Good morning…
“Sue,” she emailed an inspiring story. “Recently, I was praying for a friend who lost their child unexpectedly. Shortly after the time of prayer, your email appeared in my inbox (which for unknown reasons had not in awhile). It was a second post from readers about rocks in streams.”
“I copied some of it and added some other impressions God put on my heart,” she continued. “Then I shared it with a close group of praying friends as something God put before me (which He clearly had) to be an encouragement in this difficult time. One of those friends (unbeknownst to me) shared it with our friend who lost their child. It was a great source of encouragement to her and she shared the words at her son’s funeral.”
“My prayer is that the words continue to go forth as encouragement to many more,” she concluded.
Unbeknownst to this woman I have never met, I really needed the encouragement of her story on that given day. For a while I have been wrestling with unsettling doubts. Is our written word ministry still useful to You, LORD? Our number of subscribers has leveled off. The percentage of people opening our daily messages and forwarding them on to loved ones seems to be dropping. The voluntary gratitude gifts given to cover the ongoing costs of our ministry are trickling in more slowly. God, has the need for this daily expression of faith been fulfilled?
I was prayerfully pondering all of these mixed emotions when this reader’s email came into my inbox.
“My prayer is that the words continue to go forth as encouragement to many more,” she concluded. Somehow her answered seemed to be God’s answer for now. In these wee quiet hours, I feel compelled to add onto her thought.
My prayer is that the words continue to go forth as encouragement to many more…as long as God meets needs with our written word ministry.
Just a moment, now, you who say, “We are going to such-and-such a city today or tomorrow. We shall stay there a year doing business and make a profit”! How do you know what will happen even tomorrow?
What, after all, is your life? It is like a puff of smoke visible for a little while and then dissolving into thin air. Your remarks should be prefaced with, “If it is the Lord’s will, we shall be alive and will do so-and-so.”
As it is, you get a certain pride in yourself in planning your future with such confidence. That sort of pride is all wrong. No doubt you agree with the above in theory. Well, remember that if a man knows what is right and fails to do it, his failure is a real sin (James 4:13-17, PHILLIPS).
As long as God meets needs with our written word ministry…I trust that it is right for me to gladly write each day with our living LORD.
…Sue…
