You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will
receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming
will come and will not delay.” Hebrews 10:36-37
The greatest example of Christian perseverance for me is Sister Alice Yuan
from China. Her pastor husband, Allen Yuan, was imprisoned for almost twenty-two
years for refusing to join the government controlled church in the middle
1950’s. She says:
“When my husband Allen was sent to prison in April 1958, I was told that I
would never see him again. I felt completely miserable and continually blamed
God. The future looked so terribly bleak. I had the care of six children and my
mother-in-law. I was only earning 80 cents a day. How could I keep my family
alive on that?
“When it all became too much for me, one night I heard a voice: ‘My child, I
have everything in My hands. These things come from Me.’ I replied, ‘If these
things come from You, please protect me and my family. Do not allow me to
dishonor Your name. I want to serve You and glorify Your name’
“Then I received peace in my heart. I was encouraged by Psalm 68:19,
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.
In those difficult years, people let me down, but God never abandoned me.
But he did put me through trials.
“The first trial was the struggle to survive. I was only earning 80 cents a
day. How could we get by on that? But God took care of us, in the same way that
he took care of Elijah. He promised to be my shepherd and provider.
“One evening, my mother-in-law said that there was no food anymore in the
house. The next morning, at five to six there was a knock on the door. ‘Are you
sister Alice?’ asked a woman in her sixties, whom I didn’t know. ‘God wanted me
to give you this.’ She put a package in my hand and disappeared. When I opened
the parcel I found there was rice in it and some other food and a banknote to
the value of about four month’s salary of a professor! Praise the Lord. Where
man comes to an end, God begins! This was only one of the many miracles which
kept us alive all those years.”
Tomorrow we’ll conclude her story of faithfulness and perseverance as well as
God’s miraculous care for His own.
RESPONSE: Today I will not complain about discomforts but thank God for
all His blessings!
PRAYER: Lord, You desire faithfulness and perseverance. Help me develop
these qualities in my life.
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