“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
James 1:2-4
It’s incredible just how quickly twelve months have passed since the day I lost my job.
How many things can change in 12 months?
Speaking from my personal experience, life can change completely and unexpectedly.
It is my hope that my story will inspire you to overcome any setback in your life knowing that if your faith is on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are God’s child, you have nothing to fear.
God is absolutely Sovereign therefore totally in control of any situation.
You can trust Him.
He has promised to be with us and guide us :
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10
Those of you who regularly read my little blog, may remember that last year, I shared about losing my job. The company that had employed me for 35 years had a business re-structure and my position was made redundant.
The day it happened, I had a few tears. The tears weren’t from self-pity; they were from having to leave behind people I cared about and a job I enjoyed. I walked away from the office building that day not knowing what would be next.
What followed was even more unexpected than losing my job.
A few weeks into my unemployment, I had a fall broke my wrist and went into hospital for an emergency operation. Tests were done and they found I have an advanced bone desease, thus the serious damage done to my wrist.
A few months after, my eight year marriage came to an end. ( That’s a story for another day)
I celebrated New Year 2020 in hospital, where I spent six days due to a serious infection. The scans that were done at the time revealed other minor issues. The specialist referred me to the hospital to have yet another test. Due to the Corona virus I am now on a waiting list.
God is so Faithful
It is amazing the faithfulness of God through it all. He gives me the strength to face each new day, I see His new mercies everyday, He gives me hope when I read in His Word :
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
Today as I was reflecting on the last twelve months, I stumbled upon a song.
The words describe my journey so perfectly.
It may also be the journey you are on.
There is no need to fear the Lord is with us through it all.
We can overcome anything and stand firm when our eyes are on Jesus and His promises.
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
Jude 1:24-25
WALKING BY FAITH 
Tremendous testimony, Crissy, and thank you for sharing it. May the Lord bless you richly in these tumultuous but exciting days.
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I totally agree “ tumultuous but exciting”.
Thank you David .
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You have had the devil’s own time, Crissy! May the Lord’s peace be your shield always!
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Thank you GW.
Keep safe.
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I want to say I’m sorry, Chrissy, for all you’ve been put through this past year. But I hear in you’re words in this and othe blogs, that you hear another voice that calls to you through Holy Spirit, that lifts you up, and fills you with the Peace of our Heavenly Father. He’ll make it all worthwhile in His Time.
Keep Looking Up!
L-RD Bless, Keep , Shine. . .
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Amen. Exactly right. As the old hymn sings “ Because He lives I can face tomorrow”
The Lord make His Face shine upon you and give you peace.
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Living by faith! Now, I know, Crissy, where the title comes from because you are literally living by faith in the Triune GOD who never forsake you; who watches you like those little sparrows, which were sold for a penny. Need I say more?
Yes, actually, it has been 2 years plus now since I’m unemployed. With all the degrees, experiences, and the number of institutions and companies that I applied, I just can’t understand why I’m still in that state. Until probably this blog, my 2nd mission. The Triune GOD has a reason and purpose for everything. He has a task or a reflection for you. He wants you to strengthen if not solidify your love and faith for Him. These are the moments of “relative calmness” where He has your attention and your not busy with the concerns of work and the world. Live by faith in GOD.
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I always remind myself that His ways are not our ways and out thoughts are not our thoughts . It’s only in the trials that we learn the faithfulness of God.
Listening to a missionary in a country where Christians are hunted down tortured and even killed, he explained that God is still demonstrating His power as we read in the book of Acts. Christians, he continued, will know the power of the Resurrection when they learn to embrace the fellowship of His sufferings . It was very uplifting to listen and learn from him.
Thank you Clark . Our Lord knows what He is doing by allowing what He allows .
One glorious day we shall be finally home.
Joy and peace be multiplied to you.
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Amen! this story reminded me of two verses, Crissy. JESUS CHRIST said in John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” And in Matthew 5:11, He said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” (ESV) Sometimes, in our trails, we will learn that our only friend is JESUS CHRIST…everything to GOD in prayer. My prayers for you, Crissy. And if you have the time, check an Oak Ridge Boys’ version of the song at Gersom Clark youtube channel (the first mission way back in 2008 where for 3 years I did not have work) GOD bless!
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Thank you Kent. The Scriptures fit perfectly what the missionary was explaining.
I will check you tube.
Blessings
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God is faithful, in ways we little expect, and often in ways we don’t appreciate at the time.
I remember singing this Andre Crouch song back in my youth in the early 70s. Then it became a favorite of my wife about 6 years ago as we dealt with problems with our daughter and her family.
We can’t underestimate the truth that great is His faithfulness “through it all.”
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Amen 🙏
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In prayer.
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Blessings Bonnie 🙏
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To you also.
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To Crissy,
“Saint Jude, Hope of the Hopeless, Pray for Us”
When nothing else seems to be working, the prayer to St Jude is here for you. James 5:16 promises that the “prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective!”
The Prayer to St Jude
O most holy apostle, Saint Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus,
the Church honoureth and invoketh thee universally, as the patron of hopeless cases,
and of things almost despaired of.
Pray for me, who am so miserable. Make use, I implore thee, of that particular
privilege accorded to thee, to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost
despaired of.
Come to mine assistance in this great need, that I may receive
the consolation and succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations,
and sufferings, particularly (here make your request) and that I may praise
God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity.
I promise thee, O blessed Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favour,
to always honour thee as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully
encourage devotion to thee.
Amen.
I’m very sad to hear of so much difficulty coming your way! I think back over 15 years ago when my life was fairly balanced being quite healthy and getting by. I wasn’t as devout as I though because there were ways I could have improved and expressed my devotion to Jesus Christ that I was avoiding out of convention or due to the ways of the world having a fairly good grip on me a times. Now I see it all that much more clearly and emphasis my service to Him much better. But, about 9 years ago my life took a turn down a very difficult and painful road of physical injury in an industrial chemical injury that was ultimately brought on or caused by sinister political partisans that wanted me out of the way or worse because I was not going to become one of them in this government job. But after this most difficult trial one in which I had to fight all my battles alone, including firing the lawyer who I hired to represent me in the bias, rigged court system and then taking on my legal battle against a politically corrupted employer; I did this alone and struggled like never before but I prayed a lot and did prevail although beat up and more weathered than ever before but though it all my faith became stronger and my mission looked more obvious moving forward. I hope and pay these payers for you and my biggest request is that you making a speedy recovery regarding your health sooner rather than later and that once you do whatever God has planned for you will manifest beautifully!
I ask this in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
Lawrence
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Hi Lawrence,
Thank you for your message.
I can see that you mean well sending the prayer but I only pray to God through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Take care
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I understand but as a theologian once explained to me the Church is God’s family on earth until such time we are in the heavily kingdom, but the Church through Christ and the Holy Spirit is a beautiful jewel and those facets reflect on one another to create the beauty and brilliance of the jewel into this case the eternal family that begins for us here and hopefully if we are judged worthy ends in heaven. And, along with those many facets including you and I we have guardian angels who watch over us every day via God’s will through His Holy Spirit and all of the saints and martyrs who are saints or elect as shining examples because they chose to live as God instructed them to putting His will above everything else making them saintly, they are now wonderful examples for us to emulate while we are still here in this fallen state, and knowing they are with our heavenly Father asking them to pray for us is just like asking each other here on earth to pray for one another but saints are already in heaven so their prayers are special in an intercessory capacity and only doing what God wants them to do not what we tell them to do, and it is only God who will decide any given outcome, but the saints can pray for us to our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ because they are with him! If the saints prayers are meaningless then why are yours or mine anything useful when we are the sinners and fallen? I know I want all saints to pray for me if I ask them to just as I can ask you or my family members or friends to pray for me! God certainly has them working or serving a purpose as part of His family who are with Him and with His Holy Spirit and Jesus carrying out His will; and their showing us by their beautiful example of their lives of genuine faith that it is good to take them into account in our lives on earth in order to make ourselves more saintly in our conduct as they are working on the spiritual level out of our reach to serve God and carry out his will all attuned to His Holy Spirit at “ALL” times never a glitch as we do and falter as mere earthly fallen sinners!
I’ve given these matters great thought over time with prayer; that was why I spoke to those who understand Scripture extremely well but also have lived very devout genuine faithful chaste lives serving God though Jesus Christ while on earth and I have spoken directly to many such persons over the years, so without any doubt in my heart or mind I know I was speaking to individuals who were truly following God’s will and have a degree of saintliness about them. I only offer this as my perspective from my lifetime of trials and tribulations knowing I have allowed Jesus into my heart fully at times and then at other times I was trying to think I knew enough or best, but was wrong! So, my only reason for being compelled to explain, is that I only want to share what I know God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit have given to me over time and I think I see how I’m doing His will in this capacity, even right now. God Bless You!
Lawrence
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Hi Lawrence,
Thank you for taking the time to write.
From your message I understand that you have been searching for truth. Your explanation of what a “saint” is or does, is not found anywhere in the Holy Scriptures.
I thought maybe this article may help if you would like to read it.
https://www.gotquestions.org/saints-Christian.html
The church of Jesus Christ is made up sinners who repented, placing their trust on Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the ONLY mediator between God and man. Only Jesus is the way to the Father.
“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”
1 Timothy 2:5
We can not come to God any other way. Only through Jesus.
Maybe you will find this article helpful Lawrence.
https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-the-church.html
https://www.gotquestions.org/who-can-be-saved.html
It is my prayer that God will lead you into all truth Lawrence.
Keep safe
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Hi Crissy! I hope your day is safe and secure in the loving embrace of our Lord Jesus Christ who is full aware of you suffering and that is my key focus in writing to you previously and today. I appreciate you sending me the link to the content you believe will help me to see the truth. I have some text to share with you and anyone that will be interested in reading it so perhaps we can touch base again soon when the time is right to confer with each other further, I ask this in the Holy name of Jesus.
First, God expects us to pray for one another. We see this in both the Old and New Testaments.
In a dream, God commanded King Abimelech to ask Abraham to intercede for him: “For [Abraham] is a prophet and he will pray for you, so you shall live” (Gen. 20:7). When the Lord is angry with Job’s friends because they did not speak rightly about God, he tells them, “Let my servant Job pray for you because I will accept his [prayer], lest I make a terror on you” (Job 42:8).
Paul wrote to the Romans: “I exhort you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive with me in prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the disobedient in Judaea and that my ministry may be acceptable to the saints in Jerusalem, so that in the joy coming to you through the will of God I may rest with you” (Rom. 15:30-32).
James says: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16-17). Thus, according to Scripture, God wants us to pray for one another. This must mean that prayer for one another cannot detract from the role of Jesus Christ as our one mediator with God.
Second, the reason that Christians have the power to pray for one another is that each person who is baptized is made a member of the Body of Christ by virtue of the Holy Spirit’s action in baptism (1 Cor. 12:11-13). It is because the Christian belongs to Jesus Christ and is a member of his Body, the Church, that we can make effective prayer.
The reason we pray to the saints is that they are still members of the Body of Christ. Remember, the life which Christ gives is eternal life; therefore, every Christian who has died in Christ is forever a member of the Body of Christ. This is the doctrine which we call the Communion of the Saints. Everyone in Christ, whether living or dead, belongs to the Body of Christ.
From this it follows that a saint in heaven may intercede for other people because he still is a member of the Body of Christ. Because of this membership in Christ, under his headship, the intercession of the saints cannot be a rival to Christ’s mediation; it is one with the mediation of Christ, to whom and in whom the saints form one body.
Some Christians–most Protestants, in fact–deny that the Bible gives support for devotion to the saints, but they are incorrect. The Bible encourages Christians to approach the saints in heaven, just as they approach God the Father and Jesus Christ the Lord: “But you have approached Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, and the assembly and church of the firstborn who have been enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and spirits of righteous ones who have been made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood which speaks better than that of Abel” (Heb. 12:22-24).
It is clear the Christian has approached a number of heavenly beings: the heavenly Jerusalem, the angels, God the judge, and Jesus the mediator. “The assembly and church of the firstborn who have been enrolled in heaven” and the phrase “spirits of righteous ones who have been made perfect” can refer only to the saints in heaven.
First, they are spirits, not flesh and blood. Second, they are righteous people, presumably made righteous by Jesus Christ, “who is our righteousness.” Third, they have been made perfect. The only place where spirits of perfected righteous people can dwell is heaven.
Furthermore, “spirits of righteous ones who have been made perfect” is a perfect definition of the saints in heaven. This passage is saying that, just as Christians approach the angels, God the judge, Jesus Christ, and his saving blood, so also must we approach the saints in heaven.
Does the Bible say we should approach the saints with our prayers? Yes, in two places. In Revelation 5:8 John saw the Lamb, Christ Jesus, on a throne in the midst of four beasts and 24 elders. When the Lamb took the book with the seven seals, the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb in worship, “each one having a harp and golden bowls of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.”
Similarly, in Revelation 8:3-4 we are told that something similar happened when the Lamb opened the seventh seal of the book: “Another angel came and stood on the altar, having a golden censer, and many incenses were given to him, in order that he will give it with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incenses went up with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.”
Yes Crissy the truth will set us free and keep us in the Body and Blood of Christ safe from all foes and enemies even unto death! Amen.
God Bless You!
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence
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Thank you so much for sharing your faith and testimony. ❤
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Thank you for reading. ❤
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To Crissy,
“Saint Jude, Hope of the Hopeless, Pray for Us”
When nothing else seems to be working, the prayer to St Jude is here for you. James 5:16 promises that the “prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective!”
The Prayer to St Jude
O most holy apostle, Saint Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus,
the Church honoureth and invoketh thee universally, as the patron of hopeless cases,
and of things almost despaired of.
Pray for me, who am so miserable. Make use, I implore thee, of that particular
privilege accorded to thee, to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost
despaired of.
Come to mine assistance in this great need, that I may receive
the consolation and succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations,
and sufferings, particularly (here make your request) and that I may praise
God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity.
I promise thee, O blessed Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favour,
to always honour thee as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully
encourage devotion to thee.
Amen.
I’m very sad to hear of so much difficulty coming your way! I think back over 15 years ago when my life was fairly balanced being quite healthy and getting by. I wasn’t as devout as I thought which I’m aware of now and there were ways I should have improved and expressed my devotion to Jesus Christ better that I was avoiding out of convention or due to the ways of the world having a fairly good grip on me a times. Now I see it all that much more clearly and emphasize my service to Him much better. But, about 9 years ago my life took a turn down a very difficult and painful road of physical injury; an industrial chemical injury that was ultimately brought on or caused by sinister political partisans that wanted me out of the way or worse, because I was not going to become one of them in a government job, I no longer have. But, after this most difficult trial one in which I had to fight all my battles alone, including firing the lawyer for the resulting workers compensation case that I hired to represent me in the biased, rigged court system and then my taking on the battle against this politically corrupted government employer; which I did alone and struggled like never before, but I prayed a lot and did prevail although beat up and more weathered than ever before and through it all my faith became stronger while my mission looked more obvious moving forward. I hope and pray these prayers for you of which my biggest request is that you are making a speedy recovery of your health, sooner rather than later and that once you do whatever God has planned for you will manifest beautifully!
I ask this in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
Lawrence
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I am praying for you, sister. Thanks for the good song. Our Shepherd knows about all of our trials and challenges and not only deeply empathizes with us but also upholds us.
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Amen Tom!…
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I remember all of this you sharing in pieces of all that has happened the last year. I remember praying, knowing I don’t know all the details but that you Crissy are my sister in the faith and I should pray. You’ve been through a lot and you are persevering through it all, God bless you sister.
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Thank you brother Jim. There is none like our God.
Have a blessed weekend .
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Have a blessed weekend for you too!
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Crissy, you have overcome many trials during these 12 months. Praying for some positive answers to your health questions. God’s peace to you for sharing your story of faithfulness.
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Thank you for reading Big Sky.. Our God is faithful.
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Amen Sister in Christ-Messiah Jesus-Yeshua Crissy!!
GOD BLESS ALL my Sisters and Brothers in Christ Jesus-Yeshua and my Messianic Jewish Sisters and Brothers in Christ-Messiah Jesus-Yeshua and my Devout Jewish Sisters and Brothers and Your Families and Friends!!
I am Pro-Israel-Yisrael / Pro-Christian and Jewish People who STAND with the Holy Land of Israel-Yisrael and our Judeo-Christian Nation United States of America / Pro-Zionism / PRO-LIFE!!
Please Pray for Israel-Yisrael / Christian Nation United States of America, and our Christian Earth Everyday “Pray Without Ceasing.” ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV )!!
( Psalms 33:12 KJV ) “Blessed is the Nation whose GOD is the LORD; and the People whom HE hath Chosen for HIS Own Inheritance.”!!
Our ONE True GOD’S LOVE 💕💜 is ETERNAL THROUGH HIS SON Christ-MESSIAH Jesus-Yeshua for Today and Everyday Forevermore!!
I Love you all Everyone through Christ-MESSIAH Jesus-Yeshua, because HE LOVED 💜💕 EVERYONE FIRST!!
Love 💕 Always and Shalom ( Peace ), YSIC \o/
Kristi Ann
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This is a wonderful and informative article. Please keep up your good work.
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Thank you. God is always faithful.
Blessings
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You are very welcome. Yes! God is always faithful.
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