This post is dedicated to Doris Lee. Thank you for touching my life.
If you recall from my last post I mentioned two young women who I knew who died recently. Although I’ve been doing what I told you I would by focusing on ensuring that I’m living a life God wants me to live, I still had a few questions in the back of my mind. And, true to God’s word, He has answered my prayers and questions.
Before I tell you how, let me tell you this first: When I posed a question to my mother on how could these women have died when God’s word says “we’re already healed,” she told me not to dismiss that God also says His will will be done. Hmm? So, then I got to thinking well isn’t His will for us to be healed since He says that in His word?
With those thoughts in the back of my mind I have continued on with my daily life… not dwelling on death. It wasn’t until February 27 when I was reading “Our Daily Bread” that I think I got the answer. The title of the entry is Keep Praying and it is written by Dave Branon. Mr. Branon wrote about his daughter who he and his wife had always prayed to keep safe. As his daughter and her friends began to drive, they prayed, “God, please protect Melissa.”
Well, Melissa was killed on a warm spring night as she was driving.
How devastating for a mother and father to have to deal with the death of a child, but that didn’t stop them from continuing their prayer life. In fact, they needed prayer more, which was Mr. Branon’s point. But, for me, I stopped to think. Why didn’t God answer that prayer? Or was it that it seemed to me it went unanswered?
Dave Branon and his wife prayed “protect.” What God brought to me is that by taking Melissa home to Him was the ultimate protection. He answered their prayers just not in the way they saw fit or would have assumed. Well, I’m not sure anyone of us would have assumed that. And that brings me back to my friend who died of cancer. Although we had prayed for her healing there are no stipulations in the Bible based on when, where or how. With her death came the ultimate healing and an end to her suffering.
Amazing! God protected Melissa by bringing her home to Him. He healed my friend, Doris, by bringing her home to Him. As always, God is true to His word. We, as His children, simply have to continue to trust and believe.
“Faith is not demanding what we want; it is trusting God’s goodness in spite of life’s tragedies,” Mr. Branon wrote.
Thank you Dave Branon, thank you Doris and, of course, thank God!
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2 comments:
This is an email response that I received from Mr. Branon. Let's keep him and his family in our prayers.
Petula,
Thank you so much for your note and for your kind mention of my article on your blog.
We miss Melissa so much, and we think of her nearly every waking moment. Because we know so much pain, we feel that we should help others who are struggling as well. I'm grateful that my article was so helpful to you.
One side note. Because of the brevity of an ODB article, it's hard to say everything that is pertinent. One item that was not clear in the article is that Melissa was not driving when she died in the car accident. She was
riding home from a day on Lake Michigan with her friends. It was the last day of her junior year of high school. She and some girlfriends had gone to the beach, and then others joined them at the invitation of parents of a classmate at their cottage on the lake. Jordan, Mell's boyfriend came out to have pizza, and they were headed home with Jordan at the wheel when the accident occurred. He survived. I see him occasionally to make sure he's
doing okay emotionally.
Again, thanks for your thoughtfulness.
Dave Branon
Our Daily Bread
Thank you, Petula, and Mr. Branon. I came across a devotional from Mr. Branon in today's (July 18th, 2020) Daily Bread - meaningful as a young family friend's young sister just passed away from cancer at 17 years of age this past week. I did a little search on the Branon's beloved Melissa and read/ran across other devotionals/articles including this one. It helps me as I minister and pray for Sofie's family. God bless. ♡
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