Lessons In Faith & Hope
By Amber Leggette-Aldrich
Recently our Pastor posed a question to the congregation: “Why do you love your church?” There were as many different answers as there were people. I had a few reasons that came to mind that night. For one, it is where I began to learn about God’s truth. One of the first scriptures I studied that had taken a strong hold on my heart was Proverbs 3:5 & 6 “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
For most of my life I had put my faith and trust in myself, believing that others would only hurt and disappoint me. I had believed that it was up to me alone to make myself happy and to provide for myself. But no matter what I did or how hard I tried, things just never seemed to be good for very long. My life was not working out in the ways I had planned.
After I began hearing God’s Word, my heart began going through many changes. One of the most important was from learning to put my trust in Him. It was very hard for me to do at first, but I soon found that the more I put myself in His hands, the better my life became.
Shortly after I joined our church, my faith and my commitment to follow Christ was tested in a way I could have never imagined. I had to choose to hold onto my faith, and it was not easy. But because I did, I was blessed with peace and comfort that helped me through that trial. Even in the middle of my distress, I could feel God’s presence with me and it gave me strength to go on.
My faith became stronger over the next few years. As I learned more of God’s Word and believed what it said, my trust in Him began to grow as well. It was still hard at times, because I had to learn to let go of believing that I was in control.
God used my youngest son, Christian, to teach me some very important lessons about faith and trust. I have been surprised many times with the ways God uses people, places and events to teach us. As an adult, I had never thought I would be taught as much as I have from a child. But as Christian was being brought up in the church, he exhibited a profound faith and trust in God that I truly admired. Even as young as 3 years old, he had an assuredness in his spirit that everything was in God’s hands and that He was taking care of things. When Christian prayed, no matter whether it was for himself or someone else, it was a done deal to him. He knew his prayer was heard and was sure it was taken care of. I felt rather puny in my faith compared to his! But it caused me to grow more in mine.
I began to pray more from the center of my heart, and I gained a deeper understanding of the messages our Pastor preached. I learned what it meant to submit myself to God’s authority, and from this I was blessed with more security. I was learning the message that God is in control. My trust in Him was also growing, and I began letting go of the fear that I had for so long, the fear of being hurt. But it still took time to fully let go of the desire to try to be in control of my own life. Even though my heart and my life had gone through many changes and God was blessing me far beyond my wildest dreams, deep inside my heart I was still holding onto the notion that I was in control of my own day to day living. I still made my own plans, and lived my life according to what I thought was best. Then came time for another test and time of learning one of the strongest lessons of my life.
When things are going good in life, it’s easy to give God praise and glory. But it gets harder when things start to go wrong and the trials come. I had been in the habit of reading the bible and praying first thing in the morning, and most days it helped bring me peace throughout the day. But there were times that things would happen during the day, and I found my peace had dwindled away because of the circumstances. I was aware of this and had been praying for God to help me to become stronger.
When Christian’s accident occurred, everything happened so fast I didn’t even have time to think about it. As I watched my son dying in my hands, my first reaction was to pray like I had never prayed before! I was so utterly helpless to do anything of my own accord, except to pray and put it all into God’s hands. I remember the first words of my prayer were “I believe in You, and I trust You completely”. And that was true, and from every cell of my body, I called out in Jesus name. The next words I spoke were “I know in my heart, that You will heal him and make him whole again, if not here on earth, then in Heaven”. I can’t explain how I knew, but I did. And for the first time in my life, I also knew that I’m not in control. Right then and there, I put not only my life but my son’s life into God’s hands alone and I felt complete confidence in trusting Him.
God gave us many miracles that day. He brought Christian back to life. A tremendous revival of faith and love began to grow, and is still growing. And the beginning of a remarkable journey began for many. Throughout the following days while we were in the hospital, my faith never wavered, even when the doctors said it was likely that Christian would not survive. Watching the amazement in their eyes when he not only survived, but recovered fully in such a short time, strengthened my praise and faith even more.
I had reached a point where I didn’t think it was possible for my faith to be any stronger than it was. But when Christian told me that he had been in Heaven, sitting in Jesus’ lap, that was the moment when my faith was made whole and complete. Whatever doubts there may have been in my heart had been completely and permanently erased.
Over the next 18 months there were still more trials that came. Sometimes it seemed that the more I tried to share about God’s miracles and goodness with others, the more trials and temptations came. Many times I questioned why these things were happening.
Through reading God’s Word and hearing many sermons, I continued to learn God’s truth. I began to realize that God’s blessings aren’t only about when good things happen, and it’s not always the enemy attacking when bad things happen. I began to understand that a major part of life is about learning, and then responding to what we learn by putting it into practice in our life. One of the things I have learned is that trials can be counted as blessings too, because they can help us to grow closer to the Lord. They can help us to become better than we were. And they can prepare us to be able to help and bless others who need it. Whatever trial or hardship I may face, I know God is with me and He will make a way for me to go through it. I know that it will be used to help me in some way, whether it is for my own personal good, or to equip me to help someone else.
Our Pastor has taught me about God’s truth through his preaching. There have been many in our congregation who have encouraged me and helped me. I have found genuine peace, comfort, support and love in our church. But I think what I love most about my church is that it was where I first knew the love of God, and then I fell in love with Him.
In my heart I know that God is using my life to encourage others in faith and hope in Him. I believe that it is a part of all of our lives, to be a help in some way to others. And that is my prayer for today, that faith and hope in Him grows, spreading like a wildfire that cannot be put out. May you find peace and comfort as you put yourself into His mighty and capable hands. God bless! – Amber
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