Meriam

May 23

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power,” Colossians 2:9, 10.

There are other places in scripture where the assertion Paul is making here, that it is in Christ that we live and move and have our being, Acts 17:28, is emphatically made. Here, too, it is stated unequivocally.

Anyone who reads the scripture empirically and who looks upon his own life objectively must conclude that the words of Jesus in the matter are absolutely true, “Without Me, you can do nothing,” John 15:5.

At this juncture in time, a Sudanese woman who is a Christian is being persecuted mercilessly. She has been tried and sentenced to torture and death because she is a believer in Christ, she is married to a Christian man, and she will not recant her faith.

Many of her fellow believers around the world are praying for her deliverance from these horrific circumstances although they understand that they are powerless to favorably affect her dire situation. But they also know that the God they serve is not helpless and HE can intervene in her behalf.

There is a scripture that says, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of God in the land of the living,” Psalm 27:13, and as we lift up our sister in her plight before the Throne of Mercy and Grace, we are beseeching Him not only for her but for ourselves, for we long to see Him reveal His glory.

But she has taken a stand for her Savior that is not contingent upon the circumstances that surround her. She has not stood firmly for Him so she will be delivered; she has stood firmly for Him in spite of the dire prospect before her that she will not be delivered.

How can a young woman, the wife of a man who loves her, the mother of a baby who needs her, allow her life to be wrenched cruelly from her when she need only mutter a few words denying the God who died for her?

Perhaps she can because she knows that loving God personally and she believes that “through Jesus, she can do all things for He will give her strength,” Philippians 4:13. Perhaps she can because she is fully persuaded that He is able to keep all that she has committed to Him for time and eternity, II Timothy 1:12.

Perhaps she can because she is not merely giving lip service to her faith but she has the assurance deep within the recesses of her being that when she has endured this horrific trial, she shall “come forth as gold,” Job 23:10.

Perhaps she sees clearly the glorious reception that awaits her at the conclusion of her ordeal--like Stephen who, when he was stoned to death for his faith in Jesus saw the Lord standing to receive him home (see Acts 7:55, 56).

Perhaps she is a woman who sees not as the world sees, but as God sees. Perhaps she knows that nothing she suffers here can compare to the glory He has prepared for her.

May we who are praying for her see as she sees.