Devil is a Liar

Oh what a day, what a day. Today I woke up at 5 am to pray for the day's events. See I had my civil suit deposition today. I knew it would be stressful because of all the feelings that would be aroused reliving the details of that awful night. I offered my day and its events up to the Lord and ended my prayer with "This too shall pass."

After I was done with my prayer and work out, an older gentleman on my tier stopped me in my tracks to tell me, "I'm not sure why I'm telling you this, but have a blessed day and ‘This too shall pass'." I could not help but to walk away in amazement and fully encouraged by his choice of words, (placed on his lips by God), at such an early hour, and how random it was (5:30 AM).
I went to work as usual and was called down at 10 am for my deposition. The deposition lasted from 10 am to 3 pm, and while I cannot discuss the exact details, I can say that the devil is a liar. After reliving my irresponsible night, which resulted in the death of Hort Kap, I could not help but to leave the deposition feeling worthless and ashamed. I prayed afterwards and I was being positive, but felt plagued that ‘my story' was insignificant. I was controlling my thoughts and I felt alone.

When I got back onto my tier, the CO handed me my mail. At this point, I wanted to just lay down because I was physically and mentally exhausted. Instead, I decided to open my mail right away. The first letter I opened was out of order because the mail is opened before we get it-- so the 4th page was the first page I saw. I began to read the following lines: "But in your moments of weakness, just remember you are not alone and not forgotten. Seriously Matt, your story has changed my thinking." And in my moment of weakness and insignificance, God provided those words as a significant piece of encouragement to me. The devil is a liar. The next letter I opened stated, "I know that I don't know you, but I want you to know that I'm so proud of you...people need to hear ‘your story.'"

And the peace returned, His grace was felt tenfold. The devil is a liar and would like nothing more than to place doubts in my head in order to conquer. His worldly attempt to diminish God's work was only countered by our Heavenly Father's abundance of grace, mercy, and love. The words of encouragement in letter- form were just what I needed. The Lord knows the power of spoken words. What an intimate God we serve.
In male leadership, a fellow inmate approached me to thank me for what I'm doing and to keep up the good fight because his college-aged daughter is following my story. The power of God's word and words spoken, "This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your Word has given me life" Psalm 119:50.

~This is not my doing and it's not about me. It may be my name attached to the story, but God's name is attached to the glory~ Life is given, when life is spoken.~