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

by Lynn Austin

“It ain’t doing no good to tell you again,” he warned, “if you not hiding them words in you heart.”

The Lord always by you side if you ask Him to be. He fight all you battles.

Anything I can’t fix, I take to Jesus. Then I don’t have to worry no more. Massa Jesus take care of it in His own time, His own way.”

“Rev. Greene,” I said in a trembling voice, “the Negroes are not a cause. They are people!”

“Most folks won’t change their mind unless they have a change of heart first.”

“Most people very lucky if love come around once,” she said quietly. “Better not be letting go of it, thinking there be another chance.”

“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.

“You know the story of Queen Esther? Lord put her in the palace among all them unbelievers for a reason. She have a job to do for Him—when the time’s right. I think Massa Jesus send you up north, then bring you back here for a reason, too. But I think you have to wait until the time’s right. God gave Esther courage so she could walk right into that throne room saying, ‘If I perish, I perish.’ But then she waited. She invite that king to dinner two times before she speak her mind. Wasn’t because she scared. She waiting for the Lord to say, ‘Now, Esther! Now’s the time!’”

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

Can’t never go by your feelings. Got to go by the word of the Lord.”

But I know I can trust God. Even when bad things happen, He can use them for good.”

Massa Jesus, you see our dreams and know our hearts. You hold our futures in your hand. We can pray ‘Thy will be done’ with joy in our hearts because there’s hope in that prayer—hope that because you love us, your will is the very best thing for us. Take our dreams and your dreams for us, Lord, and make them one and the same. In Massa Jesus’ name, amen.”