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Is God Real In Your Life?
Carol and I have joined to write this to show how real God can be in your life. Both of us have been active Christians for decades, serving God in whatever ministries to which He called us.
Most of you know my faith in God and a little about how He has worked in my life. He is constantly with me when I do good and when I sin. I shared before and told you some of what God did in my life.
You may know that I started a website called IAmCalls.com. Jesus began to lead me to commit more and more of my time in service to Him and less to building a money-making business.
At first, my idea was to devote half my time to Him and half to business. But the more I prayed, the more He showed me He wanted a total commitment.
I was overwhelmed.
I began to see all I needed to build an effective site, realizing I could not do it alone. To keep focused and motivated each day, I needed someone to help me.
I prayed a very specific prayer on the night of April 24th.
First, I asked my Father in Heaven for a wife and helpmate. Then I went to sleep, not thinking that God would answer right away, but knowing He would because He always does. Sometimes, God answers months or years later in His perfect timing.
He answered the next day.
Never before has God answered my prayers so quickly and so thoroughly.
I received a note from Carol the following day, commenting on one of my articles. The Lord clarified that she was His answer. I knew that the Spirit was telling me that she would be my wife and helpmate. From that moment on, I never had a doubt.
But how could it be? She was 1600 miles away, and we did not even know each other. She just said she liked my article, but no need to reply. But, of course, I did because I knew something she did not know. She was going to marry me.
Hi! It’s Carol here for a bit now:
I prayed the night of April 24th, thanking God for being my Husband, as Isaiah 54:5 describes God for the widow. Next, I thanked Him that in the 25 years since Bob left my six children and me, and in the additional six years since Bob’s death, God had never failed us.
I told Him that I was not going to anticipate anyone else. Of course, I could not have remarried while Bob lived, but now in widowhood, I knew I could marry again. Still, I thought I would be alone with God for the remainder of my life.
I was content in my life. I had six grown children, 16 grandchildren, and my ministry.
Nearly 32 years is a long time to be without a husband.
The following day, I read a passage on a Christian site that I commented upon. I wrote that I loved reading the beautiful piece the man had written. And that, as a writer, I appreciated his heartfelt style and his evident faith. I asked him NOT to write back.
An hour later, I received a message from this author who said that he had his work on a website. He also said that he would be glad to read, and possibly publish, some of my things if I submitted them to him.
I emailed him a couple of my pieces, which he published… and he wrote again…and so it went.
Over time, he called me, and the subject began to leave the pieces I wrote, to our personal lives.
God was at work.
Little did I dream that within 3 months and countless texts and video chats, Bruce would travel 1600 miles to meet me and my grown children and their families.
Though Bruce repeatedly told me that he would not say anything until we met, we prayed together on the phone each evening. One evening, before he came to Virginia, I got to listen to his prayer to God, in which he told God that God already knew that he was going to ask me to marry him.
So, I had a bit of a clue there …(I’m smiling as I write this).
He came to our rural community, found an empty field, sat me down on a log, knelt before me, and asked me to be his wife. I can’t type this without tears.
I said yes. We set a date for November 30, 2021.
More was to change.
Sadly, and very unbelievably to me, we had a resurgence of COVID that swept through my church and community. I would eventually lose a son-in-law and four dear friends to it.
Yet, we would again see how God brings good from the worst in our lives.
Bruce suggested we move up the marriage and travel to Texas to meet his family instead of waiting in Virginia in isolation for several more months. He thought that it would be a good idea. It was.
Amazingly, our marriage came one day less than four months from the time of those prayers on April 24th.
Our wedding started the next chapter of our miracle.
Since our marriage on August 23rd,2021 we both felt God was calling Bruce back into the ministry.
We are both excited to see how God combines our ministries. We hope our website, online work, prayer lines, and one-on-one ministry will share Jesus with others.
God is full of joyful surprises and new hope when you follow Him and love Him. I am writing this in 2021. I am 72, and Bruce is 78.
The best is yet to come.
In the following article, “God’s Miracles Never Stop,” we share some of the other wonderful things God did for us to help us get started right.