Abundance in Sorrow: God’s Never Ending Love

November is the month that Americans pause to give thanks for our abundance. We have much in this country to be thankful for and our freedom to pray and read the Bible is our most important one. For many people, this year has been a year of tragedy and uncertainty as never before. Hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, shootings and health issues to name a few have left us with unspeakable sorrow and suffering. But God’s guiding light can shine through it all if we choose to trust Him. He is always just and righteous even when tragedies and injustices strike and it is hard to understand and trust Him. Our faith can’t be in the answers or results we always want to see or hear; our faith must always be in the great I am. The one who is the beginning and the end – Abba Father.

As this season of Thanksgiving approaches I’m especially grateful for God’s abundance of love, provision, and being able to suffer a while on earth for eternity with Him. Please allow me to give you a gift from my heart – an entry from my new devotional Hope 4 Today: Staying Connected to God in a Distracted Culture. My prayer is that this Thanksgiving you’ll have an extra heaping of God’s abundant love and peace whatever or wherever your circumstances.

Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ… II Corinthians 2:14

Mom’s Abundant Life

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10

It must have been well over one hundred degrees in the Nevada desert that day in August 1960. My family’s banana yellow station wagon lurched and sputtered as the engine failed, and my dad guided it to the side of the road. We were miles from the next gas station. Dad soon hitched a ride with a passing truck leaving me and my two older brothers in my mother’s care. My older brother, Richard was out of the car immediately throwing rocks as we began to hear Robbie, a miracle baby, gasping for breath in the back seat. Born without a valve in his heart, doctors had done experimental surgery replacing this vital part with a pigs valve hoping he would live. The heat of the day was making it difficult for him to breathe.

What seemed like hours began to wear on my fearful five-year-old patience and I started to cry. Mom had to have been worried too, but she didn’t show it. Her peace that day is something I’ll never forget, as she held me close and said, “Kathy, God’s taken us this far. He’s going to take us all the way home.” Her faith was undaunting.

Life can hold unfathomable challenges, but God hasn’t lost sight of us. He’s with us on what seems like abandoned desert roads or hospital rooms. He’ll continue to be there to take us all the way home.

What is one thing you fear? How can God’s peace and provision comfort you today?