He Raised Me Up
Posted by Bruce Norton on Jul 29 2010
Tuesday, I had just dropped my daughter off at day camp. I stopped to pick up my mail and was driving to my office in great despair. There is tension in nearly every aspect of my life – financial, marital, everything. So I started praying. It was a deeply rooted, fervent, and tearful prayer asking for relief.
When I got to the office, I looked at the mail I had just picked up and found a check I was not expecting. Also on my desk was a small stack of envelopes, and in that stack was another check I was not expecting. Now, these were not million dollar checks, in fact each one was less than $100.00. Not big money, and certainly not enough to completely resolve the financial picture, but enough to let me know that He heard my prayers.
And if that response was not clear enough, I also came across a newsletter from a friend of mine. I have both a Maryland address and a Pennsylvania address. John mails this newsletter to both addresses. The newsletter was dated May, 2010. I had seen the one he mailed to my Pennsylvania address before. So, when I opened this one, I recognized it and started to fold it back up to throw it out when a paragraph at the bottom of the first page jumped out and grabbed my attention. It read:
"Point of my story? There have been times in life when I have become discouraged, feeling as though God is not hearing my cry for help concerning a certain major issue. Or if He’s hearing, He sure doesn’t seem to be responding! AND THEN. . . HE does something totally unrelated, perhaps something small. . . but something which conveys a HUGE message, ‘John, I may not be answering your BIG request in the way you wish, but I want you to know I am watching over you. I’ve got your back covered. Remember ALWAYS that you are in good hands. . . My hands!’
Perhaps today is the day when YOU find yourself in despair. May you be alert to the message God may give you today. . . the message that HE CARES. . . that you are safe in HIS hands!"
Wow! How powerful is that. God took a newsletter that should have been thrown away months earlier, that had a message that was written for me, and put it in my hands the very day I needed to see it. I stand in awe of my God.
And maybe you too are reading this when you need to read it the most. So I will close with John’s closing. Perhaps today is the day when YOU find yourself in despair. May you be alert to the message God may give you today. . . the message that HE CARES. . . that you are safe in HIS hands.
Bruce..