Adversities
One year ago, we lost our first child. I had a miscarriage, and it was a very dark phase in our marriage. To add to that, our small business wasn’t going well. We were no longer earning what we used to as there was a newly opened competitor on the same street as our store. Another problem we were facing was that we were overwhelmed with debts from one of my best friends which also put our friendship in a dangerous situation.
We didn’t know where to start. We didn’t even know if we could start somewhere. Each area of our lives seemed very hopeless.
Or at least that was what I thought. Until I was reminded by a lovely friend about God’s faithfulness and promises to His children.
When we are drowning in challenges, we often forget about the One that could pull us out from there. He is usually our last option to go to, thinking that we could overcome all of it by leaning on ourselves first instead of kneeling to pray. That’s exactly what I did — I panicked, I was scared, and I tried to fix everything without consulting God first; and we all know that doing these three things are the enemy’s way to keep us away from the Father.
God’s light will never leave us
But goodness will always triumph over evil. God made sure that there was a way for me to go back to Him. I didn’t need to hear much; I only heard these words that made my heart and mind change — “these will only end when you start trusting God”. As a hard-headed human, my first reaction to those words was “how would that solve our problems?”
It is our choice to choose between light or darkness
Remember that God gave us free will, we could choose what to do in every situation, and choosing to listen to God was and always will be the best decision we could ever make; and the very first thing I did after making that decision? I wept and begged Jesus to help us, I wept until there were no more tears.
I wept until I started to feel the overflowing presence of peace and calm. It was surreal, supernatural, unexplainable, but so real. I was so at peace and could not believe how close I was to Jesus even when or most especially when we were at our rock bottom.
God is our peace
We started to trust God but that didn’t mean that we were problem-free. No, we were still in debt, we were still fighting for our business, and we were still grieving for our lost child, but God has become our Peace.
Transformation after the storm
As of today, our small business had been closed for several months already — it did not continue to prosper but God created a new channel to provide for us. Losing our business did not break our hearts because God has transformed us into people that focus on Him instead of focusing on the blessings.
Our debt to my best friend is not finished yet but will be by April 2022, and we still did not get our rainbow baby, but we now have dozens of spiritual children from our missions and two amazingly sweet dogs.
You see, our problems did not disappear overnight. But God paved a lot of ways for us to put some solution to each of them. It’s been a year, and a lot has changed in our situations and my and my husband’s characters.
Freed from worries
God’s grace has freed us from life-long worries by teaching us to let Him do His will instead of leaning in our own understanding. We learned it the hard way, but God made everything easier and made everything possible.
We can never finish the race without facing adversities, but we can always finish it strong when we listen to the Holy Spirit; when we let the grace of Jesus become our strength, and when we trust the Father that His will is not to harm us but to teach us to be loving, humble, faithful, and full of dependence on Him.
“But he said to me,‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9)
Ana Camille (nickname – Camille) Philippines is a Sunday School teacher at her local church and started a few months ago in children’s missions introducing Jesus to the kids through Bible Storytelling, dancing, and singing Christian songs. God's love for me has transformed me into a person who cares about children and stray animals. I find that life only has its meaning when Jesus is the centre of it. I am married to a man of God who is not just my partner in life but also my partner in the mission that God has planted in our hearts.