In his Turning Point daily devotional for July 18, David Jeremiah writes: “Millions around the world have benefited from the teaching ministry of Kay Arthur; but her work wouldn’t have happened apart from bitter disappointment early in her ministry. While serving as a missionary to Mexico, she contracted a heart infection that forced her to return home.
“‘I felt like a failure,'” she recalls. ‘Depression set in until I cried, “Father, whatever You want.”‘ Back in Chattanooga, she began teaching the Bible to teenagers in her home, and out of those experiences came her life’s work. ‘It would be several years before I’d see how He’d use those formative years of study in Mexico to prepare me to write inductive Bible studies that would eventually reach 52 countries,’ she wrote.
“We seldom understand our trials at the time. We may feel like failures and wonder why God allows suffering, but as time passes we learn to look back and see how He worked things for good and how every trial drove us closer to Him. With every test, our relationship with God grows more intimate and our perseverance more sturdy.”
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