Life is an amazing gift but life, if we’re all honest, is littered with moments of pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain. Mental pain. Relational pain. As long as we’re being honest here, life has more than its fair share of sorrow and suffering.
Even having said that, I can say with all sincerity and assurance that God is good and that God loves us more than we can humanly understand. That’s simple, foundational truth where I choose to anchor my thought life.
We all have moments in our lives when we pray and God does not seem to answer…or seems to answer in a way other than what we would personally desire. We all have moments in our lives when we wonder why bad things happen to good people. We all have times in our lives when we wonder whether God loves us or not. That is why we walk by faith and not by sight. That is why it is vital that every believer learn how to renew their minds in Christ.
But even though we have moments when we experience disappointment or hurt or anxiety or the current cultural confusion of the moment, we all have moments when God just simply takes us by surprise with a big bear hug of an unexpected blessing.
Today, I would like to share the story behind a song of mine that illustrates the faithfulness of God in a beautiful and very random way. The song is called You Are My God and was born one afternoon before a ministry time at Evangel Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina. It is dedicated to Charlie Hopper and the people of Evangel Fellowship. It was during this trip that the Lord began to teach me and my wife and my children a deeper lesson in trust than we had ever dreamed of.
After spending the afternoon riding the horse belonging to our new friends, the Inman family, our children decided they would like a horse also…especially our daughter, Annē! Mrs. Inman told me she would agree with us in prayer that the Lord would provide us a horse.
Eight days later, while ministering in West Monroe, Louisiana, a couple walked up to me after a worship service and informed me the Lord had directed them to give us something we might think very unusual that would not fit in the offering plate. You’re getting ahead of me here! I can feel it! This couple said the Lord had led them to give our family - a horse! Our faith shot up about a thousand percent! We named the horse Monroe (which means trusting!) the Magnificent, a beautiful two-year-old Paso Fino.
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 NASB, says, 26 For consider your calling, brothers [and sisters,] that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no human may boast before God.
Our God is so amazing that He lavishes His love upon us in ways we can only attribute to Him. I do not believe the gift of a horse was mere coincidence. I believe it was an intentional blessing from God that truly ministered to me and to my family.
Luke 18:27 NASB says, 27 But He said, "The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”
It seems kind of ridiculous when I share that story of the couple basically giving us a horse as an offering to the Lord, but I have to tell you this. Since that day, I have received 2 other horses as offerings to the Lord! You may be inclined to say, “Whoa! Neigh!” to that, but I kid you not! All I can say is our God is good at surprises! He is just good!
As a side note, the song was actually born on my wife’s birthday of that year so it became a sort of gift to her…all because my kids had the audacity - the simple faith - to ask the Lord for a horse!
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to hear the song, You Are My God, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/you-are-my-god/
Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/01/14/00/26/horse-1139142_1280.jpg