Giving God Glory No Matter What Happens

{Guest Devotional by My Mom}

We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan. Romans 8:28 (Voice)

Photo: kevin dooley via photopin cc | Design: Wendy van Eyck

Until Wendy, my daughter, was a teenager, I was chronically ill. 

Arthritis riddled my body and a heart complaint had me in ICU/CCU every two to three months. 

My youngest said that he never knew that mums didn’t spend their afternoons on the bed until he visited friends whose mums were healthy. 

I was anointed with so much oil for healing that I almost slid off the chairs. 

I believed…but my health deteriorated. 

I experienced much needed deliverance which healed so much of my life…but my health continued to deteriorate. 

My husband would often wake in the night to check if I was still breathing and the kids knew that Mum was in hospital again when Dad fetched them from school with a lunch of KFC to lessen the pain. 

At the same time my youngest son had asthma and a challenged immune system which meant that several times, he was in one hospital in an oxygen tent fighting for his life while I was in ICU at another hospital. 

Life was hard [especially for my husband].

During this time I read the biography of Pastor Duma, who against all odds ministered across the colour bar in apartheid South Africa. His motivation was ‘Take your glory, Lord’. 

I understood for the first time the sovereignty of God. 

It’s not about who we are but about who God is. {Tweet this}

I realised that the often quoted scripture, ‘all things work together for good to those who love God’ was not saying, ‘all things work together for MY good’ but was actually saying ‘all things work together for HIS good,’ and His thoughts aren’t our thoughts and His ways are definitely not our ways.

Talking about healing and the sovereignty of God, James Robison said, ‘With your legs you kick Satan away with all your might but with your arms you reach up to heaven and say, “Not my will but yours be done.”

Take your glory, Lord, whichever way you choose. {Tweet this}

I believe the acceptance of God’s will for my life was the turning point to health. 

Several years after this acceptance, a new medical heart procedure was 100% successful, and as my circulation was restored so the joint inflammation reduced, until, although I have very crooked fingers, I have been symptom free for nearly twenty years. 

Take YOUR glory, Lord. 

I don’t want to give false hope or dish out another cure all for chronic illness by just saying, accept your illness and you’ll be healed. I know this is not the case. My son’s chronic illness has continued unabated for many years without relief. 

I don’t understand why God does what he does. {Tweet this}

All I know is God’s ways are not our ways. Which is why my prayer today is still the same: 

Take your glory, Lord, whichever way you choose.

What hard things are in your life at the moment that you need to hand over to God and say, “Take your Glory, Lord, whichever way you choose”. 

{About the author of this guest devotional} 

Jeannette Harbottle is the mother of Wendy who writes and curates ilovedevotionals.com. She shares her home with David, her husband of over 40 years, and two giant schnauzers. She is the distributor of Kanaan Literature and resources in South Africa.

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Do You Have A Dream?

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! Ephesians 3:20 (MSG)

Photo: seyed mostafa zamani via photopin cc | Design: Wendy van Eyck

“Careful if you dream for God because nothing is impossible. If he wants you there, he’ll take you there and you will never, ever, be the same again.” 

My youth was spent singing these lyrics, believing these lyrics, waiting to see the impossible. 

As a young teen I had crazy big dreams with God.

I thought I was going to be own a huge media empire. 

Then my life took some twists and turns and this dream seemed stupid, naïve, adolescent. 

A decade or so later I went to an interview and God reminded me of my media dream. It had revolved around a warehouse where young people and teenagers could hang out and discover that Jesus not only loved, but liked, them.

During the interview, I was told that the set for the TV show, which I would be working on, would be a warehouse. 

This was the blooming of my teenage dream into something I could never have imagined.  

On the drive home, I kept saying thanks to God and laughing. 

I think God was laughing too. 

My dream would have reached two or three hundred kids; God’s dream reaches millions across the entire African continent. 

My dreams were too small; God’s dreams were beyond my wildest imaginings.

That was the day I learnt God isn't limited by our small dreams. (tweet this)

I’ve been working there for 6 years now. It’s been hard and it hasn’t always felt like I’m living a dream. Often it has felt like hard work and sweat and tears but it’s been amazing to live a dream.

Some of the best dreams you can live are the ones you can't even imagine right now. (tweet this)

I don’t know about you but as I’ve grown older I find that I dream less. 

I’m not talking about the kind of dreaming that interrupts you sleep but the kind of dreaming that hopes for the future, that wonders what God has in store, the kind of imaginings that wonder what big things God wants to do with my life. 

I’ve been wondering if my lack of dreaming about the future somehow holds God back from “WOW”-ing me. 

Of course, God doesn’t need my dreams to do amazing things but he does need my heart to be available to him. 

Somehow I think dreaming for God is part of that. It’s part of making ourselves available to him and saying, “I’m in God, no matter what crazy plan you have up your sleeve.”

I don’t know about you but I’m daring to dream for God again, won’t you join me? (tweet this)

Are you currently dreaming some big dreams for God? If so, why not write them down and share with a close friend? If you haven’t dreamt for God for a while why not pray this prayer with me?

Photo: seyed mostafa zamani via photopin cc | Design: Wendy van Eyck

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Dear God, They Say It’s Cancer!

{Guest Devotional by Aldyth Thomson} 

For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you. Isaiah 41:13 (NIV)

Photo: Nina Matthews Photography via photopin cc | Design: Wendy van Eyck

In December 2004 I went for a mammogram.

To my horror, I found out that I had stage 2 breast cancer and was facing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

I would love to tell you that I was very brave and ‘just knew’ that God was going to come through for me, but I can’t. (Tweet this)

When I sat in the oncologist’s office after the surgery, and she started listing the possible chemo side effects, I started to cry, and cried on and off for two days.  

I couldn’t believe this was happening to me! 

I couldn’t sleep. It was like a huge, black cloud pressing down on me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so isolated before. 

I have a very caring family and wonderful friends, but the more they tried to encourage me and say that it would all be okay, the more desperate I felt, because how did they know I was going to be okay? They weren’t the ones facing chemo! And what did any of them know about cancer anyway?  

Sometimes, I’ve found, you just have to hear from God for yourself, as nothing else can bring you peace…the kind described in Philippians 4:7 where it says, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard (garrison) your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (NIV).

I was desperately afraid of the actual chemotherapy. 

I wondered anxiously exactly how sick I would be. The night before my first chemo, I went into my bedroom and asked God to speak to me and help me deal with my fear. 

My eye fell on Isaiah 41:13, “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you.”  (Tweet this)

What I didn’t know that night, was that the needle used to administer the chemo would always go into the back of my right hand! The overwhelming feeling of fear and helplessness lifted and for the first time I felt able to cope. 

What is it that’s worrying you? What are you desperately afraid of? What do are you going through that you feel like you need God to hold your hand? However you do it, reach out to God and He will meet you at your point of need.                          

                                

{About Aldyth Thomson: The Author Of This Guest Devotional}

Aldyth Thomson has been an organiser of the Beauty for Ashes Women’s Conference since its inception in 1996. Her passion is to see women encouraged in their faith, absolutely sure of God’s great love for them. In December 2004 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was herself encouraged by so many wonderful women. She is married with three grown children and one grandson. 

Find out more about the Beauty for Ashes Women's Conference, where Mary DeMuth and Sue Keddy are speaking, from the 24th & 25th of May 2013 in Johannesburg by clicking here. 

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