God’s original plan was for us to rule over the world and everything in it. He still wants us to live positively, productively, confidently and successfully.
When I was 19 years of age, I was involved in a serious motor cycle accident. I crashed into a tree and as a result suffered life-threatening, multiple injuries. My spine was fractured–in fact, I was within a whisker of being a quadriplegic. I fractured my skull, my left arm and my left shoulder blade. I had a ruptured spleen and a ruptured kidney plus shock and concussion.
Immediate surgery was necessary and for the next three days, I hovered between life and death.
Vanessa and I were unofficially engaged at the time. During the night of the accident, she had been sleepless with worry. She could not overcome her fear that I might die. In the small hours of the morning, the words of this text came to her mind–
‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’ (Romans 8:37).
She accepted it as a word from God. She relaxed and slept deeply. Then she wrote out the text and next day brought it in to my bedside.
The words were an encouragement to me, too. It was the most desperate and potentially hopeless situation I have ever faced. Yet deep in my heart, I knew that I would pull through.
To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.