You’ll never walk alone

‘….I never once felt alone! I have the living spirit of Jesus in me and there was no way He was ever going to leave me on my own’

Source: Google+

Recently, through my work, God has sent me all over the World and I’ve been asking the question; why? I know that God does not do anything by chance, He has a plan and purpose for my life (and for your life too) but sometimes it can take us a little time for us to understand His purpose. Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’. In fact, sometimes, we may never understand, He may never reveal to us why He puts us in certain situations, however without a doubt, we can be certain that He has a purpose. God may be using us to plant some seeds for others to reap the harvest in the future and we will not know until one day when we are in heaven we might get a tap on the shoulder from a complete stranger, who might say ‘do you remember when……’, and relay an event that we vaguely remember and thought nothing of at the time. God is at work through us all the time and that is such an amazing thought. In addition, and an even more amazing thought is that He is always with us; Joshua 1:9 ‘Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go’.

To many, travelling the World may seem to be very glamorous and exciting however the reality of my situation is that I have such busy schedules and I am required to move around from place to place regularly. All I really get to see are the insides of airports, taxis, hotel rooms and the venues where my events are being hosted. The absolute worst part is being away from my family for a week or two weeks at a time. I am very close to my Wife and we have been married for nearly 32 years and prior to this year we have never really spent anytime apart. Although both of my kids are grown up and have left home we still see them regularly and I really miss them as well. I also can’t forget my cheeky dog, Prince, who is also a big part of our family. I suppose what I am trying to say is that when you travel half way across the World it is very easy to feel isolated and alone. As I write this article I am currently part way through a trip to China and Hong Kong and I would like to share a short testimony which shows that having God with us wherever we go, as described above in Joshua 1:9 means that no matter how far away from home we may be or how isolated we may feel, that we are never alone.

Source: Etsy

I was travelling from Coventry to Heathrow Airport by coach to catch an eleven-hour flight to Shanghai and then a three-hour connecting flight to a place called Chongqing in South West China.  Halfway through the coach journey I received an email on my mobile phone which was in Chinese. I had no idea what it said and as the Wi-Fi on the coach was very poor I had to wait until I got to the airport to translate it. I copied the email into Google translate and to my horror it stated that my connecting flight to Chongqing had been cancelled. I tried to get some assistance at the airport however as the connecting flight was with a Chinese airline, the only advice was get to Shanghai and sort it out there!  ‘Brilliant’ I thought. Having been to China a few months earlier I was aware that Chinese flights are notorious for being late and there is a real language barrier at airports. I sat myself down said a quick prayer and eventually got on the plane to Shanghai.

After going through customs and retrieving my luggage at Shanghai Airport I then started looking for the information desk for the Chinese Airline. I landed at terminal two and for local flights across China I was told by someone who spoke very broken English to go to terminal one. Fifteen minutes later I arrived at terminal one and after being told to go to four different desks I eventually was told that the next available flight (with this airline) was in the late evening which would mean a wait of eight hours (remember I had just got off an eleven-hour flight and spent the last hour trying to find the right person to talk to). I insisted that I could not wait that long and that I wanted to be transferred to another airline. Anyway, after being directed back to terminal two, plus a further four information desks later, and leaving some very confused Chinese people behind, I finally managed to get a boarding pass for a different Chinese airline for a flight that was going to Chongqing and amazingly it would arrive only fifteen minutes later than my originally scheduled flight that had been cancelled. Throughout this whole situation where I was in a foreign land and very tired I managed to keep calm and I never once felt alone! I have the living spirit of Jesus in me and there was no way He was ever going to leave me on my own. Isaiah 41:10 ‘So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand’. Praise God.

During my trip I also woke up one morning with a very painful sore throat. I felt a niggling pain in my throat the evening before but during the night the pain was severe, and it woke me up. I immediately felt God tell me to gently put my hand on the sore part of my throat and to pray for healing.  The moment I did this I felt the pain subside significantly and I managed get a few further hours’ sleep. When I woke up there was still some discomfort but nothing that stopped me having my breakfast and attending a local church service in Hong Kong. Psalm 30:2 ‘LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me’.

So back to the original question of why God has been sending me all over the World recently? Well, I believe it is because He wants me to depend on Him more in order to help deepen my relationship with Him. In the testimonies above I have learned to hold onto to Jesus, to ask for His help and to really trust that He will deliver. I’m aware that I do not need to be far away from home to depend on Jesus, however in my case maybe it was necessary to send me around the world in order to really get my attention to make me realise this. I just thank God that He loves me so much that He wants a deeper relationship with me.

Romans 8:38-39 ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’

Author: Gary O’Neill

May God bless and enrich your life

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