Do you ever wonder if God is hearing your prayers--after years of praying--for your kids who aren't walking with the Lord? I asked my friend and fellow writer, M.L. Tyndall to share her heartaches for her kids, and the way God encouraged her to never give up praying.GOD STILL USES RAINBOWS By M.L. Tyndall
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
2 Corinthians 1:20
One day last week, I was walking on a trail behind my house, deep in prayer. Every Monday I fast and pray for my prodigal children. I cry out to God for their salvation. I quote scriptures He has given me. I bind the enemy. I remind God of the promises He’s put on my heart for them. But on this particular day, instead of things getting better in their lives, their situations had become much worse, and I found my faith waning.
You see, over the past years, God had promised me through Scripture and through His inner voice that my kids will be in His Kingdom. But the years pass and things don’t get better and I start listening to the nagging voice of the enemy.
As I was walking along that day, I heard God’s inner voice again saying quite clearly to me, “Turn around”.
I did. And there stretched across the sky was a rainbow. Not just any rainbow. An entire rainbow from start to finish, enormous and beautiful. I froze, numbed by the sight.
Then I heard the Lord say to me “Like the promise I made Noah, my promise to you stands firm. Just believe.”
I started to shake. Tears filled my eyes and I would have dropped to the ground on my knees if there hadn’t been a mud puddle at my feet! I continued walking, but this time instead of pleading with God, I praised Him, singing and nearly dancing down the trail! When I turned around to head home, the rainbow was gone—vanished without a trace of its beauty. And I realized that God had to get me up on that hill for my walk at that precise minute, that precise second in order to see that rainbow and give me His message. He is so good!
No matter what you’re facing today: sickness, a prodigal child, lost loved one, financial problems, marriage problems, etc... remember God is willing and able to work all things out for your good. I encourage you to search His Scriptures for a promise that pertains to your need and then recite it, cling to it, and seek confirmation from God. Submit to Him.
And then believe!
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Oh thank you MaryLu for sharing such a beautiful encouragement from the Lord. The Lord has used the beauty of rainbows to lift my heart when it was broken too.
And rainbows aren't the only way God encourages us. He uses writers like MaryLu as well. I've just finished reading her latest book, The Raven Saint .
In The Raven Saint, between crying with laughter over the one-eyed cat, Spyglass, I found my favorite M.L. Tyndall hero--Captain Rafe Dubois, debonair and seemingly despicable. Maybe it was Rafe's savory French accent added to his dark, swashbuckling ways as he kidnaps Grace Westcott with the intent of selling her that did it for me. How often in a Christian novel, where ALL propriety is met, can you find a heroine literally carried away in such a romantic story? Not often. But in The Raven Saint you can.
As Grace and Rafe's tender love story grows, you taste the briny sea on your lips, feel the heat of the sun that dazzles like diamonds on a turquoise sea, feel the gentle breeze blowing through coconut palms, or experience a squall out on the open Caribbean. You feel Grace's despair as she fears Rafe will really sell her into slavery. And what does he do with all that money he steals? She soon senses he has a heart that cares deeply for the hurting and the poor, just like she does.
In my opinion M.L. Tyndall has surpassed herself with book 3 of the Charles Towne Belles series. Grace Westcott is a heroine that in my mature years--when I think I am so terribly wise--I can truly identify with. In book 2, I identified my early life with that of Grace's sister, Hope, relating Hope's experiences to how the Lord healed me when I'd failed so miserably, casting my wild oats. In The Raven Saint I see my current sins in Grace, a tendency to peachiness, a lack of true grace towards others, even though in many other ways Grace has great spiritual depth and is filled with God's Spirit. But no matter how far we've come the Lord has so much more to teach us, as Grace learns.
MaryLu teaches these deeply scriptural lessons within a delightfully light adventure.
I heartily recommend this book. It's fun, tender, romantic, exciting, and yet scripturally true. Bravo, MaryLu.
Here's the cover of The Raven Saint to help you find it in your local Christian book store or online.
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