There were so many exciting and moving answers to last week’s question—tell us about a circumstance in your life where you now see God was working “behind the scenes” for your good?—that it was a tough decision. However, we thought that Christina Gillham’s story most closely parallel’s that of Ruth’s. Here it is:
Just like Ruth, the story of how God brought my husband into my life started out with difficult circumstances. I was starting my fourth year of college, helping to organize Bible Studies for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. During an event designed to reach out to students, a young man handed me a love letter saying that "God had told him that I was the one he was to marry". It turned out that this man was not a student, but a homeless schizophrenic man who now knew my address, since one of the Bible Studies was at my apartment. Over the next few weeks he dropped off letters at my doorstep, in the middle of the night, that became increasingly obscene and threatening. I decided to call the police.
I was advised to get a restraining order and not walk alone. God met my needs abundantly. My roommate's father was a lawyer and filed the paperwork for me free of charge. Twelve other believers lived next door, underneath or across from me in our apartment complex. They took turns walking with me to class and going to the police station with me to drop off more letters as they came. At one point three young men slept on my living room floor with baseball bats "just in case". During finals' week when my friends were busier and my life was more stressful, my dad took a week off of work and came to be with me.
During this time I met three police officers who were handling my case. I would find out later that all three were godly Christian men. Two were my father’s age and viewed me as a daughter in Christ. One was a good-looking single guy. He ended up being the one who came and arrested the man who was stalking me.
Over the summer break, the stalker was released from jail. I ended up having several conversations with the young police officer about it all. Each conversation would start out "Hello Officer" and end with "Good-Bye Sean." By the time I returned to school, at a different address, the homeless man had written me one last letter saying that, "God had told him to move on." The return address was in another state. The case was closed. Sean helped me move into my new apartment and took me out to dinner, our first date. We were married 10 months later.
Last year when I was talking to my son about Romans 8:28 he looked at me and said, "Mommy, that's just like how you and Daddy met! God used it for good!" Amen to that. He sure did!
We all have stories of God’s faithfulness to pass along to the next generation. Let’s be faithful to tell them of the goodness of the Lord.
Moving on to Chapter Five, Dr. MacArthur notes that, “The value of persistent and passionate prayer is one of the central lessons from Hannah’s life.” So your question is: “Tell us about a time when you witnessed the value of persistent and passionate prayer—in your own life or someone else’s life?”
May you be inspired and provoked as you read about Hannah’s extraordinary life!
