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
Return to
FYI&R Page
NOTES
(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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