In Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders recorded in Acts 20, he offers this blessing,
“And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up
and
to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Acts 20:32
In the fall and early winter of 2019 and 2020, God allowed me to spend many hours with my sister in Virginia who was in her final stages of COPD. In those days her faith was uncovered and her trust in God renewed. God allowed me to have a front row seat.
We quoted and prayed over the phone or in person scriptures that spoke of God’s love to us. God’s everlasting love in Jeremiah 31:3 was most often at the top of our list. “I (God) have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” I would pray that God would help us to trust that in the waning days of Barbara’s life.
In these very trying days, we experienced God’s word offering hope and building us up, in our faith just as Paul wanted for the Ephesians. And we experienced the inheritance that God had prepared before the beginning of time.
As I look in my rear-view mirror to last year, I greatly miss my sister. And I also am experiencing great peace. Her suffering is changing relationships and bringing the reality of God’s love to others. There are new things to pray for.
Once again, I’m reminded of Isaiah 55:8, God’s ways are not my ways. I need to take my eyes off the circumstances right in front of me, and re-calibrate my hope to the Word which is able to build up and give an inheritance.
“the LORD appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with and everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
Jeremiah 31:3
The third verse of “Joy to the World” encourages, “No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He come to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, …”
As I’ve pondered the trying times (I hesitate to call them suffering) of finances, depression, and death, and the scriptures that I’ve recorded for you the past three weeks, God has led me to a new, deeper, and greatly encouraging understanding of John 18:36,37 which I will share with you next Thursday (Jan 28) which also led me to my word — or this year — two words for 2021.
Copyright, Sue Tell, January 2021