Shortly after moving into our new home in Massachusetts, I received a letter from a friend in San Diego. She wrote, “Judy, God is going to give you someone special very soon.”
My heart quickened with faith and expectancy. I needed this word from God. I had been feeling very alone, far away from the support of our friends on the West Coast, as I struggled to trust God in the face of our son’s ongoing battle with leukemia. I went on the alert, waiting for this person that God promised to send to me.
A few weeks later I drove to a Christian bookstore several towns away. While browsing among the book shelves, I bumped backwards into someone. Turning around, the woman introduced herself, and then she spontaneously told me, “You need to meet Irene; she goes to our church here in Wellesley.”
It didn’t take me long to do that. The following Sunday, we visited her church. Sure enough, after the service someone came up to me and said, “Come, meet Irene.”
I followed the person through the pews as we worked our way towards a smiling, white-haired woman wearing thick glasses. With her face wreathed in a warm, welcoming smile, the woman greeted me. She simply glowed with God’s life. Her eyes filled with love as she looked at me. Then she spoke, “Come, Judy, we have an appointment together.”
In the years ahead, this dear woman became a great blessing to me. As a spiritual mother and mentor, she held me, hugged me, comforted me, and best of all, ministered God’s healing power and presence to me—over and over. In her loving arms, I cried out my agonies, and as she prayed, the tormenting fears left and the peace of God flooded my heart once again.
Gradually, I came to understand how very much God cares about me. It was He who had orchestrated this divine appointment, using three different women. He spoke to a woman far away, on the west coast, to send me a word from Him. The Bible calls it a “word of knowledge,” a gift of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 12:8).
God is not dumb, He is speaking to us, in many different ways, every day. He promises to make his words known to us, through the Holy Spirit (Proverbs 1:23). But do we recognize it and receive it? For the words from God to bear fruit in our lives, we must take them in and let them produce faith rooted deep in our hearts, not just in our minds.
Hold fast to the promises from God. Remember them daily. Repeat them to yourselves, speak them aloud. Our Heavenly Father can be trusted. He does not lie.
Question: Remember the words God has spoken to you. Will you hold them in your heart and not let them be robbed from you?
We all need an Irene in our lives. Thanks for sharing your heart, Judi.