I Will Give You Rest

David did not foresee the avalanche of trials and persecutions that he would have to encounter in his life. This was just the beginning of the journey, though, but still we see him devastated. The present heat seems to be unbearable, whereas God was preparing the furnace to be heated seven times hotter. As I read the above scripture, I was amazed how God took this broken man through the rough terrains of life before he finally brought him to his place of destiny. God had to remove David from the comfort of the palace in order to prove to David that “He is his only refuge.” The relationships you consider dear to you and the more you cleave to them, God would strip you off such relationships, in order to reveal that “He is your everything!” 74

It was a day before my husband’s birthday, we had gone to the bank to check out if there were any deposits, but we were disappointed because there wasn’t any, I stood there in front of the bank in despair, because I had nothing to bless my husband with, on his birthday. Just at that time, I received a call on my mobile and it was from the land owner to inform that our cheque had been bounced, never has this happened in our ministry. We were receiving knock after knocks, and I certainly felt drained and depleted. Is this what you call as the ‘fiery furnace that is seven times hotter?’ Surely, I could not take it! I write this portion with tears! When I think of that day, I still shudder. Oblivious to the people around me and unmindful that it was a public place, my eyes brimmed with tears. At that moment, I remembered the childhood days of poverty when we were thrown out of the house because we were not able to pay the rent. Satan cleverly brought the wrong things into my mind to shatter my faith. We asked time from the landlord and prayed for financial deliverance. I would like to state one thing here, despite the miserable condition we were in, we did not resort to using our credit card to draw cash, we did not borrow money, nor did we seek help from relatives or friends, all that we did was to fast and pray. As we went through this rough path, we learnt to fast much and pray much.

Dear friends, never despair when you go through troubles, we can have a glimpse of God only when we go through the fire. Even today, when I pass through that bank, I praise God for taking me through that path, because He taught me valuable lessons of handling money with caution and care. After that incident, I was able to compassionately look at people who are going through financial crisis. Glory to God! God will never deposit money into a pocket with a hole. Only after making a vessel into a good vessel, would He deliver money into that vessel. The vessel should have the capacity to hold blessings with wisdom! The storehouses of the Egyptians were handed over to Joseph, only after Joseph received training for 13 years inside his prison, without which he would have gone bonkers over the abundance that he received on one single day. It was the presence of God that was inside the prison that prepared Joseph for the greater things ahead of him. Glory!