You can never be called “victorious” unless you overcome a challenge life throws at you.
Read on and be inspired as Amiel Lacorte shares how God helped him finish his college degree as Magna Cum Laude despite everything he and his family had to go through.
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Sometimes, there comes a point in each of our lives when we stand before God humbled by all the things He’s done for us. Not because we deserve it, not because we earned it, and not even because we are the best and the brightest. As a matter of fact, the more I come to think of it, the more I realize that me graduating as Magna Cum Laude has nothing to do with me. It is simply God fulfilling His promise in Jeremiah 29:11; that He will make me the head and not the tail – always at the top and never at the bottom. And that promise is not just for me, it’s also for you.
The award is just part and parcel of an even bigger miracle. Me studying in a private university is already a miracle in itself and more importantly, how my family and I managed to survive the past 10 years is an even greater miracle! I experienced firsthand the reality of the phrase “God will provide” over and over again.
The past 10 years of my life was rough. I lost my father when I was just 7. We experienced living without electricity for almost 5 months. I needed to depend on the light coming from the lamp post on the street whenever I had to study and have my devotions at night. This lasted until my grandfather died, further crippling the family’s finances since my mother was now the only one left to support us. There were days, I tell you, that we had no running water for a week because we can’t pay the bills. And when we thought that things could not go worse anymore, my little sister died of asthma and mother got terminated from her job at the same time.
But this is not a sad story! Why? Because in spite of everything, He never left us. I tell you, we have truly lived Philippians 4:12-13 – I know how to be brought low. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret to facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!
That is why I said that going to college at a private university for 4 years is a miracle because we literally had nothing. We only had God and that’s enough. I really needed to consistently seek God in prayer every day for 4 years to maintain my scholarship –because the moment I lose my scholarship would mean having to drop out from school for a year or two.
The thing is this, the more I draw myself near to God, the more I spend time in the ministry as a Communications Department volunteer, and the more I spend time in church, the more God has blessed my studies and my life in general. I tell you, my friends, it is possible to serve God and be productive. Because when you put God first in your life, He takes care of the things that are important to you simply because He loves you. The Bible puts it this way, “seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you”.
I said all of these just to prove to you that there is nothing special about me and my family, that I could not have done it without Jesus. Truly, He is a father to the fatherless and a friend to the widow. He kept me and my family when we walked through the fire and the flood. He has entrusted me with a future when I could not even trust myself. And God has given me more than what I asked or imagined. Not only did He give me a Latin Honor, He also restored everything that was lost in the past 10 years – pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
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