Mark 10 28.
Peter began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You."
A couple of years ago my wife was on her way to work at 5:00 am when she rear ended a truck with a large pipe bumper. This truck being a bobtail perhaps didn't feel her hit it and drove off down the street from the stop sign. The insurance company totaled the car, being about 10 years old.
My wife and I are always looking to serve God where ever He would have us serve and on the surface, since we know that nothing happens to us that does not get approval from God, this appears to be unfair. Was it? Doesn't Jesus promise persecution when blessed? (V:30)
Because of this wreck my wife was uninjured, a blessing in and of itself. Because of the car being totaled we had to go into debt, instead of paying some bills off, for her new 2nd hand SUV. That really sounds harsh for servants trying to be loyal, doesn't it? But wait.
A few weeks later our daughter fell at work and hurting her back was hospitalized. Now remember God is always in control. Wrecked car, added debt and a loved, a precious daughter in the hospital and they can't seem to do her any good. My wife and I, along with our daughter and her husband remained loyal to God and continued to praise His Holy name, praying all the while for God to heal my little girl. What else could possibly go wrong?
After extensive testing the doctors discover that she has a very serious form of leukemia. Now she has to be moved from the hospital that is just minutes away and taken to the cancer center more than 50 miles away. Remember the wreck? And the newer more capable vehicle?
I seem to recall that it was at about this time that my heart began to hurt. I thought at the time that I was just anxious about Barb and it would let up when the stress eased a little.
Well, my wife being a wonderful mother went to work in the daytime and spent most of her nights at the cancer center with Barb. On one visit my wife and son-in-law watched with me as my daughter had a bad reaction to treatment and tried very hard to die. A team of very professional doctors and nurses worked on her and stabilized her. My heart had not stopped hurting but I thought I could handle it until that night, I was hurting pretty bad after that night. But I watched God work through those specialists as they saved my daughters life. I also knew that if Barb had not had the fall at work the cancer would not have been found until much later and she most likely would have died.
I went home that night, leaving my wife and daughter there and I began to make appointments to see why my heart was hurting. The heart specialist ran tests and determined that my heart was plugged up in a couple of feeder veins and would have to be operated on. My poor wife, now her blood pressure was out of sight, still, we praised God.
Two small operations later, in the hospital close to our house, I began to recover. A couple of weeks at home, remember that new truck, and I went back to work, light duty and my wife back to full, instead of part time watch with our daughter.
Today, I'm well. My daughter? She's cured, not remission, cured! My wife's blood pressure? Better and still in the hands of God. Her new truck? She almost ran the wheels off of it but it pulled the duty where the old ca
Are we as a family blessed? Yes! Because we're blessed are we persecuted? Uh huh! Satan will never give up if we refuse to give up and we do still praise God.
Got any persecution that you need to thank God for?
29. Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake,
30. but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.