Articles

I’m aware of how very quickly I grow impatient with unanswered prayer requests. Much past a week or so, let alone a month or two, and I’m already tempted to wonder if God heard me and when, if ever, he will answer me.

My spiritual journey is like most with periods of highs and lows and some arid plateaus in between. But when I received the news from my doctor that I had a benign brain tumor (a rare condition called a vestibular schwannoma) back in February 2023, my immediate thought was, “How can someone like me glorify God?”.

One dictionary aptly defines a wretch as a miserable or unhappy person. That definition absolutely tracks with the state of my soul before being redeemed. Of course, from all outward appearances I was thriving and doing well. Yet, beneath the surface of the apparently fun-filled life of a 21-year-old woman, I was seriously in a state of substantial wretchedness.

When it was announced that the women’s Study Together ministry was going to be studying Esther, I decided to do it because Esther is one book of the Bible that shows how God used a woman in a great way.

In 2021, when I decided to move from Australia to America, the Lord was clearly opening the doors for it to happen, but I had very mixed emotions. I had faith for it and peace knowing God would go before me and meet me, but I also had a gripping fear.