Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Last month Bev shared the first part of her journey when she faced the devastation of an unexpected divorce. For the first part of her story click here.

I had no desire for another man in my life but God had different plans. He renewed my mind and my heart at such a rapid pace, that He trusted me with the friendship of a teddy bear gentleman that I call my gentle giant. The children loved him right away, but I was leary of forming any kind of new relationship with practically anyone. I was distrustful and cynical. I took long private prayer walks and contemplated the effects of this relationship on me, him, and the children. His quiet strength, and honest, forthright manner soon won my heart and I finally consented to the last of many of his prior proposals of marriage. I was healing and still had open wounds, yet Frank Lum was ready to embrace me and my four girls as his own. Each day God has given us together, I am finding his godly wisdom is a source of strength to me.

As God has worked in our marriage and our family through the many changes that families of girls go through, He has allowed His covering of love, unity, companionship, peace, laughter, and joy to be distinctive elements of each day. God has graced us with his presence in such a measure that we seek His face each day to know Him more. He has given us such a sense of Himself, that as we look back over 17 years ago, we praise Him abundantly. Frank praises God for me bringing him Jesus; I praise God for showing me Jesus in Frank; and the girls praise God for Frank filling a void that could have been left empty in their lives.

Rick Warren states in The Purpose Driven Life , Page 246:
God intentionally allows you to go through painful experiences to equip you to minister to others. The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life – the ones you have wanted to hide or forget – are the experiences God wants us to use to help others.

This is his paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 1:4 that teaches God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

God has lovingly reconstructed my memories into useable illustrations that display His complete trustworthiness to His children. He reinforces His love daily in my life as He proves He is Jehovah-nissi, fighting my battles for me and Jehovah-shammah, my ever present God and Savior who will never leave me or forsake me, holding my hand.

God opened up doors for me to share His faithfulness with small groups of women as I led a weekly Bible study. I approached each class with the excitement of being in fellowship with women who loved God and who each had life lessons born of their relationships with Jesus to share with each other.

In time I realized that God had removed the cynicism and distrust in my heart and replaced those qualities with acceptance of others in a spirit of compassion. No longer defensive and judgmental, I was eager to help others at the first mention of a difficult circumstance. I had an overwhelming desire to pray for them and was burdened for them when I learned of their needs. An unexpected, unsolicited invitation to be an exhibitor for my employer at a women’s seminar, led me to a class based on the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah’s experiences with rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem after it had been pillaged by its enemies was not new to me, I was familiar with the subject matter. Yet, the Holy Spirit used this passage to reveal confirmation of the thoughts and prayers I had been praying. As I read, listened, and questioned, "me Lord?" I knew in my heart he was calling me to propose a specific ministry to the Women in the Church leadership of my local church: G.R.A.C.E.* He was getting me ready to share the golden nuggets of trusting in his promises I had gleaned from my troubled past in a specific way: to reassure his Daughters of the King of their eternal heritage and their royal identity with Him.

God was keeping His promise of Joel 2:25-27:
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…and you will praise the name of the LORD your God who has worked wonders for you… Then you will know that I AM the LORD your God, and that there is no other…"

Oh, How He Loves You and Me.

Believe Him! Trust Him! Rely On Him!

*Bev Lum oversees the GRACE ministry of Glasgow Reformed Presbyterian Church in Bear, Delaware. GRACE is a ministry to spiritually single women, i.e. women who are married to unbelievers. You can read more from this ministry by visitng the GRACE link.

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