How to Trust the Lord When Your Life Falls Apart ናሙና

God Will Strengthen You

Whenever I have the opportunity to encourage young people, I tell them that in my childhood years, I dedicated myself to the diving profession. Many of them, amazed, ask me if I’ve seen sharks. I always answer no. After all, I used to dive into the city dump field.

Diving in the garbage is dirty. And it’s hard work! On 94°F days with humidity levels at 90%, I looked for plastic and metal items to recycle for money. I wore a shirt tied to my face and a coat to avoid the thousands of mosquito bites. There were times when I worked with tears streaming down my face, begging God to save me from the situation.

I also worked at a street market to buy fruits for juice. My mother, cousin, and aunt would make juice to sell on one of the busiest streets in my community.

I remember the little makeshift wooden table and walking for 15 minutes with the gallons of juice. And I remember the days, weeks and years spent in this deep poverty, studying on a public sidewalk in my neighborhood while trying to sell juice.

This is not how a child should spend his childhood. My family and father had rejected my mother and me, so we had to do everything we could to survive.

But God had a plan.

There’s a story in the book of Judges about Jephthah, a Gileadite warrior. Jephthah was the son of an important man in Israel, but his mother was a prostitute.

The legitimate children of his father Gilead and his community expelled Jephthah for his marked history of poverty and misery. Years passed, and God made Jephthah a great warrior. Eventually, Israel went to war and had no one to defend them. Israel begged Jephthah to protect them, and he became the leader of Israel.

While Jephthah was rejected, God accepted him, strengthened him and made him a leader. He did the same for me.

God used a small church in my community to expose me to the Word of God. Through this community, I received educational and medical support. Although I did not have a father at home and lived in poverty, rejected by society, God blessed me with a different family.

I now serve children and young people in the Dominican Republic who are experiencing poverty and rejection, just as I did.

God can strengthen you and release you from rejection too. His Word says that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31, NIV). So put your hope in Jesus and be encouraged that no matter the difficulty, God is bigger, and he’s ready and willing to help you.

Scripture: Judges 11:1-40, Isaiah 40:31