Children of the covenant
Children of the covenant!"6 In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. 8 What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith." - Galatians 3:6-9 [NLT]
Exactly 5 years and 3 months ago I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. In that time we have been on a journey of faith in every area of our life, and seen God work miracles over time which has defied the theories & reports of man.
Along the way we have had many people, Christians as well, comment negatively about our faith walk, about the way God has taken use supernaturally in our health, family, work, finances. It's easy to become blinded by the patterns and measures of success in this world, and allow those thought processes to shape our thinking and our faith. But through every season God has taken use through we have learnt that we are not called to be of this world. Many take that as isolating themselves from the world physically. But it really is a call to God's way of thinking, acting and believing!
I go into 2011 healthier than ever. In 2005, the doctors declared a life expectancy of 5 years for me. It's a humbling moment for me as I am overwhelmed by Gods goodness and grace in my life that He has a purpose and destiny for me yet to complete and I am still here!
I am very thankful to God for my best friend & destiny-partner, my wife Sharini, without whom I couldn't have gone through all the challenges we faced over the last few years. Regardless of circumstance, she always had a beaming smile, and praise on her lips. It was such an encouragement to me to see her shine through the darkest of times in our life. In 2011, we celebrate 10 years of marriage!
My kids; I thank God that from such a young age they have seen God's power, and experienced His love & faithfulness. They pray with such sincere and innocent hearts, and God honours their prayers. It breaks my heart when I hear them pray for me - for God to heal daddy's eye or his blood and so on, but I realise that through all this, God always receives the glory when they see the miracle of healing, because of their faith.
Right now where I stand in life, in the world's eyes, and sadly, in many Christian's eyes, we might not have "success" in their measure - but what we have right now is more precious than what any money will ever buy, and could ever buy. Recently we had some good news that Sharini is pregnant with our 4th child. I received an sms from someone asking if I planned to "rob a bank" - presumably to support the family.. God's promises over us will return more wealth than the best investment on this earth, and His protection for us is more secure than the hands of the best surgeon, or the largest army. It is in His presence we live, walk and breathe daily.
I guess it's hard for people to understand fully to what extent God provides for us. But as we remain faithful and obedient to His call, we know without any shadow of doubt, no matter what anxiety & fear man around us has, that God will NEVER leave us nor forsake us:
1 Corinthians 2:9 (The Message)
6-10We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it's not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don't find it lying around on the surface. It's not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven't a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn't have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That's why we have this Scripture text: No one's ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.
But you've seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.
2011: New Beginnings!
