Ministry > Stories of God at Work
Back in 2010 when I was in university in Ghana, I made a friend who was two years ahead of me. Even though he was troublesome (he wasn’t always very honest and often caused problems) he still remained my friend. One day he visited and asked if we could watch a preaching video by a local pastor. The sermon was titled “Understanding the power of your opportunity”. The point of the message was basically about treating people right, because you never know who you might need to help you one day.
Fast forward a few years and my friend completed university and went off somewhere else to do a second degree. I completed my course two years later. Little did I know that God was going to use him to affect my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined.
I’d been working for about two and half years when my employer told me the company wasn’t making a profit and so they’d be scaling down. Within that period I had been applying to schools outside of Ghana to be able to do my second degree. So I told my old university friend about it, who was in a better position to help secure me a scholarship.
Just like in a bad dream, many of us at my workplace were told we no longer had jobs. The amazing thing is that two days after we were sacked, my scholarship to study in the UK (worth almost £30,000) was approved.
But a short while later I was told that I was not selected to be part of the beneficiaries of the scholarship. However my belief was that God still loved me anyway and that the time was just not right, according to His good wisdom.
Now I’m in the UK to pursue my masters in International Relations. I got here later than I thought I would, but it means I can carry on with my studies. I didn’t know how this was going to be possible without my friend going all out for me. All I knew was that God was going to come through for me and that He knew my name.
I just want to encourage someone out there that God is faithful. He really does know us, even from when He made us in the womb (Psalm 139:13). If you’re trusting in Him and waiting for Him to answer you, He will! Just delight yourself in the Lord and He shall provide what you need. Whilst you do that, treat people that come your way well. God loves and blesses us, and He often does that through people. In my case, He provided through my friend from university eight years ago. —Abigail
ReadI want to share with everyone what the Lord has done for me during a time of sickness. I pray this will be a great encouragement to you.
Six weeks after having my second child I returned to work. But literally overnight I became extremely ill. I phoned the doctor the following morning for antibiotics as I thought I maybe had tonsillitis. But my temperature soared at 11am and so my husband took to me the doctor. I was hospitalised with sepsis, quinsy (an abscess on the tonsil), a blocked airway and inflamed vocal cords!
When I was admitted the surgeons said I was a very lucky girl as two others had been admitted with the same symptoms as me and were in intensive care unit. It meant the hospital staff already knew how to treat me (it’s amazing how God works!). A week later I got home and I was on antibiotics for quite a while, but I kept getting infections and began to wonder if I was ever going to get better. Four months on I was still going to the doctor for prescriptions and I still needed three hours of sleep every day after dropping the kids off at school.
On one of my visits to the doctor, she said I was never going to get better if I was scared of getting sick again. She recommended exercise, reflexology, yoga and counselling. She left me more apprehensive as I wondered, What should I do! I was so distressed!
That night I decided I would pray. I asked God to take all my worries, anxiety and fears—and to heal me. I just focused on those things and imagined them going up to him. During my prayers I felt something I can only describe as a ‘thump’ in the middle of my chest. I got so excited wondering was this it: Had God healed me?
The next day I felt like something was different. My mum happened to call that morning and couldn’t believe the change in me. My head was completely clear! It was on Friday 4th May that God healed me. On the Sunday 6th May all my family shared this verse: “Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him” (Psalm 98:1). I had kept all my consultants appointments just to make sure I was really OK. When I saw them, they said I was fine. When I left one of my appointments, my daily reading for that day was on the theme of God making us (me!) strong!
Since then, He has been restoring me and healing me from strength to strength. It is by the grace and power of God that I am now healed. I can’t tell you how wonderful and amazing this experience has been! I honestly thought at one point that I would never see the day! Glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, Redeemer and Friend.
The Lord used this experience to bring me back to Him. Every day I am getting to know our Lord Jesus Christ personally. I believe with all my heart, soul and mind that the Bible is the Word of God.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2: 8-9).
We just need to have faith in what Christ did for us on the cross. He died and suffered the wrath of God for us, and God accepted His death as a sacrifice for all our sin. If we believe and receive Jesus as our Saviour, repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness, Jesus comes into our hearts and cleanses us from all sin.
Jesus said: “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3). All we have to do is trust Him and accept Him as our Saviour! My hope, joy and peace is in Our Lord Jesus Christ. —Leah
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ReadAfter I long day I came home in the rain, to find the windows wide open and the beds soaked! I took my anger out on God - and apologized! - and sat down frustrated at the computer to relax a little before diving into more work. "Lord, I don't know what you want me to do. I can't pay my bills, my marriage is over, I think I have an ulcer, and now I don't even know where to go online to relax!" Hoping He would guide my fingers, I angrily plunked on 4 keys without looking. The Bing search yielded a radio station first, and then Our Daily Bread Ministries. The video devotional was about Jesus calming the sea. Thank you, LORD JESUS. And thank you, Our Daily Bread.
ReadAfter the Holy Spirit revealed Himself to me while I was lost in spiritual darkness, in a place consumed of spiritualism and drugs, Our Daily Bread was one of the first ways I saw God reach out to me after my deliverance. In the following weeks and months when I was deep in spiritual warfare the enemy gave a last ditch effort to pull me back Our Daily Bread was an amazing source of hope and strength for me in my walk into intimacy with the Lord. I just want to thank everyone at ODB for listening to the Spirit move in your lives and being obedient to the call to this ministry to extend Gods love in this way. Glory to God!
Much Love
Corey
ReadWhile listening to the Bible study on May 29th on I Corinthians 1: 3-7, I realized where the Lord has placed me as a Barnabas. 26 years after choosing an abortion for an unplanned pregnancy, I found healing and restoration in a Bible study for post-abortive women at a pregnancy care center. Through that experience, I began to volunteer at a local pregnancy care center. About a year ago, I had the blessed experience of co-facilitating the same post-abortive study (Forgiven and Set Free) with the woman who was the facilitator when I went through the study. I rejoiced in seeing the participants transform as they accepted God's forgiveness and embraced freedom. I still volunteer at our local center and always come home feeling blessed by the clients the Lord brings my way. Not all are post-abortive, but all are on the road I once took. God is so awesome in the plans that He has for us!
ReadAs I grew up, I knew my grandma as a saint. She didn't just get her bible out of the closet on Sunday, go to church and then come home and do her own thing the rest of the week. She went to church every Sunday morning and night, every Wednesday night, until they passed, she did ladies hair for church every Saturday. She was also on the prayer chain at her church. And every morning, she read Our Daily Bread (which is why I started reading it too :) ). But I went too church when I had too, at her house on any weekend. I was baptized at her church at the age of 9, but nothing changed. I kept living the same (not sinful, but not saintly), kept watching the same shows, sleeping in on Sunday mornings, normally, etc. But, at the age of 16, I was in a bad accident that almost, should of, killed me (fell off a bridge off a motorcycle 30 ft; shattered pelvis, broke a leg, arm, a finger and my collarbone and sustained a traumatic brain injury. Spent 4 1/2 months in the hospital, a year in a wheelchair and shattered dreams (Air Force Academy was no longer an option.) But then God orchestrated events that brought me closer to Him. Met a kid in High School at lunch who inspired me to read the Bible, at CU met my current best friend (who's currently a missionary in Spain to North African Nations) who led a Bible Study and with whom I started attending church regularly. Baptized in 1984, bad accident in 1991, started reading the Bible in 1993, attending church regularly in 1994. (Also started reading Our Daily Bread in 1995.) Maybe, not the right way, but better late than never!
ReadMy husband was involved in a vehicular accident March 2010. A sleepy motorbike rider collided with Fier from behind and they both crashed in one of the busiest sections of EDSA. It was the first miracle that he had that day, no other vehicle was behind him and he had a chance to get up and walked to the side of the road. Second miracle of that day was he never lost consciousness - he was fully alert of what was happening and even had the chance to call and inform me of what happened.
He underwent surgery to put a metal plate to support his shattered right collarbone.
The other guy fled the scene and the third miracle that day was that a fellow motorbike rider helped my husband and they were able to get the license plate of the guy who collided with my husband. After a few months, I was able to trace the guy who collided with him.
We met with him and his mother. He explained that he was up partying all night and fell asleep on the wheel.
If you know who I am, you would expect that I will burst out throwing expletives to the guy for all the trouble that he'd caused. We were neck-deep in hospital bills and my husband wasn't able to work for 2 months. Everyone who knew me back then would expect me to file a lawsuit and wrung-dry the guys family for moral damages.
But lo and behold, I was able to keep calm and let God do all the work. My husband and I agreed to forgive him - which I think surprised both him and his mother. We just told him to be careful next time and that he should not be behind the wheel if he's not in a condition to be. We parted ways and my husband and I both had this heavy weight lifted from us because we have given forgiveness.
The Lord indeed moves in mysterious ways. His love and mercy can soften even the hardest of hearts. There is blessing when we forgive just as the Lord had forgiven our sins.
Thanks be to God!
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