The M+G+R Foundation
Reprint of an April 2009 Did you
know that....? column
April 15, 2011
Originally Published
on April 4th, 2009
Did you
know that... when the burden of the
manifesting realities begins to weigh you down, the best thing to do,
next to prayer, is to review the Biblical
Prophecies and Promises Regarding the Return of Christ. (1)
We know that those are truths, and
they are indeed His promises. Do not let the evil one get you down -
arm yourself with unshakable Faith and march on triumphantly in
His Most Holy Name!
Recently (Spring 2009) we received a
letter from a long time reader and Family
member. It follows [edited for publication]:
I trusted in God when I feared the loss of my
job. You commended me. My job is gone.
I have
trusted in God to help me find another. My wife and I are facing
bankruptcy. I can find no work.
I fear my
Rosaries are in vain.
My car died
today.
I wonder
where God is, and why He has turned His back on me.
You once said
I was obviously one of His elect. I think mistakes have been made.
I don't even
believe in the pills the psychiatrist gives me.
I can't
afford them anyway.
I'm tired,
and there is no hope, at least not for me.
His letter made miguel de Portugal (m de
P) realize that perhaps far too many of our readers
thought that we spoke about Faith without having taken it to great
limits. Therefore, focusing on his particular concerns (2), we shared with him a
small part of the experiences m de P had to live through as part of his
"on the job training". m de P's response to this, our brother,
was thus [edited for publication]:
Believe
it or not the man who went on to become m de P ("I" henceforth)
went through all of that and
more. Not only I faced
bankruptcy - I had to file
for bankruptcy!
In the late eighties, with $ 5,000
dollars of payments due
every month, I
found myself with only fifty dollars on hand, paying credit cards with credit cards and no employment of any kind (not even
as a store clerk - I was far grossly overqualified), but I knew that
God
was testing me and I trusted Him.
A very close and trusted business
associate betrayed me and defaulted on a very large debt (3) - and my "church going friends" of
the past, as it is usually the case, turned their backs on me. They
would not even purchase an
ashtray in a massive "garage" sale of all household goods the future m
de P eventually had to hold. The few "friends" who came to browse
did so
just to sneer.
When all was so black that I could
not even see the blackness, I
steadfastly held to Him and the Rosary. I knew that He would not fail
me.
Once He deemed that I had showed
enough Faith in Him, the faucets of
plenty were opened.... and open they were!
When, a few years later, God said to me: "Leave all and follow Me"
- I was in the best financial, professional and social position I had ever been in my
whole life - with new high yielding engineering projects pouring
in -
but I trusted God and left all behind - willingly, not because I had
no other choice or nothing to lose, worldly speaking, that is -
and followed Him.
What else can I say?
Perhaps that 20 years later I look
back and have no regrets about placing my complete trust in God.
m de P
__________________________
(1)
Biblical Prophecies
and
Promises Regarding the Return of Christ.
(2)
There are so many other areas where God had demanded that m de P
prove to Him his Faith that, a full length book could be written just
covering them.
(3)
The only way to
recoup the enormous loss would have been a nasty law suit, but that is
not God's way - considering the alluded to business partner was the
mother of my children [And if a
man will contend with thee in
judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him.
Matthew 5:40]
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