Recently I shared this on Facebook:
In all my hardest times, God has been there. He’s been faithful to me when I had to resign as a pastor, had issues with church leaders, went through lawsuits and public scorn, was restricted to minimum wage, and faced disease and depression and the deaths of close friends and family members, including the death of my beloved wife and best friend, Nanci. I don’t understand why everything has happened, but I have seen a great deal of good come out of much of it. Because of who God is and all He’s done for me, I trust Him to use all the other difficulties in ways I will not understand until I enter His presence.
Several commenters said that they hadn’t heard that part of my story before and looked it up. It was a good reminder that some of those who follow our ministry aren’t aware of the history of how Eternal Perspective Ministries started. As you watch this video, I hope it makes you think about God’s sovereignty and leading in your own life:
Those who believe that God doesn’t know about billions of future choices and the events that flow out of those choices must simply hope for the best. Those who believe in a God who knows “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10), however, can relax because even though they don’t know what lies ahead, their sovereign God does.
In the several years that we found ourselves in the middle of the stressful situation with the lawsuits, Nanci and I would talk with our daughters, assuring them that God remained in control, that He knew everything that would happen, and that we could trust Him to use it for good. And He has!
In the journal she kept during her cancer years, Nanci reflected on those earlier challenges we faced: “Lord, you used the Lovejoy trial and verdict to shape so many lives—especially those of our daughters. Your plan was not to deliver us out of that literal trial. Your plan was to deliver us through that trial and verdict. By allowing such a severe verdict and penalty, you led us onto a path that was marvelous beyond our hopes. So many blessings were piled along that path for us and countless others. We couldn’t have dreamed what you had in store for us.”
Later in her journal, she quoted Charles Spurgeon:
As to the future, all of us are blind and cannot see an hour ahead us. But the Lord will lead us right up to our journey’s end…Happy are those who place their hand in that of the Great Guide, and leave their way and themselves entirely with Him. He will bring them all the way. And when He has brought them home to glory and has opened their eyes to see the way by which He has led them, what a song of gratitude will they sing to their great Benefactor.
Henrietta C. Mears wrote, “I know not the way He leads me, but well do I know my Guide.” Because of God’s grace and sovereignty, we can fully trust Him in whatever is ahead!
Photo: Unsplash
