to continue to grow in Him and keep any depression from getting a hold on me. It was 3 years after I was injured that the Lord gave me Fresh Hope as my ministry.
As many of you know, my husband got laid off from work last January, so it's been almost a year now. I will admit right up front that this has been one of the hardest tests I've ever gone through, especially considering my background. If it wasn't for the Lord, I know I wouldn't have made it through even the first few months much less through 11 months with my sanity intact. I am dead serious about this.
There is NO way that I could have handled this before I was saved. There was no way I could have handled this even two years ago. If the Lord hadn't made sure that I had grown enough in Him to face this, I would have fallen flat on my face and probably been in a psych ward within the first three months easily. As you can easily see from the background information I gave you, depression should have been able to grab hold of me very easily, and without the Lord it would have.
I "should" be anxious, worried, tense, scared to death, angry, and full of fear, but I'm not. I really truly am not. I do not feel fearful at all, nor do I feel anxious or worried. Oh, I have my moments when i go to the Lord and tell Him that I just don't see how we can possibly keep on going; or tell Him that I really can't handle much more. In fact that's what I was doing last night. It was then that He reminded me of all of this and of just how far He has carried me. Yes, He is carrying me. I could not, and cannot do this for myself. I swear that to you. I am not strong emotionally, but He is. It was last night that I realized just how truly miraculous this is.
That's why I decided that I had to share it with you all. I'm not special. The Lord will do this for anyone, not just me. I used to wonder what made Peter and the other apostles change so much--how they were able to be so strong and face beatings and pain and eventually death for Jesus. I knew even then that God doesn't change and that if God had done something for them that caused this change to come over them, that He could and did still do it today. I even knew back then that most people in the church talked about it, but even they didn't have it. I wanted it though. I wanted to have that change in me.
The Lord led me to a few verses that seemed to prove this to me and made me want it even more; I knew that somehow this had to do with our salvation. Here's one of the verses:
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
Ever since the day I was saved, I have seen God's power at work in me. The more I grew in Him, the stronger His power worked in me and the more He did. In fact, it was really His power that enabled me to grow toward maturity in Christ and still is. But I have never seen His power more obviously at work in me before now!
I truly know and am experiencing what Paul meant when he said that the Lord stood by him and strengthened him. (2 Timothy 4:17 ) It is really amazing! He is really amazing! I do not know His purpose for this in my life, at least not beyond teaching me to trust Him fully for all things.
I do hope and pray though that what He is doing for me will encourage others. I do not know how things will all work out in my life. Will we lose everything again or not... (again for me anyway lol) And while losing everything is certainly not something I would desire, nor is it something that I would look forward to, I do know that if it does come down to that, that the Lord will still be with me strengthening me and carrying me through the experience so that it really won't hurt all that much.
That's the other part that amazed me last night in my talk with the Lord. I realized that as much as I love our little house, and all our "stuff", that lack of money and lack of a job cannot take away from me the things that are the most important of all to me, and that's the Lord, my husband, my children and their families and all of you here. (and of course our kitties lol) Those I will always have, because even if some die, I will see them again in heaven and will never lose their love, so I really am secure!
So while the world reels because of all the economic problems, we who are in Christ Jesus and shielded by His power can rejoice as our lives prove what an awesome God we serve!!!
1 Peter 1:3-7 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
I wasn't aware of this, but my church had a "testimony" Sunday recently and my oldest daughter, Michelle spoke as did two others. It always amazes me to hear others testimonies, and especially those of my children. If you would like to hear her testimony of how the Lord worked in her life this past year, you can hear it here. (her's is the last of the three testimonies on this audio)
How I've Seen the Lord This Year
http://www.trinityevchurch.org/asset...ec27Sermon.mp3
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