In Our Losses, we find our gain!

                      

                     Letters From the Heart

I have heard it said, “In our losses, we find our gain”, As I prayed about my “testimony”, I asked the Lord just what he wanted me to say, and I believe he wanted me to share a loss and prayer time with you. One of my biggest losses became “my perfecting”. And perfecting is: being reduced to realize God is all you need and it always has been that way.

In the beginning of 1985, a real problem of mine raised its ugly head. My tormentor was giving me a problem, and knowing my weaknesses, was pounding away at my insecurities. One night, when I could not sleep, my dilemma was first and foremost on my mind and heart. I walked the floor in my living room like I was a caged animal. In desperation, I cried out to the Lord and said: “Lord, please, you have got to give me something to hold on to before I lose my mind!” With such a dark cloud hanging and impending disaster coming, I had reached the point of brokenness before the Lord, full surrender. I believe with all my heart that I heard him say to me, “Anne, 1) hold on to what you know as truth and 2) don't be influenced by the ways of the world, 3) I am coming soon”. I picked up my bible and opened it to a random page and there on that page a verse was illuminated to me and I read, 

1^st Samuel 17: 37  David said, The same Lord that delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. 

Reading that verse resonated with my whole being and I felt an overwhelming peace, God had heard my desperate cry. Besides, wowwww!! the Lord had just called my dilemma a Philistine!

For this little Baptist girl, I had never been taught much of anything about spiritual warfare, so I went to a friend of mine at work that I knew to be a “prayer warrior” and told her of my experience. She said, “Anne, God has gifted you with this verse and it will always be yours to use in any battle, the way you fight this spiritual battle is with this Word to you from the Lord. Every time the problem comes to your thoughts, every time you hear a bad report about this situation, instead of worrying or even thinking about it, replace the worry with this verse, even if you have to say it is over and over, back to back, hold on to this promise and don't let it go.” I must have quoted this verse hundreds of times during those next days and weeks.

The victory was mine in that situation that God mastered for me with the weapon of His Word and there was no need for anything else. It was the beginning of my perfecting, And perfecting is: being reduced to realize God is all you need and it always has been that way.

2 Corinthians 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him, the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

Oh, how I love to tell the story !

Anne with an  "e".