GRACE IN THE MIDST OF ADVERSITY

When my dearly beloved maternal grandmother passed away in 1993, I thought my world had collapsed, as she was such a gracious and loving grandmother who cared and always prayed for the family. She was a pillar to all of us, including my father. In fact my father, whose parents died when he was aged 12 adopted my grandmother as his own and they had a fantastic relationship, he treated my grandmother as his own. A year after my maternal grandmother died, my father passed away. I was so distraught and aggrieved, as I realised that my father did not live to see me get married nor did he live to see his grandchildren. This caused me a lot of pain and it took a while before I could let him finally rest. He was also a great man of prayer and was a wonderful father to all his children. Then a few years later, as if we had not suffered enough, my precious, kind, very quiet brother-in-law passed away. He was such a nice man, we all found it hard to come to terms with his sudden death at the age of 48, leaving behind two young children. In 2003, my husband survived a fatal accident, which could have killed him.

As I look back at all these events behind me, I marvel at the grace of Almighty God whose power became perfect in my weakness. I marvel at how His grace brought me through the pain, grief and sorrow.

There is always a way out of any tunnel, it depends on how you see it. You might feel you are in a pit right now thinking you can't go on any longer. Is your world crashing around you and you think you've just about had enough? My encouragement to you is that the grace of Almighty God who was sufficient for me in my time of pain will bring you through your valley of affliction and replace your weakness with His strength. Weeping my endure for a moment but your joy will come in the morning. I pray that you will find strength in God and anchor yourself to his grace. Though times may be tough for you right now. He will carry you through and be sufficient for your emotional, mental and physical well being. Count your blessings today and name them one by one and you will be surprised what the Lord has done!