by Joy Casey
I’ve been pondering a verse – Proverbs 25:2 – “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.” This side of heaven we will not always see the good that comes from personal heartaches or from the chaos political decisions cause. How can I reconcile the importance God puts on each of our personal prayers and the seemingly ineffectiveness of them at times?
We see some good, but overall the good we are able to put on our scales of justice does not outweigh the bad. It will only be in heaven that we see the whole picture and our hearts will be at rest. For now, we can only faintly glimpse how our prayers are shaking the destinies of children in our orphanage, others on our prayer list and whole people groups. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. I glorify God when I trust Him in it.
Joni Tada said, “Great faith believes in God even when he plays his hand close to the vest, never showing all his cards. He has his reasons for doing so. God wants to increase your “measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). He does this whenever he conceals a matter, and you trust him nevertheless!”
Prayer is the bedrock of our ministry in Ethiopia because it is the means by which we accomplish anything. Through all of the many valleys and storms we have traveled in the last eleven years, God has reminded us over and over to keep our eyes on Him, not on circumstances, and to keep praying with faith in His unseen work.
NewLife Ethiopia has a faithful team of people who pray for God’s work in Ethiopia. It is headed up by a woman who is devastated with the closure of adoption from Ethiopia as she was in the midst of adopting her third Ethiopian child. Nevertheless, her steadiness and bedrock faith in God’s sovereignty bring joy to our Father’s heart and encouragement to His ministry. If you would like to receive emails on specific ways to pray, please let us know… info@newlifeethiopia.org