I want to share with you some of the verses that God has given to me through the years as I have gone through various trials with health (e.g. cancer), finances (home repossessed – no income), family etc. God is so faithful to speak directly to us through His Word when we become willing to pray and ask Him to do so, expecting that He will.

What you both are going through with Laelia as the instrument so to speak, is part of the “work” that God began in you at the time of your salvation and that He also promises that He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

It really helped me when God opened my eyes to the fact that it is HIS work and not mine – my only job is to yield and be the clay in His hands – not really easy to do is it? Philippians 2:13 affirms that it is God who is working in you, to do His good pleasure (not my good pleasure).

God’s purpose is always to bring glory to Himself. Isaiah 41:20 says it so clearly: “That they may see, and know, and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it.” The context is the restoration of Israel.

One of the many verses that God has used over and over in my life and many other’s as well, is James 1:2-8. Through suffering and trials is God’s way of proving our faith and increasing our endurance, steadfastness and patience – not the way that we would choose to have this done, but God’s ways are different than man’s ways (Isaiah. 56:8-9).

In the Amplified Bible, James 1:5-6a says ” If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to every one lliberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks, with no wavering…” The context, of course is whenever we experience trials of any sort. This a promise to claim continually as you move through this trial, step by step.

Isaiah 41:10 says “Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strenghen you, I will help you, yes, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 40:28-31 (ampl) says: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding.
He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength – causing it to multiply and making it abound.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and the selected young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted;
But those who wait for the Lord – who expect, look for and hope in Him – shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint or become tired.”

Lastly, always remember that God placed this “trial” in your lives because He has already given you the ability to successfully navigate through it – even though it sure doesn’t feel like it right now. And, you are not the only one to have ever gone through a trial like this either:

1 Cor 10:13 (ampl) “For no temptation – no trial regarded as enticing to sin [no matter how it comes or where it leads] – has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man – that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the tempation He will [always] also provide the way out – the means of escape to a landing place – that you may be capable and strong and powerful patiently to bear up under it.”

God is faithful and will guide you through this journey that you are on. He wants to be trusted for the next step, not the whole picture. I pray that you will both prayerfully embrace the circumstances that are in your life with joy and to trust God for the wisdom and strength to do what is needed.

God bless you both,

Maureen