Voi­ce of Zion

Ans­wers pro­vi­ded by Da­niel Jar­vi and Mar­gie Haa­ta­ja of the Me­nah­ga, Minn., cong­re­ga­ti­on.

Da­niel: The sto­ries of Da­niel and Da­vid over­co­ming ad­ver­si­ty com­fort me. They trus­ted in God. Psalm 23 al­so gi­ves me com­fort. God is gui­ding my life and path to­ward our he­a­ven­ly home.

Luke 6:37,38 re­minds me to avoid jud­ging ot­hers, to be re­a­dy to for­gi­ve and to ask for for­gi­ve­ness, to help ot­hers. When we en­de­a­vor in these things, God will bless us more than we can ima­gi­ne. Anot­her Bib­le por­ti­on that co­mes to mind is Matt. 6:9–16. I look at this as a pra­yer and a re­qu­est for gui­dan­ce each day of my life.

I would al­so like to men­ti­on the song “Je­sus Lo­ves Me.” It is a simp­le song that I can hum or sing in Eng­lish or Fin­nish when world­ly mu­sic tries to lead me ast­ray.

Mar­gie: Bib­le pas­sa­ges about pra­yer bring me com­fort and con­tent­ment. These are some of them:

The­re­fo­re I say un­to you, What things so­e­ver ye de­si­re, when ye pray, be­lie­ve that ye re­cei­ve them, and ye shall have them. – Mark 11:24

Con­fess yo­ur faults one to anot­her, and pray one for anot­her, that ye may be he­a­led. The ef­fec­tu­al fer­vent pra­yer of a righ­te­ous man avai­leth much. – Ja­mes 5:16

The Lord is far from the wic­ked; be he he­a­reth the pra­yer of the righ­te­ous. –Pro­verbs 15:29

I know that God has pro­mi­sed to hear our pra­yers. He has he­ard my pra­yers all through my life. When I was a child, I pra­yed to have my sins for­gi­ven; I pra­yed that I would al­wa­ys be ab­le to re­main in faith.

Un­for­tu­na­te­ly, I lost my faith as a yo­ung wo­man of col­le­ge age and went in­to the 1973 he­re­sy. I had some very trying and ter­ri­fying days and months. I pra­yed cons­tant­ly that God would give me the grace to re­pent. And my pra­yers were ans­we­red. I was gran­ted the grace of re­pen­tan­ce.

I have pra­yed to God so many ti­mes du­ring the tri­als of my life. And He has gran­ted com­fort and has sent ot­her be­lie­vers to help and com­fort me. I have had pre­ci­ous es­corts all along the jour­ney. The pra­yers of the be­lie­vers car­ried me and my fa­mi­ly when my son was sick and died from can­cer. I am thank­ful for all the sup­port that was gi­ven to us.

I ha­ven’t al­wa­ys re­mem­be­red to give thanks to God for all the bles­sings I have been gi­ven. I thank God for the pre­ci­ous gift of faith. I pray that I would al­wa­ys be as a lit­t­le child and keep faith and a good cons­cien­ce un­til God cal­ls me home.