Lamentations 3:22-23 ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.’
DAILY READING; – 1 John 1; 2 Chronicles 34; Psalm 89:19-37
Samuel Wesley, the father of John Wesley, during the 18th century, served as a dedicated pastor in his parish. However, there were those who did not like him. And it is believed that one of those enemies, on February 9, 1709, set fire to the rectory at Epworth where the Wesley family lived.
That night, Samuel Wesley’s 11-year-old daughter, Hetty, was awakened from sleep around 11:30 p.m by burning pieces from the roof of the house falling on her bed! She immediately raised an alarm.
The parents, eight children, and a handful of servants had to run for their lives, with no time to take any possession with them.
However, after everyone had run to safety, the parents were alarmed to realize that 5 year old John Wesley had been left behind.
Though the father tried to go back inside to find him, the burning flames made it impossible. And so believing John would die in the fire, the father asked the family to pray and ask God to receive his soul. But just at that moment, one of the neighbors who had gathered to help, spotted little John at a window of the burning house. With no time to look for the ladder, one man stood upon the shoulder of another man to reach the little boy and they pulled him out just in the nick of time. Immediately he was pulled out , the burning roof collapsed into the building and the house eventually burnt down.
Later on, John’s mother, Susanne Wesley called him ‘a branch plucked out of fire’ in reference to Zechariah 3:2. And throughout his lifetime, John Wesley believed that God had saved him that night to fulfill His purpose on earth. which included the founding of the Methodist Church.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.’
Many of us like John Wesley are branches plucked out of the fire. We are only alive today because of God’s grace and mercy. Right in the midst of many fiery situations, when it had looked like the end of us, God had intervened just in the nick of time and plucked us out.
And this is why we remain ever grateful to Him. Indeed we are all products of God’s mercy. None of us would be here today, if the Lord has not been on our side.
David said, “By this I know the Lord is on my side, He has not let my enemies triumph over me” (Psalm 41:11).
Indeed, God has not allowed the enemy to triumph over us. Despite all the things that came against us, God has kept and preserved us.
That trouble could have been the end of you, that sickness could have taken you out, but yet by the grace of God you survived it all.
Some of us have been through fires that should have left us battered, shattered and tattered, we should have been broken by those severe seasons of trauma, but yet today there is no sign around us of what we have been through. God has so delivered us, that just like the Hebrew boys, there is not even the smell of smoke around us.
So, while it may sometimes be easy to worry or complain about the things we think are not working, let us never forget how far God has brought us. Indeed a living dog is better than a dead lion, and as long as you are joined to the living there is still hope for you.
Indeed God is ever good and faithful. This is why we appreciate and praise Him. Even when we may not trace Him, we keep trusting Him, knowing that He is working everything together for our good. And we are thankful that His mercy endures forever and ever.
PRAYER: Father please help me to always maintain a lifestyle of gratitude in appreciation for all Your goodness towards me and my family. Indeed You have been faithful to me and for this, I praise and bless You forever in Jesus Name.
QUOTE :
Thanking God in whatever situation you find yourself in life stirs up the Heavens to move on your behalf- WORDBITE 222