By Gerry Mellors, Jubilee Church Wirral

I wanted to write a blog about God’s goodness and faithfulness and to share my experience of how He can be trusted, not just when we feel it, or can see it in our lives, but all the time, even when things don’t seem to be going well.

I’ve always known that God is real: I was brought up as a Catholic and talked to God daily, knowing He could hear me, but I didn’t really understand about His goodness in sending Jesus until I was a teenager.

Life wasn’t easy, but I always knew God was with me, and that He would ‘work all things for the good of those who love Him’ (Romans 8:28), so even though my Mum died when I was 15 after a long illness, I can see how God actually used that for good, to bring myself and my two sisters to trust in Him, I believe, as a result of all the people praying for our family.

Life has continued to be very challenging but God’s faithfulness and goodness abound in all circumstances. Having lost my mum prematurely, I also lost my first husband after 11 years together, leaving me at 33 years old, single mother to two newly adopted boys.

The last few years have been very difficult, but God has been my rock through it all. He made me the promise ‘I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope’ (Jeremiah 29:11) as my first husband was dying, and confirmed those words through my close friends who kept sending me the same scripture at that time.

My late husband’s best friend made a trip to Israel and wanted to buy me a gift of jewellery. He asked the lady in the shop if she had any necklaces with Scripture on them, and she had only one left, which said these same words. God is in control of every detail and directs all things according to His good purpose.

My family and friends have also given me wonderful support over the last few years and as a result of surviving adversity I made the decision to re-train as a Counsellor, so I could support people going through their own challenges. Having completed my training a few years ago, I continued to work in my usual job but volunteered as a Counsellor on my day off.

I felt God was prompting me a few months ago to pursue counselling more, so I started to look for opportunities. I knew that I could just push doors and see if they opened and leave the rest to God. I saw a job back in April for a School Counsellor but it was only two days a week. I felt prompted to apply and went ahead and did so. I had thought they just needed my CV and a basic application form, so panicked when having left it a bit late, I discovered as I clicked through the form that there were sections requiring much more detailed responses! Thanks to my husband’s support, I didn’t give up and got the application in.

An interview followed which went very well, but after all that I was told someone had just ‘pipped me to the post’. I knew God had my future in hand so chose to be grateful for the experience and the positive feedback from my first ever counselling interview! After all, I wanted more than two days’ work so it hadn’t been ideal for me anyway.

Six weeks later I received a phone call from the organisation asking me if I was still interested. Another job had come up, and they’d kept my details on file as I’d interviewed well. She then asked how many days’ work I was looking for seeing as I’d applied previously for a two-day job. I said ideally four, and was told that the new position was for four days! The lady declared confidently “I believe these things are just sometimes meant to be! They’re planned for us!”….something which I could wholeheartedly agree with – knowing who it was who was doing that planning!

God continues to fulfil His promises to work all things for the good of those who love Him…. bringing out of my losses, a deep faith and trust in Him, and new opportunities to support others through their struggles and trials. There have been and will continue to be difficulties and dark days, but I know God has always been faithful and will always continue to be so.

Gerry Mellors of Jubilee Church Wirral with her husband Arlo