Today I read about Jonathan’s decision to take ONE soldier and attack the Philistines.  The Philistines were an oppressive people; the Israelites had begun living in caves and hiding out in fear of them.

Jonathan, however, had incredible faith that the Lord would win the battle.  If the Lord helps an entire army, surely He would help two men, he reasoned.

I wish I had that kind of faith!

I am gaining more, though, step by step.  Today’s message at church came exactly when I needed to hear it: when going through dark valleys in life, it is better to focus on those things that are certain than on those things that are up in the air and uncertain.  Three things are certain:

God loves me.

God will never forsake me.

God will provide grace enough for the moment.

Tomorrow I have another follow up appointment with the oncologist.  I called Friday to see if I could skip this appointment if my blood test results were normal, but I never heard back.  So…either they weren’t normal…OR the nurse got the message too late to call me back.  I was all in a dither thinking/wondering/worrying about it when I heard today’s message.

Suddenly, I felt a peace and realized that He really does provide enough grace for the moment.  He really does fight our battles!  Jonathan knew that to his core — and that knowledge strengthened his faith so much that he developed the kind of extreme courage usually found in crazy athletes who scale walls and climb mountains.  While I don’t see myself scaling any walls in the near future…it is encouraging to look to Jonathan’s example when rough stuff comes my way.