His Hand is at Work in Our Lives

He knows where we are. He knows what we are going through. He wants us to be aware of his presence. He wants us to Know Him, Trust Him, Obey Him, Hear and See Him, Rest in Him, and to have an Intimate Relationship with Him.
He stands at the door of our hearts, waiting to come in. He is calling each of us and waiting for us to let Him enter into our hearts and lives. When we accept and receive The Lord we will never be the same. We will in no way be sorry that we opened the door. Our lives truly change. God in our life, gives our life meaning and direction.

Frequently, pain and hard times bring us into the awareness of who God is. It is during these times that we search for God and look for meaning in our lives. We become acutely aware of life’s priorities. The things which we thought were important, when all was going well, dim in our scale of importance. We realize that we need God. We find out that He is there for us and we can rest in Him. He is walking with us and will see us through our suffering. He will carry us when we no longer can stand in our own strength. He has always been there we just haven’t been looking for Him. When we have no where else to turn and when we are emptied of the trivial things in our lives, we are ready to open the door to our heart and let Him in.

I have found that no matter what storm I am going through, with God at my side, there is always a rainbow waiting. All things aren’t good but all things work for good (Romans 8:28). Take hold of God’s hand; He will see you through hard times. Adversity will come to each of us. Christians don’t escape times of adversity. God will encourage us, talk to us, direct us, and lead us through the trial to the rainbow at the end of the storm.

When we are in the middle of our trials sometimes we feel that God is silent. I have said, “Where are you God? I need to feel your presence. I want to be in your will. Give me direction. Give me comfort and strength. Give me your peace even when the world is falling in around me”.

Many times when we call out to Him, He will give us a glimpse of His presence. In a sermon which I heard today, a pastor’s wife told of a time of trial in her life. Her young son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her faith was strong and she did not doubt that God was with her. She wanted a word of assurance that her son would successfully come through the surgery and anesthesia. She was getting ready to bring him to the hospital. She was in her walk-in-closet, looking for clothes to bring with to the hospital because she would be staying with him after the surgery. She prayed and called out to God, “give me a word of promise to hold on to; a word that will confirm my faith and provide a sign for my son and me to verify the healing that we are believing in and praying for”. Through her tears she saw a very small object fall to the floor from the closet’s top shelf. She stooped over and picked up a little pin from the closet floor. The tiny pin said, “you can make it’. She had received the pin a few years prior but could not recall placing it on her closet shelf. It reappeared when she needed it. Her son went to surgery with the promising words pinned to his patient gown. The tumor was benign and the surgery a success. You might say that this was just a coincidence but I believe that God gave her a reassuring glimpse of His presence. He honored her faith, her prayer, and her request.

I know of a little girl who is dealing with many trials in her young little life. Her mom is going through cancer treatments and has had surgery. Her dear grandmother also had cancer and the doctors stopped treatment, placing her on hospice. The child and her younger sister had to be told that this very special person in their lives had died. That night the little girl had a dream. She related to her parents, “I saw Grandma Giggi. She told me she loved me. She looked younger and her hair wasn’t white any more. She didn’t have those white spots all over her face and she wasn’t sick. And mommy, she gave me her eyeglasses!” This sweet sensitive child was given a glimpse of her grandmother and of God’s presence and comfort in her life. After telling her parents and sister about her vision or dream, her family gave her Giggi’s eyeglasses. They will be a physical reminder of her beloved grandmother and of her spiritual, comforting, dream. Giggi loved the Lord and wants her granddaughter to see Him and love Him as she did. They will be together again someday.

When my Aunt Carrie’s only son Justa was dying after a ruptured appendix, she told me how she sat helplessly at the edge of his bed. He was twelve years old and this was in the early 1900’s, prior to penicillin. Suddenly, he called to her and said, “Mommy, Mommy, look at the flowers”. The painful expression left his face, he looked upward, he raised both arms into the air in front of him, and said “I am coming, I am coming, I can’t come any faster”. As he spoke those words he died. God gave Aunt Carrie a glimpse of His presence at the time of her suffering, at the time of her son’s death. Her faith deepened as the years passed. She was always so grateful for the vision which her son had at the moment of his untimely death. Justa’s words and actions were a memory that gave her the assurance that he was alright, he was with God, and she would be with him again someday. She became a reflection of God’s light in my life. She passed on her faith to me and many others. God was at work in her life and I know that His Hand is at work in my life. Faith is contagious and wherever and whenever I can, I will pass it on.