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Friday's Faith
If We Ask God...?
As I began reading the scripture today that goes with the content of a devotional I was reading,
I cried...
This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us -- whatever we ask -- we know that we have what we asked of Him.
~I John 5:14-15
My heart cried out,
"But Lord, we asked for her safety amidst her trials and temptations. We trusted, we believed, and we stood fast on Your promises. Yet she was killed!"
In child-loss, many of us have such questions in which our faith is sorely tried. Sometimes our questions arise from the areas in which we inadvertently have allowed ourselves to be spoon-fed (or worse, allowed ourselves to have our ears tickled with what we wanted to hear) versus solid-food-fed.
After my tears, God showed me this devotional by Amy Carmichael in Edges of His Ways, starting with this scripture:
"I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the powers of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
~Luke 10:19
In this particular devotional, Carmichael remonstrates:
"Our Lord Jesus said this to the 70; and yet we know that all down the ages His servants have been hurt in a 1000 ways. So the words must mean, and we know they do mean, something that goes far deeper than bodily hurt, deeper even than disappointment -- that hardest hurt the mind can be asked to bear.
"It must mean that our spirits shall tread on serpents and scorpions, and have power over all the enemy. Nothing shall be allowed to sting our spirit, to poison it, or paralyze it. It is one of the magnificent promises of the Bible.
"We cannot take it too literally. There is no need to be overcome, whatever happens."
Then Carmichael ended her devotional with a scripture (of which I will use a newer translation):
"March on, my soul; be strong!"
~Judges 5:21
*****
This devotional reminded me of how God ensured my precious child's spirit would not be "poisoned" nor "paralyzed" as Amy Carmichael relates above by ensuring that she had the opportunity to return to Him before she was killed two days later:
One of the sweetest "gifts" I received "from" Merry Katherine after her death was a sign of the sure evidence that after our very soul-oriented talk with her on July 31, 2006 (two days before she was killed) her sweet heart and soul returned to the Lord. On 7/31, she had recorded a C.D. on our computer here at home in order to take it with her on her trip -- we discovered evidence on our computer of what she had recorded some time after her death. -- This first recording that she made had included, in essence, rebellious songs oriented around acting out with alcohol...
Later that same night, we had a soulful talk with her, painstakingly addressing her misconceptions about our disciplining of her... Two days later, on August 2, 2006 (before she went on her ill-fated trip in which she and two other teens would be killed later that evening), she came back by our house to gather some things for her trip. On that same day, Wednesday, August 2, 2006 (we found out months later), she had recorded a different C.D. -- one with some of the powerful Christian songs her older brother Rollin had given her at a spiritual turning point in her life that held great meaning for her soul. What a contrast in selection of music! What precious evidence left behind of her heart and soul softened toward her loving God!
God indeed allowed nothing to violate her soul's sure standing with Him!
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