June 17 He Rejoices over You with Singing
Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is with you,He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
God loves us so much and just a simple touch of His love brings our lives to wholeness and deliverance. Albert P.J. lives in Bangalore. As a young boy, he felt rejected and took to drugs as a way of escape. He was a brilliant student but was one of those hundreds that got caught in a vicious cycle of drugs and started injecting himself with heroin, alcohol, smoking pot, the whole works. He rarely went to class, and was officially recorded as a drop out. He started working at odd jobs to support his drugs. He also got into gang fights, became a drug pusher, and lived an aggressive form of lifestyle getting him in and out of jail very often! He always carried a knife in his pocket and his hand would draw to his knife if he found anyone staring at him for too long. He was a gang leader, but slowly that position fell as he delved deeper into drugs.Finally, he had to leave home as he was so heavily into dope. He started to lose all his friends, no one wanted him around. In his intensity, he used to wear only black clothes, rarely took a bath and in fact, he said he “looked ugly with the gauntness of my bones due to my drug use and an unhealthy skin pallor with a bluish tinge.” One cold winter night, he went out, searching for a place to stay. He wandered to the nearby Johnsons Market, shivering as the cold air ripped through his thinly clad clothes. He gathered newspapers that he saw around and huddled down on the streets covering himself with the newspapers. He spent many nights as this and often asked passerby’s for money. Many would look at him, shudder and turn the other way.
One evening as he was walking along Johnson Street, he saw another boy he knew and felt glad. As he approached him with a smile on his face, the boy looked at him and abruptly turned and walked away. At that moment, Albert felt the familiar sting of rejection. He was deeply hurt and also badly shaken. He slowly walked down the road that cold night thinking “Why am I like this? What happened to me?” He walked to a park near the market. He could see his house across the park. He sat down in the park and thought for a while.At that moment a song suddenly popped into his head from Sunday school. The song was like this “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…….”. He asked God, “Do you really love me? Nobody loves me in this world. if you really love me, get me out of this mess.”As he spoke to God for the first time, he felt a supernatural peace filling his heart. It was an amazing sensation. He never felt like this before, not even when he was high and tripping! In fact, that was nothing compared to this, this had the essence of purity. He knew it was God. He then wanted to kick something out of his life real fast. He took out all the drugs he had and made a bonfire of all the drugs. Watching them going up in smoke, he felt exhilarated and liberated. It was a miracle! He was set free instantly from drugs.This was the beginning of a new life for him. He went on to join finish his college with flying colors, then joined ministry, studied the Bible, got married, and then started a de-addiction center. He has a great family now, wife and two sons.
God uses our wasted years for His glory and redeems the years we have lost. His touch of love transforms lives. He loves us so much.
Rita
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