“I need help lighting the candle of hope in my spirit,” I had written in a prayer letter. “My heart is desperate for a revival of hope.”
I confessed to my supporters back home that I was fighting discouragement. My husband and I had been planting seeds of the Word in so many of our Muslim friends. While some had shown initial interest in the Gospel, we had yet to see any go deeper. We longed to see our friends give their lives to Jesus with focus and undivided hearts. Given what seemed to be a lack of fruit, my hope was burning out.
Little did I know that God was about to use my neighbor Amina to help me—quite literally—light that candle.
It was Christmas Eve and Amina was calling for me from our gate. Her eyes were sparkling.
“Sara,” she said, “I must tell you about a dream I’ve had.”
I welcomed Amina in and sat her down in the living room. “What was your dream?” I asked her.
Amina had dreamt of a man dressed in white, surrounded by young children. He called her name several times. Two times she turned to him, but both times he replied, “No, not you.”
The third time he called her, Amina said, “Yes, that is my name! You are calling me!”
“Yes, you!” he said this time. The man was lighting several colorful candles and instructed her, “Take these colored candles to light your life. And this white one—give it to Sara.”
“Sara?” Amina asked him. “Why Sara?”
“For it to shine in her life,” the man replied.
As Amina related her dream to me, I looked at the Advent candles burning on my dining room table. I rose and invited her over to see them.
“The first candle represents hope,” I told her, pointing to the shortest of the colored candles. “The second is for peace, the third for joy, and the fourth for love.”
Then I pointed to the middle candle, the Christ candle which hadn’t been lit yet. “This one represents the light of Christ that came into the world on Christmas,” I explained.
“It’s white,” Amina gasped, tears welling up in her eyes. “It was a white candle, just like your Christ candle, that the man in my dream told me to give you!” She went on to say that when she had described the dream to her husband, he had pointed out that the man must be Jesus.
“The man in your dream is dressed in white,” her husband had said to Amina, “and is surrounded by little children, just like all the stories about Jesus that Sara shares with us. He is Jesus!”
I removed the middle candle and gave it to Amina. She took it and carefully held it to one of the other candles to light it. Then she turned to me and gave the lighted candle to me, saying, “This is for you, because Jesus gave me the lighted white candle to present to you—to make your life shine.”
In that moment of miracle and mystery, the Lord ignited hope in me and revived my spirit.
God is drawing Amina to Himself, revealing to her the hope that is available to her in Christ Jesus. She is hungrier than ever to know more about Jesus and we have started reading the Bible and praying together.
Pray that Amina will believe the whole Gospel and be used by God to spread hope in Jesus Christ—the Messiah who shines His light in our lives.
**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names have been changed for security.**
Original article: FrontiersUSA.org/blog/article/lighting-the-candle-of-hope
