Today, I mark my Platinum Jubilee.

Milestones like this invite reflection: not celebration alone, but discernment.

When I look back across the years, I do not first see accomplishments. I see intervention.

There were seasons of clarity and seasons of confusion. 

Seasons of strength and seasons where strength failed. 

Moments of decisive action and moments when the only prayer I could manage was, “Lord, help me.”

And He did.

Sometimes His intervention was dramatic: doors opened, provision appeared, danger passed.

More often, it was quieter.

He intervened by restraining me from premature decisions.

He intervened by sustaining me when removal was not His will.

He intervened by correcting me when my path required realignment.

He intervened by strengthening endurance when circumstances did not change.

Longevity in Christ is not accidental. It is not the product of personality or persistence alone. It is the result of mercy layered over time.

Spiritual warfare, as Scripture presents it, is not merely about confrontation. It is about remaining. 

Remaining faithful. Remaining sober. Remaining anchored when pressure presses hardest.

Looking back, I see that divine intervention did not always remove the battle. Sometimes it preserved the warrior.

There were years I would not have survived without grace. 

There were moments that required divine restraint more than divine acceleration.

And so today, I mark this milestone not with fanfare, but with gratitude.

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

—1 Corinthians 15:10 (KJV)

If there is any testimony in these years, it is this:

God is faithful not only in victory, but in preservation.

Longevity is mercy sustained.

And for that, I give thanks.

Shalom

Hephzibah Christly