As I began to learn more about how the Lord could heal wounded hearts, I was brought back in my memories to an incident that occurred at a relative’s home when I was around seven or eight years old. Somehow during a ten-day visit with family, I had come down with pneumonia and my parents had to take me to the doctor. I vividly remember that the medicine prescribed for me cost eight dollars which was rather expensive at that time so many years ago.

When we returned to the relative’s house my mother started to express her concern about the price of the doctor’s visit and the medicine. As she entered the kitchen she turned around and yelled at me, “You should have worn a sweatshirt like I told you. Then this would never have happened. You would not have gotten sick if you had dressed warmly.”

Being sick, scared, tired, and now embarrassed and shamed, I looked at her in shock. Something internally happened to me that day. I began to think that when someone...

Proverbs 18: 14 (NKJV) says, “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit (a wounded spirit)?”  Our natural spirit can withstand much pressure and stress, but when our heart/spirit gets wounded, crushed, shattered or bruised, we have a difficult time recovering and moving forward. 

Our spirit is hurt when it is wounded. It is like trying to walk when our leg is broken. We are trying to live and overcome challenges, but part of our being is injured or festering with hurt.

Psalm 38: 1-22 (NKJV) really exemplifies this whole situation well.

• O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!
• For Your arrows pierce me deeply, and Your hand presses me down.
• There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin.
• For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
• My wounds are foul and festering because of my...

Many years ago I found myself sitting in a women’s Bible study listening to ladies share their hearts regarding hurtful situations. Just as the time of sharing was closing, one of the women said to me, “Sharon, why don’t you lead worship at our next meeting?”  I was absolutely stunned and then proceeded to tell her all the reasons why I could never do that – because I could not sing! After I finished my tirade of excuses she simply responded to me, “You CAN sing. I’ve heard you.”

I tried to reinforce my statements about my singing inabilities but she just kept countering every argument with, “Yes, yes you can!”  Finally she said, “Who told you that you couldn’t sing?” 

I then explained to her about a time long ago when I was asked to prepare a singing lesson for an elementary education class I was taking in college. The requirements for the course included getting up in front of our class...

Today we conclude by looking at the final two pages of our Faith Album. I pray that this series of blogs on the topic of faith has been a blessing to all our Mothers of Nations! 

WORLD-OVERCOMING FAITH

Maybe you as a Mother of Nations have the type of faith on our next album page. “World-overcoming faith” is for everyone born of God.

I John 5: 1-5 (NKJV) tells us, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” 

World-overcoming faith sounds so powerful and so...

Mothers of Nations, we have two more weeks of blog entries regarding our Faith Album topic.  Today let's look at two more examples of faith as shown in the Word of God.

RICH IN FAITH

This next page shows us examples of being “rich in faith.”  Being rich in faith means that you have an abundance of faith. Your faith is significant and noticeable to others, even though you may be poor in material goods.

So many of our missionaries are rich in faith, yet poor in material possessions. In India I have met countless numbers of Christians who own nothing, live with little, and yet they have and are extremely rich in faith. 

Some people are rich in faith in particular areas of the gospel. I myself have grown rich in faith to believe God for certain things because of experiences I have encountered while speaking the Word. For example, as a minister of the Gospel, I can exercise faith for salvation whenever I am doing an overseas crusade. Something just empowers me...

Mothers of Nations, I pray you are enjoying this journey through the pages of our Faith Album! This is our fourth entry regarding several types of faith. If you have not yet done so, I encourage you to read the past three weeks of blog entries to be reminded about all the types of faith that are discussed in God’s Word.

SHIPWRECKED FAITH

This next page in our album is all about “shipwrecked faith.”  If you have ever been on a boat during a turbulent storm, you have some idea of what it would be like to have your ship battered against the sea. The sea is a powerful force that no man can stand against on his own.

Once we went on a cruise in the Caribbean and ended up in a storm. My head was so dizzy I could not walk, sleep, eat, or do anything. The ship rolled and swayed even after they put the levelers out. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Paul on a boat that had to be abandoned to get to shore!

Sometimes the pressures of living can feel like we...

Mothers of Nations, are you enjoying and even being challenged by this series of blogs about faith? Are you recognizing yourself in some of the photos as you turn the pages in this Faith Album? Today let’s turn a few more pages to discover two other types of faith that the Word of God describes.

FULL OF FAITH

The first is demonstrated by the Bible character Stephen. He was chosen to serve in ministry because he was known as a man “full of faith.” 

In Stephen’s day, the number of disciples was rapidly multiplying. As a result, problems within the church were beginning to occur due to the number of people requesting help and assistance with their daily living needs. 

The Grecian (Hellenist) Jews complained about the Hebraic (Palestinian) Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. Those in charge of the distribution were the Palestinian Jews. Because of these complaints and conflicts between the two groups, the...

Last week we started a series of blog entries regarding various kinds of faith and talked specifically about “great faith.”  I encourage you to go back to our previous entry if you have not yet read it so that you do not miss even one page of our Faith Album! Today let’s look at three other types of faith:  Little Faith, Weak Faith, and Strong Faith.

LITTLE FAITH 

As we now turn the page in our album of faith, we find the next type depicted: “little faith.”  Little faith is the opposite of great faith, as it is a faith led and controlled by circumstances and our senses. Little faith gives in quickly to fear. The word “little” implies the meaning of small, stunted, microscopic, miniature, or pocket-sized. 

Little faith is restricted by limitations. It does not hold when circumstances change. Peter the disciple thought he had tremendous faith until he faced danger, and then all his faith was gone. Brave enough to try...

Many of us like to pull out our old family photo albums and reminisce as we look at all the pictures. Each snapshot brings back a memory, a time of special joy, or a moment in family history. As a Christmas gift several years ago, my sister gave me a photo album filled with our family pictures from over a fifty-year span. As we paged through the book, it was such a blessing to recall those days gone by -- the people, the times, and the feelings we shared.

Sometimes we look at a picture only to be reminded of how we used to wear our hair or how thin we were back then! The photo album really tells our life story, where we came from, what we did, and who we influenced. One thing is for certain. There is always recognizable change, development, and growth from one stage to another as demonstrated by the documentation of the photos. 

Faith is something we can measure as well. We all received a measure of faith from God when we came to the knowledge of the Lord. Ephesians 2:8 says...

Through the years the Holy Spirit taught me how to pray both simple prayers and complicated prayers. I learned how to pray for deliverance and how to cast out demons. Praying for a wounded spirit became easy for me to do. Travailing prayer was just something I learned to yield to. Praying with boldness grew in my life as I became more confident in Him. The prayer of agreement was forever settled in my heart. 

But if you can believe this, the hard part for me in learning to pray came when God asked me to go to evangelical ministers’ gatherings and learn to pray with other ministers. Having never prayed in tongues, some of these ministers were very uncomfortable praying with me as a “tongue talker.”  I was uncomfortable as well! But little by little I learned to accept their ways of prayer and learned how to work and cooperate within their methods. I must admit that it was not easy to deny my prayer language once I had learned to pray in the Spirit.

God...