I want to share with you how deep and personally God loves you. I think the best way I can relay this to you who are reading this is to testify what MY personal experience has been with Him and in doing so, convey to you that God has no favorites. He loves us ALL the same! The one thing that keeps pointing itself out to me, is how TRUE the Bible is. How relevant it is for us today. We ARE just like those that lived in the times of the Bible. Please remember as you read through your Bible that those that came before us were REAL people – like you and I. Not some fictional characters, but REAL people…
As I was watching one of my favorite pastors preach on YouTube tonight, I had a realization that had totally gone over my head when the situation occurred. I want to share this with you now so that you can see that it is NOT about “being religious” but about accepting Jesus as your Savior and making Him LORD OVER your life. It’s a personal relationship – between you and Him. And I know from “personal experience” that there is NOTHING more real then Jesus and His love for you (and for me). Let me share:
Most of you know that 2023/2024 was one of the most difficult and painful points in my walk with Jesus. To be honest with you, I don’t think I would have made it through that time if not for my faith in God. You see, God introduced me to the love of my life in 2015. We dated for 2 years and then he asked me to marry him, after a tremendous amount of prayer, I married my best friend and moved 1,950 miles away to Texas. We were married only 6 years when my husband became extremely ill and after many hospital stays and surgeries, was diagnosed with a very rare cancer and in a very short period after a valiant fight, our God called him home to Heaven. What many don’t know when I tell this true story, is that shortly after my husband became ill, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the same time he was fighting for his life. Not my first rodeo with it, God had healed me 15 years ago from a previous war. This was a new one. There we were, the both of us, concerned more for each other than we were ourselves – hospital rooms next to each other. The nurses called us “the love couple” because we were often trying to make our way to each other’s hospital rooms trying to check on each other. Determined that nothing would keep us a part. (That is what it is like when you marry your best friend). I remember when Johnny and I had started getting serious about each other, he had been through a lot in his life and knew what he wanted and what he didn’t want. My experiences had been differently hard than his, but we both were wiser and knew what we wanted in life and what we didn’t want, and we discussed it. He had wanted someone who was going to be faithful to him and be there come hell or high water. I had wanted someone who would BE there for me, should I ever face a life-threatening disease again and not have to face it on my own. We promised each other, as we discussed getting married that NO MATTER WHAT, we would ALWAYS be there for each other – and we were. And I can tell you that while I don’t understand why God decided to heal him on the other side of the grave and me on this side, I CAN tell you that if I had seen that this would have happened, back then – I STILL would have married him. I have not ONE regret. We may not have had “quantity” but most people don’t experience in this lifetime the “quality” of the love we shared. And I will forever be thankful to God for bringing us together, albeit for a short period of precious time. Because God’s best is SO much better than you can EVER imagine. Johnny was God’s best for me, and He showed me in MANY ways that he felt the same way about God bringing me into his life. It’s humbling to find that kind of love, two imperfect people, living in an imperfect world, but thanks to the One perfect God, we worked! 🙂 And I will ALWAYS thank God for him, because we loved each other completely in that short period we had together. And One day, thanks to Our God, Who has defeated sickness, illness and disease, and sin having become our Redeemer – we will have eternity together with our God, Who IS love itself…. Praise His Holy and precious name…
Three months after my husband died, my mother (who was my person), also entered the Kingdom of Heaven, and if not for Jesus, I would have been shattered.
Why am I sharing such a personal testimony with you? Because I want you to know that our dependence and faith was TOTALLY on our God. We had NO idea how we were going to make it financially, pay our bills, pay for our rent take care of my son when we were struggling so much with our health.
BUT FOR GOD…
GOD DID IT… DAY AFTER DAY, WEEK AFTER WEEK, MONTH AFTER MONTH.
GOD NEVER FAILED US.
GOD WHISPERED TO ME:
“MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT.”
AND IT WAS.
Honestly, I can’t even tell you all the ways He did it. He just did. God provided for us through it all. I won’t say we weren’t under a lot of stress, I won’t say there were times when we anguished over how we were going to make it, especially when our bodies were betraying us and neither one of us could work.
BUT GOD.
it occurred to me tonight that after my husband graduated to Heaven, after planning his funeral and the funeral of my mother – I had no idea how I was going to live. Pay my bills, eat – survive. But my faith was never in myself – it was in the God I love. The One Who said He would NEVER leave NOR forsake me, no matter what I went through. I am not sugarcoating this – I anguished over the uncertainty of my situation, especially as a mother to a teenage boy who depended on me and had been through so much himself. There is NO way ANYONE can cause me to doubt the One Who has been there for me during the deepest and darkest moments in my life – GOD. People failed me, heck – during that time the people I expected to be there (except for a chosen few) added to the hell I was going through. Because satan knows when you are at your most vulnerable. This IS why it is important NOT to keep your eyes on people or allow the devil to cause you to shift your eyes from the One Who is in control to the storm that is raging ALL around you. We live in a fallen world, the Bible lists example after example of true-life experiences from us to learn from, to help us to realize that we are NO different than the people of biblical times. Times have changed – yes, but circumstances are STILL the same. Our eyes are to remain steadfast on our Savior, and when we do that – He stills the storm.
2 Kings 4:1-7 tells the story about a widow and her son who only had a jar of oil, she sought help from the prophet Elisha. Elisha instructed her to gather vessels from all her neighbors to store the oil. Out of faith and obedience, she did as he asked. The oil was not only enough for her and her son, but for her whole household – a demonstration of God’s love and faithfulness. A true reminder of God’s provision and an example of the power of faith and obedience and NOT trusting in oneself, but in the One Who sees and knows ALL things.
As God did for that widow, He has done for me. You see, God IS faithful. I don’t have all the answers, but my peace comes from loving and knowing the One Who does. When you give your life to Jesus, it is no longer your own – but His. And while I haven’t figured everything out with this new life I live, I realize I don’t have to – because God’s got me. I am His. He is mine. Isaiah 61:3 tells us:
“God gives beauty for ashes.”
And I simply trust Him. I share this with you because I want to encourage you that even when life doesn’t turn out the way you expected it would, God IS still in control. He IS faithful. He IS true. He IS sovereign. And He LOVES us. If you place your faith in Him, as the widow placed her faith in the wisdom God had given the prophet Elisha to advise her, you CAN trust that no matter how dark the path has become – He IS your Light. I attest to you, with everything I am – the Bible IS true, Jesus IS the Way and the Truth and the Life and He wants to be there for you, in good times and in bad. He dearly has shown love in EVERY way He can to show you how VERY much He wants to be there for you. Have you accept His gift of salvation, allow Him to hold your hand through this thing called “life.” I can’t GIVE away my faith to you, I can only share from MY personal relationship with Him what He has done (and continues to do for me). And He is no respecter of persons; He loves us ALL the same. If you allow Him to make Himself REAL to you – HE WILL. But He won’t force you. You have to choose to accept His gift. What does that involve? It just involves a conversation (one on One) with Him. Something like this:
“Father God, I need You to make Yourself real to me, as You have to Kelly. Please forgive me for my sins and come into my heart, I accept You as my Savior, choose to make You LORD OVER my life. Please come into my heart today and show me YOU. In Jesus name I thank You and I pray, amen.”
That’s it. That’s all it takes – but it has to come from your heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God – He looks at the heart. And I will tell you, that even though I don’t know what tomorrow holds for me, my faith is not “in tomorrow” but in the One Who tells me He holds me in the palms of His hands. And that my dear reader, is the absolute BEST place to be… 😉
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