GOD’S WORD FOR NOVEMBER 6 ~ ~ 1 John 2:5 ~ ~ “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.”

From Michael Youssef’s book, How to Read the Bible as if Your Life Depends on it (because it does)

The Word of God is the only mirror that reveals the truth about us.

Reality is hard to face. Many of us – including many Christians – live in a fantasy world. We don’t want to confront the reality of our transgressions, failures, habitual sins, or the times we have let friends and family down.

I was born in Egypt. The doctors told my mother there were complications in the pregnancy and advised her to undergo a therapeutic abortion. But our family pastor visited my mother and said God had told him that the child she carried would serve the Lord. So my mother rejected the doctors’ advice and gave birth to me.

There were many times during my troubled boyhood when my mother must have wondered if our pastor had misheard the message from the Lord!!! I’m grateful to God that my mother lived to see me surrender my life to Him when I was sixteen.

But even after I committed myself to the Lord, I made it clear to my family that I did not want to go into the ministry. I thought I could still be a Christian while rejecting God’s call on my life.

I wanted a successful career in the secular world, so I needed a university education. To enter university, I had to pass the high school certificate examination – a national exam that fewer than 38 percent of applicants passed. As the exam approached, I came down with typhoid. Suffering from a 105-degree fever, I took the exam without any hope of passing. I did pass – but with a score so low that no university would accept me.

I could either repeat a year of high school and try to bring up my score or join the military. I applied to the Egyptian Air Academy, hoping to become a flight navigator. Very few Christians are accepted, but the Academy approved my application. I convinced myself that God was in it and that He wanted me to serve Him in the secular workplace.

Two thousand cadets were accepted, and the Academy sent the letters, ordering the to report. But one of those letters got lost in the mail: MINE. Weeks went by. Finally, I traveled to Cairo to find out when classes were to start. Upon my arrival, school officials told me that classes had started three weeks earlier – and I was held in contempt for showing up late.

By God’s grace, a relative who was highly placed in the military intervened on my behalf. The Academy released me without punishment, but I still had to repeat my final year of high school.

Ironically, our family lived next to the university. Every morning, wearing my high school uniform, I had to walk past my former high school classmates as they were going in the opposite direction to their university classes. And every afternoon, I passed them again on my way home. It was the most embarrassing time of my life.

During those days of humiliation, God’s Word spoke to me again and again. I thought of Jonah, fleeing from God’s will only to face humiliation and despair in the belly of the fish. I thought of King David, forced into humiliating exile by his rebellious son Absalom, and later restored to the throne by God’s grace. I thought of the Apostle Peter, a self-willed disciple who promised to remain faithful to death, then denied Jesus when accused by a lowly servant girl.

I identified with their humiliation. Reading their stories was like looking in a mirror. Throughout that humbling time in my life, I heard God saying to me, “Michael, I need you to obey My call on your life. Hear and obey – and I will honor you.”

So, I began to submit my will to God’s will. Eighteen months later, I miraculously escaped from Egypt. Two years after that, I was enrolled at Moore College in Sydney, Australia, preparing for the ministry. God’s Word rebuked me – but it also encouraged me to persevere in following His will for my life.

Today, I thank God that I lived long enough to look back and say, “Thank You, God for my failures and humiliations.” Why? Because God was preparing me so that I could confront the truth about my life – and the truth of God’s perfect plan for my future.

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Psalm 147:3

He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.

Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Nehemiah 8:10

….for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Psalm 127:2……For so He gives His beloved sleep.

Proverbs 6:10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

Hebrews 12:2

Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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