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by Logan Ames

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it." (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

I cannot think of better words to describe what I’ve been experiencing in my life since the last time I had the privilege of writing to all of you. For those who don’t know, I was one of the original blog writers for Worldview Warriors and was blessed to be on the team for over four years. At the end of 2015, I decided it was time to take a break for a season and commit my time to other things that I knew the Lord was bringing into my life. You can view my last post before I took the break here. As you can see in that post, I had all these wonderful reasons for taking time away from writing. I was going to “focus on personal growth” and prepare for marriage “physically, spiritually, and logistically." Ideally, that meant I would get back to the gym, lose some weight, take care of myself a little better, get into God’s Word, spend a little more time in prayer, and probably work on addressing some envelopes and planning the honeymoon!

Now, let me tell you what actually took place during my time away from weekly writing. I started getting healthier physically and worked hard at it for a period of time, but eventually got overwhelmed with other things and allowed that goal to become secondary. I focused on personal spiritual growth through time in the Bible and prayer, but eventually lost that habit as well due to not really finding immediate gratification in it. Logistically speaking, my wife pretty much did it all planning our wedding because, well, I’m a man and have absolutely no clue whatsoever! As long as I followed the schedule and knew where to be and when on the wedding day, I had very few other responsibilities. In other words, my “plans” and “goals” for my break from writing weren’t necessarily completed in the manner in which I had hoped they would be. I had planned to be faithful in those areas of my life, but my inadequacies and other stresses in life were all that were needed to derail my plans even a little bit.

In Luke 18:8, Jesus asks if the Son of Man will find faith on the earth when he comes. This is a rhetorical question for us to think about. Jesus asks this right after telling his disciples the parable of the persistent widow, who had faith that an unjust judge would hear her pleas and concerns. The question we each must answer is how persistent our faith will be. Do you give up easily when things are not going your way? Do you expect God to work things out according to your terms or your timing? Do you get tired of waiting for the results of your hard work and discipline and choose to move on to something that gives a false sense of fulfillment? I can say with certainty that there have been times and will be times in my life that I answer “yes” to each of these questions.

Fortunately for all of us, God does not leave us in that state of faithlessness. In fact, he holds up his end of the bargain even when we don’t hold up ours. I chose the Scripture at the top because it reminds us that even when we can’t find a way to have faith, he is faithful and will accomplish his work in and through us. He “sanctifies us through and through." The original Greek translation of that phrase is used nowhere else in the New Testament. It is unique to what Paul is saying here and expresses the idea that God reaches every part of us to attain the intended goal of complete sanctification, so that no part of us remains unaffected. That’s what God does for you and I and it’s a process that continues no matter how many times we mess up. All we need to do is simply trust in his work and submit to the process of sanctification. And that’s a choice you have each day, regardless of whether or not you submitted to him the previous day.

So, while I continued to struggle through the life of faith like many of us do, let me tell you what GOD did and how HE was faithful in my life. He brought a wonderful, beautiful woman into my life and blessed me with the opportunity to marry her. My wife is Clara Ames and if you ever get a chance to meet her or know her, you will be blessed. I don’t deserve her, nor do I deserve God’s blessings, but he is faithful and blessed me anyway. We went through some great pre-marital counseling and have lots of love and support for others. But let’s be honest, is anyone really ever “ready” for marriage? We have good days and bad days like anyone, but we have a love that comes from God and he is faithful in continuing to teach us about love, respect, surrender, and forgiveness. We look forward to spending the rest of our lives together. God brought healing in some of our relationships with others, used us in new ways in ministry as a married couple, blessed us with the trip of a lifetime to the island of Kauai in Hawaii for our honeymoon, and helped us grow in selflessness during our first year of marriage.

We were becoming miserably comfortable in our jobs in Ohio, yet still knew God was calling us to something more, he opened the door for us to leave our lives in Ohio behind and head into full-time ministry in York, PA, which just so happens to be between the areas where we grew up and where our parents still live to this day. I am now a full-time co-lead pastor at Friendship Community Church of God in Dover, which is a suburb of York. My wife is the executive director at a faith-based mental health agency just across the river in Lancaster, PA. While we grieved the process of leaving our friends and support that God had given us during nine years in Ohio, as well as leaving financial security through our jobs, we knew it was the right time to make the move and trust him. We knew this because of the promise that God is faithful, and that he “will do it." The “it” there is whatever is necessary. If God is calling us to something, he will take care of all of our worries and what-ifs. When we doubt, he assures us of his faithfulness. As we continue to settle into our new lives and ministry roles in Pennsylvania, the beat goes on. We still struggle, yet we still trust him. He still allows some of his plan to be a mystery to us, yet reveals just enough to encourage us. We are blessed to know and serve him, and I look forward to continuing to share with you what God is doing in our lives and what he is putting on my heart to share. Whatever you’re going through in life, trust God. HE is faithful and HE will do it!

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