May 25: The Long Suffering Guide

 The Long-Suffering Guide

Carline Reid-Willis
Ebenezer SDA Church

One day, you’ll tell your story—the one about how you overcame the very thing you’re struggling with right now. That day will come when you look back on this season of your life and say, “With God, I made it through.”

You will survive. You will overcome. You will make it. And here’s the beautiful part—your story will become someone else’s survival guide.

This isn’t just about you. It’s about the lives that need your example, about the people you haven’t even met yet who will one day find hope in your journey.

1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

God is the one who will bring you through, but your story—your testimony—will be a testament to His faithfulness. Your survival will be a beacon of hope that points straight to Jesus because He is the only way through.

Remember Joseph’s words in Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

What was meant to break you will not define you. You will not just survive—you will thrive. And one day, everything you endured will be used to save someone else from despair.

Your Story Matters

You have been entrusted with this hardship, not as a punishment, but as a way to reveal God’s glory. If you’ve already made it to the other side of your struggle, look back. There’s someone still in that darkness who needs your light, your testimony, your proof that survival is possible.

• If you battled infertility, there’s a woman aching for a child who needs to hear how you clung to God through your wait.
• If you survived a painful divorce, there’s a family being torn apart who needs to know peace is still possible.
• If you endured the agony of a wayward child, there’s a mother today who feels alone in her heartbreak, needing to know that redemption is real.
• Nothing you went through was wasted. Now is the time to use it for good.

God Works in the Dark

If you’re still in the thick of it, let me remind you: I know what it’s like to feel like God isn’t listening, to watch things get worse despite your prayers, to wake up every day and fight just to keep going.

But here’s the truth—God is working, even when you can’t see it. Luke 11:9-10 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”

God doesn’t need you to see what He’s doing for Him to do it. He doesn’t require an audience to work miracles. He doesn’t announce His plans in flashing lights or billboards. He just moves—in the unseen, in the unknown, in the silence.

There were times I wanted to fix things myself, but I only made them worse. So, God kept me in the dark—not as punishment, but as protection. He was working behind the scenes, making a way when I thought there was none.

I can’t always tell you how God did it. But I can tell you when.

        • When everything seemed to be falling apart.

        • When I had no strength left to fight.

        • When I had exhausted every option and saw no way forward.

That’s when He was working. One Day, You’ll See.  One day, you’ll look back and realize: God was there all along.

He was answering your prayers when you thought He was silent. He was making a way when you saw no possible path. And He didn’t need you to see it—He just needed you to trust Him.

All the harm that threatened to destroy you? It will be used for good.

The battles you’ve fought will give someone else the strength to fight theirs. The mountain you’ve climbed will allow you to extend a hand to the one still climbing. And you’ll be able to tell them, “Keep going. You’re almost there. You will make it.”

Why?

Because you did.

And your story will become someone else’s survival guide.

With God, you will overcome. You will make it through. And when you do, you will have a story to tell—a story that gives Him all the glory.

Prayer:
Lord, thank You for writing purpose into my pain. Help me trust You in the dark and use my story to bring hope to others. May my journey give You glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.