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Written by Daniel Sims
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Wednesday, 23 December 2009 14:43 |
Since my last blog post, things haven't exactly gone our way. In fact, for a while it has seemed that everything was going against us. In October we began to have issues with county government over building code and permits. Many of the people in our church have fought personal battles that we never thought we'd face. It has been hard to try to encourage the church when I have been discouraged myself. I kept telling the Lord that I have done all I know to do. He kept reminding me of the latter part of Ephesians 6:13, "and having done all, to stand." Sometimes it was all I could do just to keep standing.
A few times when I thought I could take no more, another messenger would come over the hill with yet more bad news. I would remind the Lord that I was at the end of my rope and could take no more. Then along would come another messenger to show that I could indeed take more. I was starting to joke with my friends that God created me just to show them how much pressure a human could endure.
I would call my family in Alabama to vent. Things were going great at their church. People have been getting saved, families have been joining, and the church is really growing both spiritually and numerically. They even had a man driving down the rode who said the Lord told him to come to their church. He came to church, got saved, and has been faithful ever since. He even brings visitors now. I rejoice in their victories, but wondered why God wasn't moving in our church like that. So I decided I would just keep standing.
It appears things have finally started going in our favor. The issues with the govenment have been favorably resolved. Another family is movng from Illinois to join our church. It appeared for a while that their house would not sell and they could not come. About the same time the other issues were resolved, they got an offer on their house. They have already found a house in this area and have made an offer. Lord willing they will be here within 3 weeks. We are very excited to have them.
I realize that the storm probably isn't over and there are more hard times ahead. I do thank the Lord for the space of grace he has given us.
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