While Walking with God

By Ann Davis Melton

The events of this book illustrate God’s unlimited and amazing power; he is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. He promises that he will cause all things to work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. That means he will take our failures and mistakes and turn them into something worthwhile.

May these true accounts of many who walk daily with God encourage a closer relationship with and more dependence on our Lord and Savior. May they also be a reminder of God’s goodness, faithfulness, mercy, and grace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973637196

Ann Davis Melton

Ann Melton grew up in Western North Carolina and married her high school sweetheart and the love of her life, Frank. She received her doctorate from the University of South Carolina and after thirty years in education, she retired as a public school superintendent and traveled with her husband the next seventeen years. Ann is the mother of two, and the grandmother of five, and the author of seven award-winning books.

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Copyright © 2018 Ann Davis Melton.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture citations taken from the King James Version.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3718-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3717-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3719-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018909767

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/06/2018

Table of Contents

Preface

While Walking with God in Faith

Bringing Down the Walls

The Blessed Blind Beggar

God Heard His Prayers

Open Heart Surgery Times Two

Faith and Obedience

Laying Down Fleece

Answering the Call

Baby in the Bush

The Gift of Healing

A Beautiful Attitude

God at Work in His Life

Wait on the Lord

I Just Love the Way God Works

Tina’s Story - Wait For the Lord

Psalm 27

She Prayed for an Angel

Pray About Everything

God Has Spared Him Again and Again

While Walking with God in Hope

A Homecoming

The First Anniversary of My Husband’s Death

My Stolen Bible

Try Googling a Miracle

A Prayer for the Baby

The Cross atop Mount Lyn Lowry

A Seat on the Plane

My Little Corner of the World

God Will Make a Way

From the Mouths of Babes

The Vision of Hope

God’s Plan

The Day the Stranger Mocked God

Please Don’t Let the Violet Die

An Amazing Phone Call

A Christmas Miracle

While Walking with God in Love

The Birdies

My Computer Was Hacked

I’m Having an Aneurysm

The Third Cerebral Arteriogram

The Felling of the Trees

Once Again God Intervened

The Rainbow

God Has a Plan for Our Lives

Stacking Up the Rocks

Buddy’s Story – Praise Him

Please Hold for Just a Moment

He was Always There with Me

I Am the Vine

Neighbors

Experiencing Christ

Heartache and Joy

You Are My Sunshine

He Has Chosen Not To

Mary Katherine’s Story - Peace Is the Presence of God

The Two Angels

The Stranger in the Green T-Shirt

The Amazing Vision

The Figure in the Road

The Accident with the Camper

A Dream and A Vision that Granted Peace

Psalms of Seventy-Eight

Psalm of Joy

Psalm of Commotion

Psalm of a Plea

Accept Christ as Your Savior and Begin Your Walk with Him

My Prayer for You

Bibliography

The photograph on the cover of this book beautifully reflects the second stanza of the hymn How Great Thou Art which reads as follows:

"When through the woods and forest glades I wonder,

and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;

when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur

and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze;

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;

how great thou art, how great thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;

how great thou art, how great thou art!"

This book is

dedicated to my two children,

Myra Hargrove and Buddy Melton,

two wonderful individuals

who walk with God

every day of their lives.

In appreciation of

Darlene Lowe

for her amazing act of kindness

in sharing her wealth of knowledge,

time, and expertise.

Preface

In the following pages I have shared some very personal times in my life and in the lives of family and friends. The individuals that shared these stories are people who live in dependence on the Lord. Daily they work and live in collaboration with God and because of that their lives are filled with joy and peace! They know that when they depend on the Lord constantly, their perspectives change. While many view the things that happen in their lives as luck or just a coincidence, these individuals see them as miracles, as the hand of God at work in their lives. Because they live constantly with the Lord, their plans are always tentative. They are always willing to change their plans when they feel God leading them in a different direction because they know his plans are far better than their own. These individuals keep Acts 17:28 (NIV) in their hearts: For in him we live and move and have our being.

It is my hope that these stories will provide a small measure of help in your journey – that because of these stories you will be encouraged to pursue a closer, more personal relationship with the Lord. I hope you will see that when you walk with the Lord, amazing things happen in your life and in the lives of those around you. All these stories have been recorded in an effort to glorify God.

It is also my hope that you will see that the Bible is not some antiquated document but a holy book filled with the timely words of God. It has the power to meet your every need and to help you in your gravest hours. It has wonderful examples of prayers and is filled with promises – powerful promises. It has wonderful stories that are there for us to emulate and use in our lives today. To open the Bible is like opening a treasure chest filled with promises, hope, and wisdom that can change your life in amazing ways. It is my prayer that the scripture passages given in this book will serve to whet your appetite and cause you to search the scriptures yourself for those verses that fit your needs.

A song that I love says, It is no secret what God can do, what he’s done for others he can do for you. I encourage you to step out in faith, claim his promises, and go to him in prayer asking for what you need. Praise him, spend time with him, give him the glory and honor he deserves, and watch the miracles come into your life. I pray that you will come to see how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God’s love really is as you daily strive for a closer walk with him.

It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Daniel 4:2-3 NIV

Faith

Faith is an act of trust and abandonment

in which people no longer rely on their own strength

but commit themselves to the power of God.

Bringing Down the Walls

In the preface I stated that the Bible has wonderful stories, many of which I believe are there for us to emulate and use in our daily lives. Bringing Down the Walls is about one of those stores.

***

Our granddaughter, Sarah Hargrove, was a child who climbed on everything and swung from the rafters. When she was three years old, her mother, Myra, enrolled her in a gymnastics class in a small gym near their home. Sarah took to the sport like a duck takes to water; she loved it and excelled. At the age of nine, she was the North Carolina gymnastics champion.

When she was in the seventh grade, she was encouraged to try for a college scholarship in gymnastics. In order to achieve that goal, she had to train at an elite gym. Because there were no elite gyms in western North Carolina, she and her mother spent a week visiting elite gyms in the eastern part of the United States. In the end she was invited to join a gym in Michigan whose owner was the head coach for the women’s Olympic gymnastics team that won the gold medal in 2011. Instead she and her mom chose a gym in Cincinnati, Ohio. The owner of that gym was the head coach for the women’s Olympic gymnastics team that won the gold medal in 2007. That summer the two of them moved there before Sarah began eighth grade.

The whole family was in support of her goal, which meant that Douglas, Sarah’s dad, would stay in Hendersonville with her three brothers and keep the home fires burning. It obviously meant a real sacrifice for the entire family, but it was one they all were willing to make as Sarah worked to achieve her goal.

When Sarah began working at this gym, she quickly realized she would have to work twice as hard as all the other girls because all of them had been working at this elite gym since they were very young. When competition time rolled around, Sarah’s nerves were on edge. Could she compete against such skilled athletes and make a good showing?

When the day came for Sarah to compete in her first important competition, the Ohio state championship, her mother could sense her fear and uncertainty. As they were driving to the city where the competition was held, Myra asked Sarah to get out a pencil and a piece of paper and write down seven things she wanted God to do for her at this competition, such as, help her to stay focused, help her not to fall, …etc., and she told Sarah she was going to do the same thing.

Usually, when they arrived at the city where the competition was held, they went to the motel and settled in before driving to the gym. However, on this day Myra drove straight to the gym. She parked in the parking lot, turned to Sarah, and said, Sarah, I know you know the story of the Wall of Jericho. You know that God told the Israelites to walk around the wall once a day for six days. On the seventh day they were to walk around the wall seven times, and then shout while the priests blew their trumpets, and when they did, the wall came falling down. Well, we are going to drive around this gym seven times and each time we are going to pray one of our prayers, and your wall of fear and uncertainty is going to come falling down.

The next day Sarah competed and was named Ohio state gymnastics champion! The next year, as a freshman in high school, she was granted a full scholarship to the University of Nebraska, the college she had been praying to attend.

It is my hope that you will see that faith, and your belief in the power of God can always bring down walls. It only takes two ingredients – your faith and his power.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

The Blessed Blind Beggar

I had traveled to Europe and on this day was just walking around the lovely old town of Salisbury, enjoying the day and taking in the beautiful architecture. As I walked down one street, I passed a blind man who held out a tin cup hoping that passersby would drop in money. He was also singing in a beautiful alto voice. There was a bench nearby and I just sat down and listened. The songs he sang were hymns, and he sang with such feeling – such heart. When anyone dropped coins