My wife and I are in a heightened season of rehearsing God’s faithfulness, which we as believers should always do. Even when we are faithless, God is faithful because He can’t deny His own. We are the same way with our children. How much more is our Heavenly Father? To rehearse God’s faithfulness will continually fill your heart with gratitude and minister His peace to you.
Morning by morning His mercies are new, and we rejoice. Daily He fills us with His benefits. This morning I am rehearsing His faithfulness that reaches far into the clouds, as the psalmist proclaimed.
A LIFE OF FAITH
It’s one thing to talk about faith or even teach it, but it’s an altogether different thing to live it out.
In 1987 I let go of secular life and employment and set out as a missionary into full time service to the Lord. I was reading John G. Lake’s testimony of His complete consecration to God and his absolute resolve to live by faith, and I was challenged to do the same. My faith was not purchased in a classroom or borrowed from another, but it was born out of a deep conviction that the God who called me would surely take care of me. My parents worried about me making such a decision, but in their later years they witnessed God’s faithfulness to me and then our little family.
I was still single at the time and opted out of social security, and plans for retirement have never been in my thinking. I’m not against retirement from secular work, but I am against retirement from kingdom work. All of us at any age can serve the true Master.
God’s word to us was simple: ”Do what I say and you’ll never lack.” But those words have not come without many tests. To obey God’s Word and be led by His Spirit is true prosperity. Carolyn and I have proven that out over the course of four decades.
We could share many examples of God’s faithfulness and miraculous provision in our lives, but this morning I awoke with one fresh in my mind, because it just happened.
THE ELDERLY SHUT-IN
We received a large envelope recently with a living will from a dear old shut-in in Canada that we had forgotten about. You see, a couple of years ago she contacted our ministry with a testimony of how God had spiritually fed her and encouraged her through our writings and videos, and enclosed a very generous offering with a personal hand-written letter. We were so blessed and encouraged by it!
Now nearly 90 years of age, I was led to send her a manuscript of a yet unpublished book called, Preparing For Eternity. I wanted to encourage her faith and prepare her for her eternal destiny. We believe she felt the Father’s love and care from us that she decided to put us on her living will with her two children, whom we also prayed for. This precious old lady named Barbara became like a God-sent raven to us, just as we were to her in a spiritual sense.
God will never forget our labor of love and work of faith which we show toward His Name and those saints we minister to (Hebrews 6:10). What an exchange of eternal life and reward is made when we simply love and care for the saints.
LOVE WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED
Beloved, let me admonish you to pay attention to those whom God places in front of you. Be especially sensitive to the one, regardless of what you may or may not receive in return. Love with no strings attached is the call of every bondslave. We had no idea that this 90-year old precious woman would do anything for us, much less include us in her will.
Be sensitive to people. Listen to your heart. Learn to see beyond the natural and familiar. God is always looking to use us as channels to be a blessing and encouragement to others. Be always motivated by love. Look to give and not to receive for that is the blessed life.
This is just one of many testimonies we could share of living a life of faith, which works through love (Galatians 5:6). I hope it encouraged you in some way today.
We love you all.