“Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known.” Psalm 77:19
The way God works is a mystery most of the time. Jesus promises that He will build His church (Matthew 16:18).
He does not need us, but He gives us the opportunity to participate with Him in what He is doing in the lives of people.
My mom was a tough nut to crack. When my father came to the Lord she was not interested, and neither was I. Then ten years later I came to faith and a few years after that my two brothers came to know the Lord as well. My mom continued in her unbelief for many years until she was stricken with lung cancer.
Prior to her cancer, our family had shared the gospel with my mom through the years with no response. When she was informed she had cancer, my brothers and I planned on taking her to lunch to share the Gospel with her again, hoping she would be more open to it.
A few days after our lunch was scheduled, my mother sent an email to my brothers and I that she was trusting Jesus with her cancer. We were amazed with this email. When our scheduled lunch happened a few days after her email, she was open to talking about Jesus. God beat us to our prayerful plan of bringing our mom to faith.
My mother battled cancer for just over a year and then passed away. She has now been gone for over three years. Sometimes as I think about her, I can hardly believe it has already been three years.
Then God did something amazing to give us a glimpse of how He works.
A few weeks ago, after a business meeting, I met a man in the lobby of our office that was speaking with my brother. He proceeded to tell us that he and his wife were Canadian citizens that spend much of the winter down in Scottsdale where we live. They had befriended my mom and my stepfather and had been sharing the gospel with them for quite some time. He told us about how shortly before my mom passed away his wife spent time with my mom in prayer with her. He mentioned how he had wanted to meet us for some time and finally got around to coming by.
I was blown away, never having known what God was doing in our midst. God has His soldiers scattered all over and working in ways we have no idea about. I am very thankful God was merciful to me and He gave me a glimpse into how He mysteriously works.
I was reminded that God does not need anyone. He will build His church and none of us can mess it up. That is very comforting to know I cannot mess up another person’s salvation. We all have the privilege of being involved and being rewarded for faithfulness, but we are not needed.
As Mordecai said to Esther when he was trying to convince her to see king Ahasuerus without being invited into his throne room, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”(Esther 4:14).
Mordecai understood that God would deliver the Jews whether or not Esther did anything about it.
I praise God that He had my mother’s salvation set in His perfect timing and He used a nice Canadian couple in her neighborhood to impact her without anyone in my family knowing about it. We serve a great and mighty God!
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