Greetings friends who bow with me…
“So humble yourselves under the mighty power of G0d, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to G0d, for He cares about you.
Stay Alert! Watch our for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your f@ith. Remember that your Chr!sti@n brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.
In His kindness God called you to share in His eternal gl0ry by means of Chr!st J.s.s. So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation. All power to Him forever! Amen.
1 Peter 5:6-11
These verses have become the theme for my time here in M since my return in July. I continue to go back to them for strength on what seems to be a regular basis these days. I guess you can say the honeymoon is over and now we are into the real day to day of discipleship, growing, learning, humbling ourselves, and giving all of our concerns to G0d for He cares for us. Daily I find myself preparing for the enemy and watching for him…knowing there will be pain, struggle, and sometimes even destruction.
While all this hurt and struggle is going on and there are days I just want to run, I want you to know that your prayers and my f@ith in the One who has called me remain the things that give me what I need daily to stand firm and strong…to seek G0d’s perspective …not the perspective of my own selfishness, my own hurt, my own anything. Truly this work G0d calls us to do has nothing to do with us but everything to do with Him and His perspective and His purposes.
I am learning the truths that we suffer, but He restores! We suffer, yet He supports! We suffer, HE STRENGTHENS! We suffer, and HE puts us on a FIRM foundation!! ALL POWER TO HIM FOREVER!!
Please pr@y these verses over us as often as G0d brings it to your mind!! Please pr@y for 0 and S0 as they are being taunted, tortured, and occasionally devoured bit by bit by the enemy. Our enemy is not happy with their interest and their pursuit of Jss. I ask you to especially pr@y for 0 as she is in a battle from many different sides. I have struggled to understand where she truly stands with G0d and I’m so glad G0d continues to remind me that it is not my job to know where someone stands with Him….it is my job to be His light in the darkness, to be His Presence to love, care for, and demonstrate His righteousness in my own life. I plead with you to pr@y earnestly for 0 as she is torn and twisted from so many directions…home, work, friends, family. It is not easy being the friend of a white person here and even less easy to be a f0ll0wer of Jss along with it. My heart breaks for her, yet I know that truly G0d alone can help her, can reveal truth to her, can RESTORE, SUPPORT, STRENGTHEN, AND PUR HER ON A FIRM FOUNDATION!! Those are the things I pr@y for her…and S0…
Will you join me?