Saturday night we received an email from Gideon (Nice View Academy) saying they were out of food and are purchasing food on a daily basis as they can and medical needs were a daily occurrence. My first reaction was one of frustration and I basically felt helpless which took me directly to my knees, crying out to God.
I didn’t receive a clear, direct answer to that cry but on Sunday morning I woke up with this line from a song on my mind – how to save a life? I asked myself this question and through God’s grace I know I can’t save a life, only God can.
Then at church later that morning I read this from our notes – “trials are not the cause but the occasion to reveal my sinful heart.” How easy it would have been to just throw in the towel and say “I can’t do this so I’ll just forget those kids in Kenya and move onto something easier”. That’s how sinful and selfish my heart can be without the guidance and strength of God, but instead I was given words of encouragement:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4
and
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 peter 1:6-7
I know that each time food is purchased or a child sees the doctor it results in God’s glory being revealed because I can’t save a life, only God can and each time struggles/trials/circumstances come up in life that seem to overwhelm me it can either drive me away from God or closer to Him.