Back in the late 1800s, a man named Bruce Barton wrote, “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared to believe that something inside them was superior to their circumstances.”
What a quote! You must dare believe that something inside you is superior to the circumstances around you. If you are to achieve something splendid. It really is very biblical advice. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world… And what circumstance can possibly separate us from the love of God? Nothing! ... and then in Ephesians it says that God not only can but does work everything out for his good purposes. Friend, I know that is hard to believe at times, but we just need to stand on it.
My friend Gesina had to believe it. She had to stand on it. She had no other choice. Years ago, this little Dutch missionary had been thrown into a communist prison in the Balkans because they caught her with Christian literature in the trunk of her car. In the pitch-black cell, surrounded by a sickening stench with filth and trash on the floor – she couldn’t even see in the darkness – her mind raced back to the devotional she had read in her quiet time that morning when she had started out. It had been Psalm 80:5, “God gives his children the bread of tears for food.”
Somehow, that verse wasn’t very comforting. It really didn’t fit the occasion. In it, there was nothing encouraging to speak to her circumstances. Standing there, frightened, not knowing if any of her friends would be able to find her, she felt so overwhelmed, so lost, alone. Just then, the jailer opened the small food door and shoved through a small stick of salami and a chunk of bread. She took the meat in one hand and the bread in the other. Frustrated that she could not even set down the meat on the dirty floor in order to at least tear off a piece of bread, she began to cry. Without thinking, she wiped her tears with the chunk of bread. And suddenly, the verse she had read that morning flashed before her. She started crying and laughing out loud. God knew! She wasn’t alone. God hadn’t forgotten her! She could eat her tear-soaked bread with joy knowing that God had specifically given it to her. He had given to her bread of tears for food. She didn’t mind being fed the bread of tears if that bread had come from His hand.
Something superior rose up inside her that shined light in the darkness of that awful cell. Days later friends did find her and she was released and something splendid came out of it all as Gesina now possessed a new and fresh assurance that greater was He who was leading her than all the jails in the Balkans.
“Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared to believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.” Gesina has a marvelous ministry among the disabled in Albania today. She dares to believe that something inside her is superior to the pain and frustration she sees all around her. But you don’t have to live in Albania to embrace the same. Whatever your circumstances, difficult though they may be, remember: there is the Spirit of Christ Jesus within you that is far superior to any problem.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends