Joy Lewis penned our devotional this week! Don’t know her? Check her out on the contributor’s page.

It’s a Monday morning. I sit at the cancer center for tests and treatment once again. So many hours over the last 4 years have been spent here or other facilities like this. First, it was with my husband. Now it’s for myself. 

I look at all the things that have been taken from me in the last 4 years . . . my husband, my life as a pastor’s wife, my children’s father, my Dad, my near perfect health . . . the list goes on and on. Being in this place this morning brings it all rushing back . . . the nightmare our family has lived. 

I’m reminded of Job 1:21, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” So many times we focus on everything that has been taken that we forget to appreciate what we were given in the first place. 

I’m so richly blessed to have had a 28 year marriage to an incredible, godly man. I’m blessed to have been a pastor’s wife and experience a ministry journey that many only dream of. I was blessed with the most amazing Dad who was a first generation Christian and provided a wonderful Christian home for me to grow up in. 

My children were blessed with the very best father anyone could ever ask for. I was blessed with no major health problems for 50 years. The Lord didn’t have to give me any of those things and more, and I certainly don’t deserve all that He has given me. 

I opened Facebook this morning and learned of a pastor in Tennessee who lost his wife and son in a car accident this week. My heart breaks when I see others suffer such tragic loss. 

Loss happens to all of us at some point, but when we focus on all that God has given us, it changes our perspective. May we focus today on the ultimate gift we’ve been given . . . the sure hope of eternity in Heaven through faith in Jesus Christ. 

That’s the one thing that we can be sure will never be taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!