the Lord knew, part 2

In case you missed it, please read Part 1 first...the rest of this post will make so much more sense. :)

I completely forgot one of the best parts about this story. (And wouldn't you know the Lord was trying to tell me this before I hit the "publish" button this morning. But did I listen. Noooo. I chose to impatiently cross this post off my list instead of waiting on Him. Grrr. Guess I still have a lot to learn.)

It turns out that of the Ward seats available for our city, Dave's was the only contested race. The rest of the Ward-specific council people were running opponent free.

But I believe God used this as training ground for David. By his own admission, the presence of an opponent encourage him to press in and press on as councilman. Not that Dave does things by half measures, but he may have taken it a leetle bit easier if he knew he was running uncontested

Just recently, as I've been viewing more of Graham Cooke's messages on You Tube, I came across a story he shared. To sum it up, God showed Graham how He was using his opponents to mold him. Watch the video here to get the full story:

And He whispers the proverb about iron sharpening iron. This race...His Word...living and active. A reminder that in our times of adversity, our adversary is allowed to come close to refine us and mature our faith.

"Consider it pure joy," He breathes.

He reminds me of this today as He collects my tears shed over the intensity of the spiritual battled wages within and around me.

Consider it pure joy. The testing over when the work, My masterpiece, is complete. Perseverance. Your faith matured. Lacking nothing.