Candle in the Darkness (Refiner's Fire #1)

by Lynn Austin

The Bible says men got plenty of plans in his heart, but it’s always the Lord’s plans that win. Right now it’s your plan to marry Massa Charles, have a bunch of little babies, live happy-ever-after. But that might not be God’s plan. Can you live with that, Missy?” I couldn’t lie to Eli or to myself. “No. I would be very angry with God.” “That’s why we struggle. Until we can pray, ‘Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,’ we gonna have a whole lot of sleepless nights. We want to make our own plans and

then pray, ‘My will be done, if you please Massa Jesus, in earth, as it is in my plans.’ You got to put your life in Jesus’ hands. Trust that in the end, whatever happens, He still in control.”

“Faith don’t come in a bushel basket, Missy. It come one step at a time. Decide to trust Him for one little thing today, and before you know it, you find out He’s so trustwort...

What’s going to happen to all of us?” “God’s gonna have His way, Missy Caroline, that’s what’s gonna hap...

I knew that there were faithful Christians in the North as well as the South who trusted Christ and looked to Him for guidance. How was He supposed to choose between them?

I prayed for a long time before I fell asleep that night, and as I did, I realized that I had always been utterly dependent on God for every breath I took, every breath Charles took. Why had it taken a crisis like the Pawnee to make me see it, to drive me to my knees?

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.’”

Psalm 4:8.

“I don’t understand people like him. How could he say such a thing to you? And why did you make me pray for him after what he said?” Eli set the lamp down on Daddy’s desk. “That boy will have to face God pretty soon and give an accounting for all the hate he storing away in his heart. But you and I better not be storing any in ours. Let it go, Missy

Caroline—right away, before it take root. Else we be just as bad as he is. The devil wants us to be like himself—telling lies and hating people. Jesus wants us to be like He is—loving our enemies and praying for them. Who you gonna be like?”

“I thought the Bible says I’m God’s child.” “Comes a time when every child has to grow up and get about his father’s business.

“Every day a servant goes to his massa and finds out what he supposed to do that day. If a servant is in the middle of something and Massa calls his name, he don’t say ‘just a minute’—he drop whatever he doing and he run to stand before the massa and he say, ‘Here I am.’ Every morning we need to ask the Lord, ‘This where you want me today? This what you want me to do?’ If it is, then that’s where you have to be, and that’s what you have to do.”

“You and the others have an advantage over me in this area,” I said, returning to my knitting. “You already know how to be good

servants, how to obey your master. No wonder Eli understands Jesus so much better than I do.”

I’m not strong at all, Aunt Anne . . . but I’m learning to lean on a God who is.”

But now you best stop listening to your feelings, Missy Caroline. Can’t never go by your feelings. Got to go by the word of the Lord.”