A story of Hope...

I have been so excited to write about this since yesterday when it all came to a conclusion. It is a personal story about 2 great people that I have known for the last few weeks. It’s a story of love and healing and how the Holy Spirit wrapped it all up. It was also a story of hope and I was personally there to witness this whole thing unfold and due to the love of Jesus, it worked out just perfect.

I am in awe at the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord who does great things.

Two people whom I had met a few weeks ago at the alpha course that we run at our church, Lets name them Jared and Sally for confidentiality sake , seemed very apprehensive and quiet from the beginning. Whilst Sally has often said a word or two to the rest of the small group, Jared would be very shy and quiet. Jared said at the beginning that he is looking for something more. He believed that God has somehow let go and that He was alone. Why would God want a relationship and Jared was looking for more and a way to get back into the Christian life.

Jared and Sally or both divorced, each with their own children, and they are now together and seem very happy and good for each other. But for me, there was just something not right. It seemed that Jared was anxious or had a lot of hurt from previous situations in his life, as a lot of us do. It seemed that Jared was carrying these hurts with him, but we didn’t know.

As weeks went by, we all got to know each other much better and everyone started opening up a little about their lives.

We all went on the alpha camp this past weekend. The camp is in a beautiful part of the countryside.

We learn a lot about the Holy Spirit on this weekend, Who He is, What He does and How the Holy Spirit can fill us. When a group of people go away together, you tend to find out a lot more about them.

Jared and Sally came on the weekend and brought there kids as well. Jared was still very quiet on the weekend. We came to a time of ministry on Saturday where people can be ministered to, prayed for and spend time with God in a peaceful and relaxed environment. In this time, often people break down, cry, are slain in the Spirit or just sit in the peace of the Holy Spirit. Jared started with tears but very quiet. When asked if He wanted prayer, He opted for it and it came out that He blames himself for a lot of past hurts and how they have effected the relationship between him and his daughter. He blamed himself for what he has possibly done to his daughter emotionally. He came to a time where he wanted to take his life because the past hurts were eating at him. They were stuck inside his heart, blocked in and being used by satan as a tool to keep on blaming himself. He couldn’t release the hurt. There was sever pain there and He didn’t how to deal with it. In this session, He sat and cried a little, closed his eyes and prayed.

We don’t know what happened. Jared didn’t tell anyone. It was personal stuff after all and it was between him and God.

We prayed for Jared and Sally. We prayed for their blockages and hurts to be pulled down and that God would remove them.

Ministry time over, Saturday night came…We all had a bunch of fun together, Jared was laughing and enjoying himself with the others and all seemed well.

Sunday morning we got together in groups again, asking how everything was going, what anyone thought and how they managed in the ministry session the previous day. Some of the people said it was great, some said nothing, Jared and Sally said they enjoyed it but nothing changed for them. It was then that I saw the pain in Jared’s face. It was a look that I have never seen before in a anyone. It was like you could see so much pain in his eyes and that it was getting the better of him. Pain was winning!

A few of us went aside and prayed again for our group, but specifically for Jared and Sally. We prayed that Jared could somehow release all the pain and hurt he was experiencing and that God would remove the blockages and walls that satan was building up in his heart.

After our group session, we had another time of ministry. We again went to Jared and asked him if he wanted to pray or talk. We prayed together, Jared started crying a lot. Him and Sally were hugging, crying together and just really praying to God for help….. But nothing!

We were asking questions in our minds….Why God? What are we doing wrong?  We have been praying for Jared so much in the last few days and nothing had changed. Jared was not feeling different, he still felt pain, he still felt the pain of a broken relationship with his daughter. We told him that God will work in his life, but I wanted to know why nothing had changed yet??? Why God, Why?

We just couldn’t get a breakthough….

As the weekend drew to a closure, we had a time of feedback where people that experienced the love of God through His Spirit, poured into their hearts and felt a renewing of their minds. A few people came up, spoke about their experiences and it brought many to tears.

Right at the end, a young girl walked up to the stage, just as some people were started to get up and leave…it was Jared's daughter. We were all so shocked because we had hardly seen her that weekend. Her and her dad hadn’t got on too well on the weekend and this also difficult for Jared to handle.

She started off saying how angry she was, how she didn’t want to come on the weekend and she was forced by her dad and we were getting a little scared how this was going to end up because everyone was in good spirits from hearing all the good stories from others.

And then the bomb dropped. She just started crying. She sobbed ad while she was sobbing she was trying to talk on the microphone. She apologized to her dad for everything, she told how she loved him so much and how she regretted all the ugly things that she had said. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I just lost my emotions and cried and half the hall was in tears. No-one out of the 186 people in the hall knew Jared and his hurt except for a few in our group. At that stage I just turned around and grabbed Jared's hand, He was beside himself. He and Sally were crying so much. He had never heard those words from his daughter, He couldn’t believe it…..It couldn’t have come at a better time!

We all jumped out of our seats and got into a group hug with Jared, Sally, His daughter and the rest of our group. What an ending! Praise God! Praise God! Praise God! Everyone was crying tears of happiness!

As I write this, I feel a tear fall from my eye because its one of those stories that just brings so much thought into my mind. Tears of pain, sadness and hurt were changed into tears of ecstatic happiness, tears of love and tears of a beautiful re-beginning of a relationship between a father and daughter.

Who are we to expect God to act in our time. Here we were questioning God about why He was doing anything, and it was all planned already. It happens in Gods time.

God loves us, He wants everything good for us. He made us. All we need to do is love and trust Him as our dad and nothing will be impossible.

Praise God for His love, Praise God for what He did yesterday and Praise God for being a faithful God and a Dad to look up to.

Amen to a renewed relationship.