Pray Through The Storm

From Friday March 5th 2021.

As my spouse was dying of cancer, I had two choices. Flounder in the world and ask God why, or, trust him completely and grow my prayer life and study time.

I chose the latter.

We all have choices to make. Daily. Sometimes hourly. And sometimes minute-by-minute. That is the beauty of freedom of choice. God gave us that freedom.

Perhaps you, like I, at times, wish He would just take over and do the right thing for us and in us and around us. That's not His way. The God of love allows us to make choices.

I'm old enough now to understand the importance of leaning into God during crisis and not away from Him.

I praise God that He gave Wendell more time. Wendell was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. On October 19th 2019 he was given two months to live. He actually lived until January 2nd of this year (2021).

He had three prayer requests: 1) to move into the home we were building in the country. 2) He asked God to allow him to walk his daughter down the aisle in June. 3) he asked God to keep him alive long enough to walk our granddaughter down the aisle in July. All three of Wendell's prayers were answered.

The last 4 months of his life were extremely hard and difficult.

I've never had to go through this experience before. That is, to live with and care for a dying human being. To say it was hard would be an understatement. But during that time I learned to cry out to God more. I started every morning on my knees in prayer, which I had not done previously. I started a Bible study in my home with a dear friend, again something new to me. And I want to tell you, it grew me! I also had a peace the world will not understand. I can barely comprehend it myself. God truly wrapped His arms around me and gave me a peace that passeth understanding.

From my Just Like Jesus devotional, one of the several books that I delved into during that time, I would like to share with you a few paragraphs from the chapter the Heart of Jesus.

"Jesus heart was peaceful. The disciples fretted over the need to feed the thousands, but not Jesus. He thanked God for the problem. The disciples shouted for fear in the storm, but not Jesus. He slept through it. Peter drew his sword to fight the soldiers but not Jesus. He lifted His hand to heal. His heart was at peace. When His disciples abandoned him, did he pout and go home? When Peter denied him, did Jesus lose his temper? When the soldiers spit in his face, did he breathe fire in theirs? Far from it. He was at peace. He forgave them. He refused to be guided by vengeance. He also refused to be guided by anything other then His high call.

Jesus's heart was purposeful. Most lives aim at nothing in particular and achieve it. Jesus aimed at one goal, to save humanity from its end. He could summarize His life with one sentence: the son of man came to seek and to save the lost" Luke 19:10..."

Friends, I would encourage you to be just like Jesus. Keep your eye on the prize, eternal life! Start your day in prayer. And start your prayer with praise and thanksgiving and then lay out your needs to your heavenly father.

Pray through the storm. Trust him! Jesus loves you with a love we cannot understand.

Recently I made the statement that John 3:16 sums up the entire gospel: our Heavenly Father loves us. Jesus died and rose to save us. And He's coming again to get us.

What a wonderful promise. What a wonderful day that will be. Focus on that. Meditate on that. Be ready for that.

May God richly bless your day. And remember: keep looking up! Jesus is coming soon!