Prayer Request

I want to start this post off with a prayer request to all who may read this. Joe Ramseyer Sr. is a member of my church back home in St. Louis. He was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and doctors believe he only has a few days left.

My parents may know Mr. Ramseyer better than me, but I saw his heart for God through worship at church. I lift up in prayer: the Ramseyer family, the doctors involved, the church, and especially for Joe's strength to persist. God willing.

God has a plan for everyone in this life. I don't understand why this is happening. And, I can't say if God gave Mr. Ramseyer cancer, but maybe it hasn't been fought off yet because God has a plan. It may be a plan of healing or plan to bring him home to his Father.

This morning I was reading the story of Job. Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God, but Satan came and robbed him of his 10 children and all of his property through unfortunate circumstances. Job still feared and worshiped God, so Satan then cursed his health with sores from head to toe. This did not veer Job from his One True God.

The thing that I never knew about this story, was that God let Satan curse Job. My first thought was, "What the heck?? Why would you let the devil do such a thing to a God fearing man?" But God knew Job's heart. He knew that Job would persevere with his heart in the right place.

I am not finished with the book of Job yet, but I am inspired by him. It also gave me peace when thinking of Mr. Ramseyer.

Now I don't know God's plan and neither does anyone, so please don't assume this is the case for Mr. Ramseyer. However, I believe that everything happens for a reason. I like to believe that God will take people to be with Him who have accomplished their mission in this life. I like to think that was the case for Jenny O'Reilly. I'm not saying it is, but I can wrap my head around her passing better if I think about it as her purpose in God's eyes was accomplished. My mom made a good point:

"Jenny touched many lives with God's love and would have continued to do that by God's grace if she were still with us. She is now in a better place, but we need to be careful about stating that God causes people to die when we live in this fallen, sinful world. Sometimes there are just no answers for why people get sick or killed when it seems they had so much more to do for the Lord here."

We don't know why things happen. It can be quite frustrating too, but we can be at peace that God is in control. 

There is a song that I have listened to almost everyday for about a month now that I think will be encouraging for anyone. It speaks on the difficulties of trusting God's plan for us because we think we know better than Him. Please take a few minutes to listen to the lyrics and praise God that "There May Be Tears".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-AGMReyUAU

*Job 1-13