My Testimony

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither,

And whatsoever they do shall prosper.

(Psalm 1:2-3 NKJV)

Photograph: Myall Creek, Dalby Qld.

Some time ago my Pastor spoke about stretching and I wrote this because I’m the living testimony of what stretching can do.

Many of us fall short of our capabilities. If we would only stretch, we could go a lot further in life. Do you know God can bend time? Hezekiah 38:8 says: “Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backwards.” So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down. (NKJV)

Because God consistently elongates my days, I’m truly amazed at how much I can accomplish and yet never be in a hurry. He bent time for me, as I stretched and needed more of it, to achieve what I set out to do.

God says to give Him a portion of our money and He will add more to it. He does the same thing with time. Give Him the first part of your day and He will make your day last longer. I can attest to this, because this is what’s happened in my life.

God also asks that we trust Him, step out in faith, believing we shall accomplish what we set out to do, and it will happen. For many of us, that’s a stretch of faith.

He states He’s not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). For me personally, that too is a stretch at times.

I have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells me so and I believe it. To win in this life, in this partnership with the Lord, you have to believe every jot and tittle in the bible. For there are incredibly wealthy people out there. Successful people who may make a lot of money, but fail in relationships. Or win at relationships, but fail in the area of finance. If we want to win in every area of our life, we must believe in the bible and practise what it tells us to do.

Anyway, because I have the mind of Christ, you can introduce me to 30 people and I’ll remember 29 names (hey, I’m not perfect, but 29 out of 30 isn’t too bad). Because I have the mind of Christ, you can give me a one-hundred-digit number and I can relay it back to you – forwards and backwards. But I wasn’t always like this. I had to stretch to get there.

Things come at us in life and we say to ourselves; “I’ll never do that again” and we erect a wall. In the end, we erect so many walls, we’ve boxed ourselves in. We’re safely cocooned inside our 4 walls, but we’re not living life.

That was me 25 years ago. Although I grew up in a very loving home, I was still full of fear. Too scared to say boo to a goose. I was painfully shy. I figured I was born that way and there was nothing I could do about it, but I was wrong.

25 years ago, I didn’t like me very much. I didn’t talk to people. I didn’t have too much to say because I wasn’t doing anything. Yes, I had young children then and was doing my best for them, but outside that, I felt I had nothing to offer the world. I believed I was boring to be around and no one wanted to hear anything I had to say.

At that point in time, I was depressed, well overweight, had asthma, arthritis, psoriasis and hay fever. My relationship with my husband was pretty poor and we were pretty poor. Poverty was a constant at that time. Suicidal thoughts were also a constant with me.

One day, I walked out the door with the intention of taking my life but couldn’t do it. My daughters were eight and ten. A week later a work colleague of my husband’s committed suicide. I was so mad at God. Why did He take him and not me?

I hadn’t been a born-again Christian long, when this happened. Just 2 years. My life initially hadn’t changed much in that 2 years. I expected more in becoming a Christian and it didn’t appear to be happening. I also didn’t understand about co-labouring with God. I didn’t understand about stretching, but I was about to learn.

When this colleague committed suicide, I was mad at God. “Why did you take him and not me?” I cried out in my despair. I distinctly remember His reply. It was the first time I heard the audible voice of God. He replied; “Because you’re a lamb of My flock and I never lose one of My own.” I knew then, I’d never attempt suicide again. And it was then I realised – I needed to change.

And so, the stretching began.

I did a speed reading and memory course from home and over the next 2 years, read over 200 books. Everything, from the biblical, to positive thinking, to investing and how to succeed in life. That was me stretching.

Then I stretched again and took a 2-day course, because 2 days was all I felt I could manage. I was so shy, had so little confidence in my abilities that I knew I had to start small and I became a Justice of the Peace.

This tiny step of stretching out of my comfort zone, gave me a little more courage and so I stretched further. I opened myself up to try more and more new things.

As I walked with God, (spent time with Him, reading my bible and in prayer every day) my health improved. I no longer have any health issues. It was like the time Jesus healed the ten lepers; as they went, they were cleansed. Only one leper came back to say thank you and he was the only one of the ten, who was made whole.

I don’t know in what way. Was he made whole in that his fingers and nose grew back? Was he made whole in his finances, as now that he was healed and able bodied, he could work? Was he made whole in his relationships, for no longer was he ostracised from society? We don’t know. The bible doesn’t say in what way he was made whole, but I think he was made whole in every area, just as I have been. For all that, there is one thing I do know; we need to remember to give thanks, when Jesus moves in our life.

So, I no longer have any health issues. My relationships improved, I lost weight, I grew out of poverty and no longer suffer the depression I’d lived with for so many years. Someone asked me recently, how I got over the depression. It gave me pause for thought, because it had gone from my life and I didn’t particularly think I did anything. However, when I pondered further on it, the Holy Spirit brought to mind; I no longer listen to the devil and his negative words upon my life. I take every thought captive. Every thought.

It has been some years since I thought about depression and during those times, I remembered God’s words. The Holy Spirit brought them back to me now. I used to say them: think upon what’s true, noble, right, admirable, pure and lovely and don’t give the devil a foot hold. If I started to spiral downhill, I’d say to the devil: Get lost you gnat. You’re less than a flea and I’m not listening to you. Then I’d recite bible verses, the ones which would edify and build me up. I refused to listen to the devil tear me down. Once the devil understands he has no effect on you, he leaves. He can no longer bother me with tormenting thoughts.

God says to write the vision and make it plain, that he may run that readeth it…though it tarries, wait for it, for it will surely come.

So, I wrote the vision. I wrote what I wanted to see in happen in my life. And I waited. I wasn’t idle though. I was learning all the while, as I waited.

My dream was to trade shares, write and travel as I did so and there were times I felt I’d never make it. Satan did his best, but I kept the faith and I’m now living the dream.

Because I stretched, because I took God’s word as truth, I am now thrilled to say, I no longer feel boring. My dream is in full swing. Where I used to clean motels and wash dishes for a living, I’m now an investigative photojournalist and author, who trades currency and commodities on the global stock exchange, while travelling the countryside; sometimes in my car, sometimes in my little caravan.

I’ve written books that have made it onto Amazon’s best seller lists, taken award winning photographs, had my written work printed in newspapers and magazines. And a blog, which is a lot of fun, even if I didn’t know what I was doing initially. In hindsight, I should have had 2 blogs; one for my written work and one for my recipes, for I do love to cook. But we live and learn.

I managed to retire ten years early (something I never saw coming) and now am seeing my fruit, my grandchildren, prosper and overcome, for the Lord blesses our children and our children’s children to a thousand generations.

One granddaughter is too little yet, but the other is sport’s captain at her school. She’s made the cricket team, the soccer team, went to the regional races for sprinting and has won awards in Jujitsu. She was also one of the few chosen to go to the leadership conference and the writer’s festival. Last year she was environmental officer and library monitor. (None of this, would I have had the courage for at school and yet here she is; going for it all.) God is blessing my family.

We need to practice the principles to partake of the promises. My daughter and I purchased our house together. We weren’t in big income jobs, both being in the disability field at this time. Initially we paid a tithe of less than 10%, until we could afford to pay more, but we were diligent tithers. We stayed within our financial means and didn’t buy anything outside our home with credit, for the Lord states we’re to be lenders, not borrowers.

Recently we sold our home and my daughter just paid cash for her own house. I’m still looking for my forever home and I know it will come, when the time is right. My daughter’s dream was to be a UNI student (which she couldn’t do while paying a mortgage) and she’s doing that right at the moment, now that she’s settled in her own place. My other daughter is studying in a field she never felt she could accomplish and yet here she is, passing every exam. These children are the treasures in my house. They all are.

During this stretching process, yes, I failed at times. But I learned more through my failures than through my successes. God asks us to try, then he refines us through our failures. And He can use everything we go through, the good, the bad and the ugly. So, don’t dismiss yourself as a failure. You may have failed at something, but you’re still a success in God’s eyes, for just having the faith to give it a try.

I’ve heard God speak many times, since that first time. Sometimes He lights the path ahead, sometimes He lights only the next step, but somehow, I muddle through as I continually plug away.

God is all powerful and we can do all things through Him who strengthens us.

He’s geared everything in our favour. If you stretch yourself out of your comfort zone (which although terrifying at times, can actually be quite fun), but if you stretch and never quit, you’ll be surprised just how far God can take you.

I’ve had colossal enjoyment, as I’ve stretched myself out of my comfort zone. I’ve corresponded with world renown trading gurus, artists, poets, photographers of some repute, other authors (big and small) and I’ve even had a phone call from Big Arnie. Yes, that’s right, Arnold Schwarzenegger called, inviting me to a seminar he was holding in Sydney. Okay, it was a recorded message, but it was enormous fun (for we all know his voice is quite distinctive) and it all happened, when I stepped out of my comfort zone.

The crowds left and Jesus asked His disciples; “Do you want to leave too?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, who would we go to? You have the words that give eternal life.”

Don’t ever leave God’s side. Don’t ever quit, for where will you go? God cannot work in your life if you quit. Stick with Him, through all your trials and tribulations. Praise Him in the midst of them and you will come out the other side as refined gold, removed of any dross.

And just a little side note…

My husband had a football sized tumour removed from his abdomen a number of years ago. He initially thought it was just a beer belly, until it was so large, it interfered with his breathing. So off to the doctor he went.

The tumour was removed and found to be benign and no further treatment was necessary, except follow-up checks.

Since then, he’d been going for check-ups every 6 months to be sure the growth didn’t return and at some point, in one of the check-ups, they found nodules in John’s lungs.

During this time John also had a knee replacement. The fellow who took the scans of his knee, couldn’t believe John was still walking. John’s doctor said: “Oh John, this knee is shot.”

Shortly after, I broke my wrist. I broke it in 3 places and crushed the forearm, so no minor thing. I don’t like to say blessing in disguise, because at the end of the day, God doesn’t give us illness, but still, at the time it was a blessing of sorts and a whole other long story.

After his knee replacement, John’s doctor sent the surgeon a letter saying the healing of John’s knee was the fastest she’d seen go through her doors.

Interestingly I had the same surgeon for my broken wrist, as John had for his knee replacement and the surgeon said I had healed very fast. I told him that’s because I’m blessed.

Then he treated John and got the letter from John’s doctor saying it was the fastest healing she’d ever had go through her doors. I put this down to prayer and wondered if the doctor remembered me and did he realise; we’d both healed fast and well.

At the time of one of these 6-month checks, they found cancer nodules in John’s lungs, as I mentioned. I said to John; “Nope. You’ve already been healed of cancer. I’m going to pray they dissipate and disappear.”

At the first check-up they found the nodules hadn’t grown. That in itself was something. At the second check-up they found the nodules had shrunk. John remembered I’d said I was going to pray they shrink and disappear and he told the doctor about it.

I found this to be quite amusing, as my husband is an atheist (who I decree and declare to be the man of God, God designed him to be), and he was witnessing to the doctor and didn’t even know it.

And the third check-up; John was declared cancer free. As I mentioned, John’s an atheist. It wasn’t John’s faith which healed him. God healed John because a believer believed.

You see, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, be thou removed and it shall be cast into the see. Our mountain was moved. It was 10 years between the initial diagnosis and being declared cancer free. 10 years of holding onto faith, until we saw the fullness of our prayers complete.

Never quit, until you see the desires of your heart transpire. For God not only promises to meet your needs, He also promises; you shall have the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

John 15:7 If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you.

Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

So, ask away my friend and expect great results.

About the author:

Alexandra Grose – An investigative photojournalist and author for over twenty years. Writing is her passion and her dream and helping others achieve their dreams, through her written work, is Alexandra's greatest aspiration.

#Integrity; truthfulness, honesty and reliability, in all things.

I believe one should....be truthful in everything you say and do. Keep all relationships open and honest. Be reliable, punctual and organised and if you say you'll do it - do it.

If you want to soar like an eagle, make an effort, not an excuse.

This work is based on the belief of the writer. All she asks, is that you study and form your own opinion, as to the validity of her beliefs. You can’t assume you’re right on any given topic, you have to prove it.

©2023

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