I am not a patient patient. Are you? I remember a preacher saying, “When God gives us tribulation, he expects us to tribulate.” Fighting off an illness this week has taught me more about patience. Years ago, I heard a dear friend was close to death. I drove to her side. Her daughter told me, “She is asleep. Don’t wake her. She has not spoken in days.” I walked quietly into the room and saw my friend.
Joseph heard his dad was sick. Leaving his enormous responsibility, he took his sons Manasseh and Ephraim to his dad’s bedside. But Israel rallied and sat up in bed. Then he talked about God. He told the story of how God had appeared to him at Luz and blessed him. God promised Jacob a family and an inheritance of land. Then God kept all of his promises to Israel. Jacob leaned on his elbow and told his son and grandsons.
My friend surprised me that day. I expected to pray quietly for her before she went home to the Lord. Instead, she sat up in bed and said, “Why Duane Brooks. What are you doing here? I am not going to die. I am going to live.” Her daughter and I were stunned. She invited me to pull up a chair and she talked to me about all the Lord had done for her. Thankfully, she lived for several more months. Then God sent his chariots of fire and took her home, at least as I imagine that moment.
What is your spiritual story? What has God brought you through? Think about those to whom you need to tell the story. The generations of our families need to know what God has done for us. I think of the Osborne family and their ancestral Bible. Their patriarch wrote on the flyleaf a testimony of God’s goodness and a prayer for the generations that followed. His prayers have come true. God has been faithful! We should thank him, and pass it on.
