[Thursday's Devotional] - Rewarding promises

Rewarding promises   "For I, the Lord, love justice.  I hate robbery and wrongdoing.  I will faithfully reward my people for their suffering and make an everlasting covenant with them.  Their descendants will be recognised and honoured among the nations.  Everyone will realise that they are a people the Lord has blessed." Isaiah 61: 8-9 [NLT] When we do our best to walk God's way, in his will not our own, he promises justice and a faithful reward. This is a tough journey for a rebel like me, I am often tempted to go my own foolish way, when his promises seem unfulfilled in my timing. This story always encourages me to hang in there! During the summer of 1926, the story that enthralled the public revolved around four young American swimmers – Gertrude Ederle, Mille Gade, Lillian Cannon, and Clarabelle Barrett who battled the weather, the cruel waters, each other, and considerable odds, each with the dream of becoming the first woman to conquer the brutal waters of the English Channel, most felt this was too dangerous and difficult for any woman to achieve.  On 6th August 1926 Gertrude Ederle went down in history as being the first ever woman to swim the Channel.  Five men had performed the feat previously; however Ederle's time of 14 hours and 31 minutes broke the record by nearly 2 hours!  This feat earned her lasting fame and her record stood for almost a quarter-century.  She nearly quit, after twelve hours she was exhausted, just swimming to survive.  Her supporters, following in a boat, became worried about her safety and shouted "Trudy, you must come out!", yet she was not going to give up on her dream, "What for?" she yelled back, and kept on swimming. The record books could have told a very different story, only three days prior to Gertrude's swim, Clarabelle Barrett left Dover on her journey.  With hopes of becoming the first woman to swim the channel she entered the water, however, after 22 hours in the cruel sea she became lost in fog and was officially declared missing for over an hour.  Deterred by tiredness and fog, with no end in sight she finally gave up her swim… only to discover she was just 2 miles from France. Although your given destiny may seem out of your sight, it is not out of His. Dawn Milward   Twitter Website Copyright © 2016 St. Matthews & St. Oswalds Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthews & St. Oswalds Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!