March 04, 2019

God Is With Us by Susan Barclay


One of my favourite scripture verses these days is Isaiah 43:2:
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you (NLT).
God is with me, even in shark-infested waters!

Some of my Inscribe posts over the last year have described or alluded to challenges my husband and I face with our prodigal children. This is new territory for us. From birth we brought up our son and daughter to know and fear the Lord. We dedicated them as infants, took them to church and youth group, prayed with them, thought we modeled a life of faith. Both of them made decisions for Christ and were baptized of their own volition, our daughter spent three years at Bible College. Now both are walking apart from God. It's all very surreal.



Without Christ to walk alongside us in this journey, where would we be? It's unfathomable. He is our hope. He gives us peace. We know that God is faithful. We know that He is good. He doesn't want anyone to perish and He has good plans for us. 

He has good plans for our children too. We know that; we believe that. We are "certain that God, who began the good work. . .will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns" (Philippians 1:6, NLT).

This new territory is fraught with unknowns: When will God move? Is He at work even now? What will He have to do to restore our children to Himself? How long will it take? How difficult will they make it? And so on.

There is little much we can do when our children won't listen. We can pray! We can invite others to pray alongside us. We can search the scriptures for encouragement, verses that speak to God's character, His nature, and of His promises. We can find encouragement in the testimonies of prodigals who have returned and rejoice in their stories. We can continue to show love to our wanderers. We can seek out others who have walked similar paths and invite them to mentor us. We can ask God what He would have us do as we wait on Him.


Where two or three or gathered, He is in our midst
One thing this journey has taught us is greater compassion. You never know what someone else is growing through. We need to have empathy and patience with one another. Also to rejoice in trials, because "they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love" (Romans 5:3-5, NLT).

There may be many twists and turns in the road ahead, perhaps new territories for which we will need increased faith to step out of our comfort zones. Thankfully, God has promised to never leave us or forsake us.

And just as Christ died for our sins, He died for the sins of our children. Since there was hope for us, there is also hope for them. As long as there is life, the story isn't over. What a day of rejoicing that will be. I am already planning the prodigal returns parties! 


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Susan Barclay maintains a website at www.susan-barclay.blogspot.com and has recently returned to blogging there on a semi-regular basis.




10 comments:

  1. The message of your blog strikes close to my heart as well, Susan. Thank you for writing so honestly and wisely on this topic. I often say the "Oh, My Jesus Prayer," which is said in the Catholic Church as part of the Rosary. The Blessed Virgin Mary taught the following prayer to the children in Fatima the third time she appeared to them, which was on July 13, 1917: "Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of mercy."

    This prayer can be said as part of the Rosary or by itself. I pray this often, especially in regard to family and loved ones. I am sharing this prayer as one of the faith traditions I've come to appreciate and adopt since I became Catholic in 1975.

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    1. God hears the cries of our hearts, Sharon. Prayer is a comfort, a privilege and a power that changes things. Trusting that He will work in the lives of your prodigals and lead them Himself and to heaven. xo

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  2. Hi Susan. This really hit home with me; our little family of two grown, married sons is going through some real challenges right now. We are in a place I never thought we'd be in also. Your blog is filled with hope, perhaps even more than you realize and is what I needed to read this morning.

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    1. Gloria, I'm so glad my post could minister to your needs this morning. God is truly good. He doesn't waste any experience in our lives, but uses it in some way. Believing that He will bring good out of the challenges your family is going through as well as for our own. xo

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  3. Dear Susan, I think there is a growing number of young adults raised in the faith -that are questioning the church, and feeling they don't need it. May God Himself be the one who keeps interceding for you, and your children. This morning I was reading, in Ezekial 20 about God acting out of who He is, not by our actions ... He is a compassionate God, slow to anger. At the risk of taking verses out of context, I also read Jer 33:26 in the Msg where it says "The last word is, I will have mercy on them." I have a "surrogate daughter" who would not be considered as walking in His way, and I am claiming that mercy for her. She is an addict and I believe she might die an addict, but I know that she has connected with God. And our job is to continue loving them as Jesus would.

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    1. Amen, Jocelyn! I'm not sure if you read the revised version of my post which I only did this morning. I realized I'd forgotten to mention a few other things we can still do while we wait for our prodigals to return. Continuing to love them is one of them!

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  4. Yes, He is a God of hope! This reminds me too of Jesus teaching to love God with our whole hearts, and to love others. He is the one that changes hearts, and a God of miracles!

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    1. So very thankful He is a God of hope and miracles. We're in desperate need of both in this world!

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  5. Thank you for this, dear Susan; I needed it. You've encouraged my heart through the sharing of your own.
    Blessings ~ Wendy Mac

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    1. Thank you so much, Wendy. We need each other, and to know we're not alone in our difficult journeys.xo

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