Saturday, June 25, 2016

Saturday, June 25, 2016

[by Keesha Sullivan]

As my friend, Eloise, laid in her hospital bed, a lady that was cleaning the hospital came to the door. Eloise warmly smiled at her and welcomed her into the room. As the lady took her first few steps into the room, she stopped and said, "Wow, I feel the peace of God in this room. You must be a believer!" She then proceeded to ask Eloise to pray for her. 

Although Eloise was the one in the hospital bed, the woman knew that there was something special about Eloise. She wasn't going through this adversity in the same way that most people do. Eloise was cheerful, peaceful, and full of a supernatural joy. 

When people see us in the midst of our storm and we are overcoming, they know that God is real. They know that it is possible for them to prevail in even the most dire situations.  People receive hope. They are listening and watching us as we live our lives. 

In our Scripture reading today, Paul and Silas gave hope to the prisoners. Paul and Silas had been stripped and beaten. They were severely flogged and then thrown into prison. They had every reason to lay down and cry, sleep, or even complain once they entered their cell. Instead of doing those things, they prayed and sang hymns to God. It says, "the other prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25). The prisoners had to be astonished and wonder, "How and why are these men so joyful? What do they possess?" 

God doesn't want us to go through trials defeated because He cares about us. He also cares about the people that take notice of our reaction. God has given us all the power that we need to conquer any adversity that we may face so that we can testify that He got us through and that He is getting us through! He wants people to ponder, "How and why?" so that we can tell them it was our Heavenly Father. 

Lord, please help us to be men and women that crush our problems rather than allowing our problems to crush us. We want to be able to testify about the God that we serve. We want to be able to tell people that they too can go to You and get the power to triumph in this life. We love You God. We thank You for the supernatural power that You make available to us to overcome. We need You, and we thank You for Your goodness. 

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Rev. Kenny Sullivan

Associate Pastor

Grace EFC | Stamford 

m: (203) 978 - 3778

o: (203) 323 - 6737, ext.12

"soli Deo Gloria"