Showers of Blessings (Part 3)

This is a series featuring Guest Writers.  We hope the Lord will shower you with blessings through some of the people who have showered us with blessings.

Guest Writer Bio:  Judy Hanks

Judy is married to Darryl’s oldest brother, Michael.  She has been in Darryl’s life since he was a young boy.  He has admired her for years.  She embodies the love of Christ and freely shares it with all she meets.  Joy radiates from her with a beautiful smile, warm laugh, and a wonderful love for life.

Retired from teaching in Oklahoma, Judy worked in music and special education, as well as other fields of higher education later in her career. 

She is famous for her Four-Layer-Delight.  As our daughter, Autumn, likes to say, “The delight comes in four layers.”  Judy is the real four layer delight.  There’s not a layer of her that you won’t just fall in love with.  What you see, is what you get.  She’s a smart, beautiful, no nonsense, giving, honest, Jesus loving, Oklahoma gal.  Nothing means more to her than God and family.

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD – Judy Hanks

There have been many changes in my life in the past 15 years. During this time, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the very important truth of God’s Providence.

I have been a Christian for 50 years and thought I understood the whys and hows of things that occur in my life, but I truly never understood anything.

I have often asked myself how could I have gone so long not understanding who God is, His attributes and His Holiness?

I have no answer but that God’s timing is not our timing and His ways not our ways. As the above quote by Puritan John Flavel states, we have to look at God’s Providence from not so much the present, as what God has done in the past.

Nothing whatever, whether great or small, can happen to a believer, without God’s ordering and permission. There is no such thing as “chance,” “luck” or “accident” in the Christian’s journey through this world. All is arranged and appointed by God. And all things are “working together” for the believer’s good.
Author: J.C. Ryle

One of the most important instances of Gods Providence in my life was in 1971, when, as a Senior in high school, it was a known fact that I would be attending a bible college. Then, as the year was coming to a close, I received a scholarship in music from a Junior College that was 45 miles from where I lived. I accepted the scholarship and began my first college years at Murray State College. This is providential because this is where I met my husband to be. We have now been married 46 years, and it is through our union and his being brought to an understanding of truth that he and I both have grown spiritually. As the above quote states, there is nothing “by chance, luck or accident that happens in a Christian’s journey.

I received a scholarship, which cemented what school I would attend, Michael would be at this school and God would introduce us!

Fast forward to 2005. Michael and I have now been married 32 years, have been blessed with a son and a daughter, as well as – at that time – 3 precious grandchildren. Michael was starting to have some health problems, mainly due to a birth defect of his spine. It had become not only trying in that means, but he was experiencing depression and a feeling of being in a spiritual desert that was far worse than the physical pain. Many times I would sit on the floor next to my precious husband as he wept and I prayed God’s Word over him. During one of these times, the Holy Spirit helped me to understand what I needed to do. We had a friend who was a nurse for Michael’s medical doctor; I called and asked if she could set up an MRI of Michael’s lower back. Without asking questions, she did just that. Through this MRI a mass was discovered which was Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. So began treatments, and now he is in remission.

I look back and see God’s Providence and He receives all the glory! The Holy Spirit spoke, the nurse and I were obedient , the cancer was found.

Through this instance, as well as myself being diagnosed with cancer several years later, my understanding of God’s Providence – as well as His will for my life – has been a comfort that is hard to explain.

The apostle Paul understood so well about God’s Providence and how that understanding is a safe haven. My favorite scripture is Romans 8:28 which states,

Charles Spurgeon said it so well when he wrote:

Providence is wonderfully intricate. Ah! You want always to see through Providence, do you not? You never will, I assure you. You have not eyes good enough. You want to see what good that affliction was to you; you must believe it. You want to see how it can bring good to the soul; you may be enabled in a little time; but you cannot see it now; you must believe it. Honor God by trusting Him.
Author: C.H. Spurgeon

We honor God by trusting Him in all things. His providence – when trusted – is the safe haven for the believer who may question things that are so hard to understand, but we know He works all things for our good.

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