I will never stop telling people what God brought me and my family through. God wouldn’t take you through it if He didn’t want to use it! #testimony
Title - Give Thanks In The Bad Times
I think we have all heard that saying but do we truly get it? On September 2nd of 2020 my Dad…Kyle Montgomery…suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm while he was driving us into the Target parking lot. My mom had to park the car for him from the passenger seat. He was rushed to the ER.
A few hours later we were told that he would be dead within 48 hours, and that he would never wake up from the coma that he was in We refused that report, but I turned to my best friend that night and said “If he dies, I promise you that I am not leaving the church…and I will start a church just like he planned.”
Fast forward to December 2020, and my father came home! He still had so far to go to recover, but he defied the doctors. He had woke up after 2 weeks, was breathing on his own, proved that he was still in there, and was starting to talk again. He made it almost 4 months longer than what they said.
The morning of December 30th, I was woken up by my little brother crying, saying that dad was dead. He had battled pneumonia on and off for almost 2 months, and finally his lungs were just too weak. God healed him, but not how we expected.
What made it even harder, was that just 2 weeks before, my grandfather passed away. Then just 3 days after my Dad passed, we found out that the baby my Mom was pregnant with, no longer had a heartbeat at 21 weeks. It was a boy…a baby brother that I won’t meet until heaven.
We were so confused by all of it. As my Mom put it, she was numb at that point. So was I. We lost 3 generations in 3 weeks! It was crazy! But you know what? I still stayed faithful. We knew that this pain was for a reason, and I had to carry on the ministry that my Dad was called to. I had to pick up his mantle and go forward.
You might not know why you’re going through your storm, we never really do in the middle of it. But, you have to stay faithful. You have to make up your mind that you will not give up BEFORE the storm. You have to build your foundation long before the wind blows, or the rain will wash you away.
Your testimony will come from each test, and one day you will be able to look back and be thankful for what you went through…because that was the time that God molded you into what He wanted you to be. So don’t give up, don’t stop worshiping. Decide today, that no matter what is thrown at you when you get home, you WILL always give thanks…in the good times and in the bad!"
"Habakkuk 3:17-19 NEW King James Version
17 Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills
Credit: Avery Montgomery posted on Feb. 19, 2023