Friday, October 17
on every side
on every side.karen kingsbury has this special ability to bring the characters in her books to life.
her books never fail to bring tears.
i never thought books could make me cry.
but her books always did.
reading about their feelings, their difficulties, their struggles, their joys, their hurt, their pain.
the characters seem so real, as if they really existed and i knew them personally.
karen kingsbury also focuses her books alot on God.
through her books, i've learnt how God is a part of our everyday lives.
to think about God, to focus our thoughts on Him.
in this book.
there's faith.
i like her most.
she's a girl who has a sincere love for people, which showed in her eyes and in her smile. to many people, reading the Bible is like a chore, but for her, it's her source of encouragement and strength.
when she faces a difficult situation, she remembers God's promises to be with her through the difficulty. and she takes courage from that. praying and thinking about God is part of her everday life. whenever she feels helpless, the first thing she'll naturally do is - to pray.
she stood up for what was right. and in the midst of doing that, she lost her job. but that didn't cause her to waver in her faith.
she's also someone who believes in people. that God has a way to change them, to bring them back to Him.
there's jordan.
as a young boy, he was strong in his faith. he loved Jesus alot. his mother had a very strong faith in God too. she fell very ill for a period of time. and jordan prayed to God to heal his mother. as a boy, he believed totally in God, that God will listen to his prayer and heal his mother. but his mother died. leaving him with his sister, the only family he had, the only one he loved. he prayed that God will let them be together, but the social workers took his sister away, to live separately.
since then, he believed that all that talk about God was a lie. as he grew into a young man, he built walls around his heart. he was so angry, bitter and disappointed with God for not answering his prayers as a sincere young boy who trusted fully in God and loved God with all his heart.
but God never gave up on him. through situations, and through people, jordan finally broke down and realized God's love for him. he regained the love he had for God as a young boy.
it reminds me of how we all face times of doubt about God's love for us, especially when God doesn't seem to answer our cries of help or our sincere prayers. but it's really about trusting that God will work things out for the good of those who love Him and walk in His ways. we need to ask God to help us remove the walls we've built around our heart. walls that hinders us from receiving His love.
there's joshua.
he's someone who feels very inadequate to do what God wanted him to do. but yet, he always remembers what God said - to be strong and courageous, and that the battle is the Lord's. a friend once told me this, from second chronicles twenty, that the battle is the Lord's, not ours, so we need not be afraid.
doing God's work is simple. it's just to believe in Jesus.
living life as a Christian is simple. it's just to love God.
when we believe in Jesus and when we love God, things will work out for good.
situations change, people change, feelings change.
but God doesn't.
letting go of me, holding on to You.
help me to trust.