A Testimony

Hello Everyone,

I know this is already the 2nd month of 2008 and but now that we have a group indivduals who can undoubtedly speak about what goes has done for you. Please take a moment and really contemplate the very essence of God. While you are thinking of his greatness...take the time to go back to 2007. Sometimes in life we have to look back and gain a re-appreciation of what God has done in order to move forward more freely in the future of God and what he has destined us to do.

 

Please take a moment to post something that God has done for you in 2007 that has allowed you to press forward to 2008 with grace.

 

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But God......

I'll start.....

I am thanking God for showing me how to constantly overcome and supercede what man may have thought and expected from me. At 2 months of birth I was "diagnosed"(I used the term diagnosed, because this a label than man has tried to impose upon my life, But God......is a healer, I am not claiming disease) with a hereditary disease. One that is known to be deblitating emotionally AND physically. The stigma that comes with this disease is one that states that the patient will always be sick, have a stroke, have extended stays in the hospital, organ and tissue damage leading to organ failure, mindset of self pity and undriven to will to succeed, death in many by age 12, But God.....

 

I want to thank God because he has allowed me to overcome all of those previously mentioned circumstances victoriously because he's a keeper. I graduated from undergrad in 2006 and was accepted to Grad school Oct 2007. God has allowed me to rise above sickness, death, failure, and low self esteem, strokes, as well as emotional and physical diblitation and given me the chance to complete the master's program in Public Health.

 

This is not to say that education is everything. But I thank God for allowing me to do something. I thank him for giving me the family to nourish the mentality that through God we are overcomers, and for just being God.

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But God......

But God...

When I was 5 years old, I was diagnosed with menigitis. The doctors told my mom that if they tapped my spine and blood came out, then I wasn't going to make. They tapped my spine and blood came out, but God saw fit to bring me back. I'm grateful, but I still had yet to understand the importance/significance of my life. When I was 15 years old, I tried to commit suicide. Many people ask me why I would do such a thing, but honestly the only reason I can always give is that during that time my reason was that I just didn't want to be here anymore. I was oppressed by many things that plagued me from my past (i.e. molestation, mental abuse, etc.) yet although I tried to end my life...God said "NOT SO". So the phrase "But God" really ministers to me. (a little side note, if you haven't listened to Tye Tribbett's song "But God", it's a must)... Because of God's grace, mercy, deliverance, and most of all HIS LOVE, I am assured that I have to live this life with purpose. My walked has to be purposed because He made me on purpose. There are many things that I have to be thankful for, but when I start to get off kilter I'm reminded of these two things the most.

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I'm on His Battlefield, it's getting narrow, but it's good

I read this and couldn't help but stop and leave something. I think the excerpt from my book(Redeemed;From Earth's Gravel To God's Glory) says it best about how God moved just over the last year of my life. So here it is...


The biggest testimony of my life used to be that I became a widow at age 20 in 1999.

However, the more I crossed different valleys throughout my life, becoming a widow at age 20 only became the introduction to my testimony.  The year 2007 proved to be an exceedingly more challenging time of my life than the year 1999.  In fact, the year 2007 went something like this for me:

 In March, I gave birth to another son after successfully completing a second high risk pregnancy.  However, I also experienced, for a second time, gestational hypertension (high blood pressure that comes from pregnancy) which would last for the next 8 months.  My mom, who was also one of the closest friends of my heart, passed away with lung cancer in June, not even a year after being diagnosed; In July, my husband’s grandfather suddenly passed away, days after having a birthday party; In August, I got fired from my job of 3 years because my newborn was ill and quarantined from daycare for several days.  All of my vacation and personal days were exhausted for the year being that I took FMLA leave in March to have the baby and then took several days off to be with my mother while ill, make arrangements when she passed, and time to support my husband in his loss as well.  Since the baby was quarantined from daycare, my husband and I had to split the days to take off with him, because my husband’s personal days were exhausted also.  I faxed in all of  the necessary paperwork from the daycare to my supervisor and took one day off, only to walk into work the next day to be fired without my years of service and extensive overtime given a second look.  I was only told, before being escorted out the door, “What happens if another one your family members die or gets sick?  We can’t tolerate that here.”   On October 6^th, my birthday, we got the keys to our very first home that we purchased, only to find the police at it the next day because someone had broken in, stole all of the copper plumbing/ piping, and did nearly $8,000 worth of vandalism; Several days later, we found out that we had a gas leak from the street to the house. That made the gas leak our responsibility and the repair quotes ranged from $800 - $1300, leaving us without heat for almost a month until we could pay the cost. This resulted to my infant and me becoming so ill that we ended up in the Emergency room.  The cold air in our home triggered horrible congestion and bronchitis in us both, and we’re both asthmatics; On October 23^rd, the day before my husband’s birthday, his mother was diagnosed with severe heart disease and failure; In November, the same week I told my husband I wanted to get my tubes tied (because I had a history of high risk pregnancies/ complications and I didn’t feel ready for additional children) I found out I was pregnant; and, in January 2008, we were on the local news because our mini van was stolen from church during morning service.  If that wasn’t enough, co-workers from my old job were going around spreading rumors that we were on television lying about the theft and that our van actually had been repossessed.  (I guess the person who started this idiotic rumor didn’t realize that my husband paid cash in full when he purchased it so we had no car note on the van for anyone to repossess it.)

    So, surely, by just sharing a glimpse of the last year of my life with you, you can definitely understand how there have been many times I felt like giving up.  Many of my trials had me hanging my head with shame and feeling like it was impossible to stand.

    Furthermore, I found that many of my friends that I knew to be the steadfast Ruths of my life, instead became quick fleeing Orpahs. (If you’ve read the story of Ruth in the Bible, you know just what I mean by that.) Yet, when I was of the world, the same friends “had my back” when it came to the clubs, drinking, smoking, fighting, or being a whoremonger.  But, when I started living saved, you couldn’t pay them to call me, come by and see me, come to a church service with me, nor intercede for me in prayer when I needed it most.  I became very disappointed by all of this.  The enemy even attempted to capitalize on my downtrodden state with illusions of everyone but me prospering in their life.  He would continually speak into my mind that God had forsaken me to complete loneliness and that I just needed to give up.

    That’s when I decided that, instead of giving up; I needed to seek God like never before. And guess what?  I’m still standing.  Instead of the storms breaking me, they’ve made me stronger, wiser, and I learned for myself what it means to trust God. In His time, God touched every situation mentioned above and worked it out for my good.

(“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIV)

He gave peace to each tear that I shed. For instance: When our van was stolen from morning service at church, my purse, wallet, credit cards, and all three of the children’s car seats were in the car. My mom purchased the car seats for the children before she passed, so the sentimental value alone had me very upset. Two days later, our car was retrieved by police two blocks away from the church. My purse, wallet, and my credit cards were all untouched. The children’s car seats were flipped over in the trunk area, but they were just fine. The van didn’t have a single scratch on it. My husband said as he was running late to service, he was going to stop for the gas was on empty. However, he said he went straight to church because the Spirit told him to get to church first. As a result, the thieves only traveled two blocks away from the church because they ran out of gas. Also, while my mother-in-laws’ conditioned looked very poor initially, her shortness of breath was dire, and she suffered a heart attack while in the hospital on New Year’s Eve; she’s now back to work fulltime, on a lesser dose with her medication, the shortness of breath is gone, and her heart as well as diagnosis is extremely better than before. But what if I had given up back at the beginning due to the heaviness of these storms? What if I didn’t believe that God would work out any of these situations because of what it looked like in my eyes? How tragic would it have been for me to have missed out on seeing the victory that God has promised me all along? Daily, my life is a fight against the enemy.  A fight for my mind, a fight for my destiny, a fight against grief overtaking me from losing my mom, and so much more.
In closing, I encourage you to keep fighting the enemy for your life also.  No matter what storm you are facing right now in your life, I know if you just hold on and believe you will overcome also. Your back may be against the wall in many areas of your life but don’t you give up!  Don’t you faint! I believe that if you seek repentance, God’s salvation, and His will for your life… in Jesus you also will experience that you have been Redeemed; From Earth’s Gravel to God’s Glory.God bless!!

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Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139 23-24