Dear Goldie,
I am going through a most severe and stressful case of being wrongly accused by the authorities of certain things. I am innocent but the case is complicated and may end up in court. i am going through hell and their harassment is sapping my energy, not knowing how this case will turn out. My Life is on Hold, my sanity is at stake.
Desperate.
Dear Desperate,
I went through a similar experience (a large sum of money was demanded by the authorities) but I can truthfully say I did not lose one night’s sleep because throughout my ordeal, I had the supernatural peace of God which sustained me through all the stress, fear, anxiety and distress.
So, pray for God’s supernatural peace to keep your heart and mind on Jesus Christ, not on your circumstances. (Philippians 4:6)
I desperately wanted to know the outcome, so I asked God for a prophetic word. He gave me a specific promise from Isaiah 7:4, “…keep calm, don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smouldering stubs of firewood …they have plotted your ruin…but it will not take place, it will not happen…” So, ask God for a prophetic word.
Throughout fighting the charges, I was wavering between hope and hopelessness, and belief and unbelief that God would keep His promise. But one thing both my husband and I agreed: we would not let this sword of Damocles disrupt our lives.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.
It’s about learning how to dance in the rain. So we continued in our ministries, giving even more of our time, energy, service and money to God. We experienced firsthand this assurance: “God the source of hope will fill you with peace.” (Romans 15:13)
We learnt to put our hope in the God who loves us, who works for our well-being, who wants to strengthen our spiritual muscles, who wants us to know Him in ways we would never know if we do not go through the valley of the shadow of death. Although we engaged expert consultants, ultimately our trust was not in chariots and horses but in our God. The outcome would not be in the hands of the authorities but in God’s.
So, don’t let the enemy rob you of your life.
With God’s strength, do everything He has prepared for you.
Although our consultants believed we had a good chance of winning, God told us not to go to court and gave us several biblical principles to negotiate a settlement. So…
In making your decisions, follow biblical principles.
It seemed impossible that God would be able to fulfil His promise that the smouldering stubs would not happen. But like Abraham who was given Isaac, we were willing to surrender him back to God. The moment we did this, news came completely unexpectedly that my siblings were giving me a gift. Remarkably the amount covered the total bill of our case!
God had all along prepared a ram for Abraham in place of Isaac. The two smouldering stubs of firewood indeed did not hurt us. And what an awesome way He did it.
The lessons we learnt from our experience:
• God wanted us to go through this in order that we can comfort those who go through the same trials. (1 Corinthians 2:4) Even while writing this I was able to encourage a friend who is going through a similar circumstance.
• We are in awe of our awesome God whose ways are higher than our ways and whose thoughts are better than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)
• Satan wanted to destroy our confidence in God and His Word, but he failed. God’s purpose for our fiery trial was to strengthen our faith in Him and He succeeded. May your faith in our faithful God increase as a result of your experience. 
Goldie
Do you have an issue you need advice on? Write to Dear Goldie at goldie@deargoldie.com for her godly counsel. Selected questions may be featured in this column. If you leave an email address, you will have your question answered, whether it’s published or not.
