In 2008, I was privileged to accompany Joel and Victoria, along with other family members, on a visit to meet Billy Graham at his home. Like you, like people all over the world, I had grown up watching the reach and depth of this great man’s ministry.

Billy Graham had preached in person in more than 185 countries to more than 215 million people during seventy-plus years of ministry. By the time he was ninety years old, when we met with him, he had prayed with every American president from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush. I’d seen his meetings with world leaders captured in news headlines and on television. I’d watched his crusade meetings fill football stadiums where people would rush forward after his talks to the song “Just As I Am,” their hearts pricked in wanting to know and live more for God. He had been a great inspiration to our family as we watched him reaching people’s hearts, one great message at a time.

So I was a little in awe standing with my family round him in his living room. Reverend Graham was not the young man I had seen on television, young and full of energy. But he was strong, gentle, and full of compassion. His once bold voice was soft and wavered now. I will never forget being in his presence. Before we left, my brother Paul and I asked Reverend Graham if he would sign our Bibles. In true Billy Graham style, the words he left for each of us were not his own, but the powerful, loud, and lasting words of God.

Philippians 1:6, he inscribed in a wavering hand in the front cover of my Bible. It was one of my favorite Scriptures, “For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

He who began a good work in you will perfect it.

How I believe those words! How I knew from many fears, disappointments, distractions, heartbreaks, and losses in my own life that God has a purpose and plan even when we don’t see it.

The great God who gave Billy Graham a great purpose has a great purpose and plan in mind for you, too. Read Philippians for yourself today, and begin to search the Bible for what you would claim as a life verse, something that speaks just for you and to you about the desires and calling you sense from God.

Write this verse on an index card to carry with you or in your Bible, and think upon it daily. God’s Word is God speaking directly to you. He has begun a good work in you and he will perfect it.

Excerpt from You Are Made For More!

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