{"id":111,"date":"2013-01-08T15:09:46","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T15:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihsteps.com\/wordpress\/?p=111"},"modified":"2013-01-08T15:09:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T15:09:46","slug":"qgods-faithfulness-in-the-deep-valleysq-by-tammy-maseberg-january-8-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/?p=111","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;GOD\u2019S FAITHFULNESS IN THE DEEP VALLEYS&#8221; by Tammy Maseberg, January 8, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhen you go through deep waters, I will be with you.\u00a0 When you go through rivers of difficulty,<\/em><em> <\/em><em>you will not drown.\u00a0 When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.\u201d~~Isaiah 43:2, NLT<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>January 11<sup>th<\/sup> is this Friday\u2014a day eight years ago that my friend, Eleni, had her life changed forever.\u00a0 In an instant her husband and her son were killed by a drunk driver.\u00a0 Larry was 44 and Jeremy was 20.\u00a0 They were on their way home from Walmart, where Larry had just picked Jeremy up from work.<\/p>\n<p>My dear friend and her 18-year-old daughter, Larissa, suddenly found themselves encased in grief\u2014a situation that neither ever imagined being in. The news was devastating for everyone who knew them.\u00a0 Why would God take two people who had touched so many lives and who were, by all opinions, going to continue sharing their faith to draw people to the saving grace of the Lord?\u00a0 And, why would the God of love allow Eleni to now be without a husband and son and Larissa to be without a father and brother?<\/p>\n<p>  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I can tell you that those questions still remain today.\u00a0 Answers have not suddenly surfaced with the passage of time.\u00a0 Are we wondering where Larry and Jeremy are?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 We are confident that they are with their Lord.\u00a0 They were both sold out for God and had been serving Him for a long time\u2014Jeremy, his whole life.\u00a0 But, what remains is the void they left behind.\u00a0 Eleni just shared with me recently that she misses them more today than she did eight years ago.<\/p>\n<p>I have observed this process of grief\u2014from afar mostly but up close some, too.\u00a0 And, I can tell you that through all the questioning and extreme pain, I have not seen Eleni\u2019s faith in God diminish.\u00a0 She never turned away from the Lord.\u00a0 Instead, she bared her heart as she prayed and cried out to Him.\u00a0 One of the first things she said to me when we went to the funeral was, \u201cI know I should hate the man who hit them, but I don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 And, she still feels that way today.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 That kind of grace can only come from God.\u00a0 Not hating that person has kept her from becoming bitter and has allowed her to move on in her life, even though it hasn\u2019t been easy.<\/p>\n<p>Eleni and I have talked about what happened many times, and it seems like we always came back to these conclusions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We have to      understand (and accept) that we are never going to understand the why.<\/li>\n<li>God has and will bring      good out of it\u2014somehow, although we many never see it this side of heaven.<\/li>\n<li>The man who hit      them needs prayer that he will come to the Lord through this tragedy.<\/li>\n<li>God has never left      Eleni.\u00a0 Without Him in her life, she      surely would not have survived this.<\/li>\n<li>God is still on His      throne.\u00a0 He is faithful and is still      in control. <\/li>\n<li>He has protected      Eleni in amazing ways during the years since the accident.<\/li>\n<li>Larry and Jeremy      will always be missed, especially by Eleni and Larissa.\u00a0 Part of the grief is that the rest of us      are left behind.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Truly, the deep waters of grief have not overflowed Eleni, even though there were times when I know she thought she would surely drown.\u00a0 It has not been easy.\u00a0 But, through it all, she is still standing and continuing to trust in God and that she will see her two loved ones again someday.\u00a0 That is the hope we have in Christ.\u00a0 Watching my dear friend trust her Lord while going through such a deep valley has helped me to grow in my faith.<\/p>\n<p>So, be encouraged if any of you out there are grieving and missing a loved one right now.\u00a0 God loves you so much and is ready to help you through the pain and loneliness.\u00a0 Tell Him what you are feeling and that you need Him to hold you close to His heart.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBlessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 5:4, NAS)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I love the way The Message puts that verse:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou\u2019re blessed when you feel you\u2019ve lost what is most dear to you.\u00a0 Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thank You, God, for always being with us\u2014through even  the most intense pain and suffering.\u00a0 We know that you will never leave our side.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: right;\">\u00a92013 Tammy Maseberg All Rights Reserved<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhen you go through deep waters, I will be with you.\u00a0 When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.\u00a0 When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.\u201d~~Isaiah 43:2, NLT\u00a0 \u00a0 January 11th is this Friday\u2014a day eight years ago that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[31,19,30],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-word-from-tammy-maseberg","tag-gods-faithfulness","tag-grief","tag-grieving","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}