September 12, 2023
God’s Not Through With Me
The Bible tells us in I Peter 5:8 “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” I never dreamed that the attack would be on my personal health. Over the years I have had a few health issues but nothing that I considered enough to make me stop pastoring and preaching. I should have expected it though because that is the way that our enemy works. He knows that if he can make the leadership ineffective then it hurts the whole body of Christ.
For those of you like me who had never experienced a stroke it is a weird thing. Your brain tells your foot to move or your mouth to speak and the body doesn’t respond in the right way. You know what you want or need to do but you can not do it. It is not only strange but scary. You wonder if you will ever be back to the normal person that you have always been.
The devil has lied to me several times trying to convince me that I will never preach again. He has told me that my future is working in another line of work because a preacher who can’t speak without the words getting jumbled up and slurred isn’t going to be very effective. But HE IS A LIAR. And I refuse to listen to Him because my God is my healer. The voice of my Father is louder and more direct than the lies of the enemy.
God is speaking to me as His child whom He loves. Satan is speaking to me in a way as to steal my faith, destroy my ministry, and kill my hope. But He WILL NOT win because the word of God promises me that, “Greater is He who lives in me than him that is in the world.” It also promises that “God is my refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.”
So this experience has brought me into a deeper walk with Daddy God. I have to rely upon Him more each day to help me do the things that He has called me to do. I can not always rely upon myself or my own strengths. Two verses of scripture have been more special than ever before. Psalms 73:26 says, “My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever.” And II Corinthians 4:16 says, “We don’t give up. Our bodies are becoming weaker and weaker. But our spirits are being renewed day by day.”
So every day that I am regaining my mental and physical strength my faith, hope, and spiritual health grows stronger. I will not give up because God is not finished with me and with what He has called me to do.
In love with Jesus – Pastor Gary