Title: The Grace of the Lord Is Upon Me
Author: Sithabile Dzingayi
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
ISBN: 978-1-5246-3101-7
Pages: 56
Genre: Non-Fiction / Religion / Inspirational
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
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It is said, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” yet as author Sithabile Dzingayi wrote in her spiritual healing memoir titled, The Grace of the Lord Is Upon Me, sometimes you may believe you have been given too much to handle. With a devout conviction of faith and unimaginable inner strength, she wrote about her life which includes so much despair that if it wasn’t for her love of God and her devotion to her children she would not have been able to cope with everything.
Beginning with the beautiful Bible verse in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me to lay down in green pastures, he leadeth me besides the still waters. He restoleth my soul, He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name sake. Here though I walk through the shadow of death I fear no evil.” The inner resolve gifted to this miraculous lady is deserving of such love of Christ for the kindness and protection she gave to her children amidst such insurmountable hardships.
With her husband suddenly dying of Cerebral Malaria combined with a cardiac arrest in 1997, she was left to care for their five children. Although initially the family managed on their tight budget, never having to go hungry, the Lord had more hardships in store for Sithablile. She learned she had contracted AIDS, which was a pandemic in her country of Zimbabwe during the 1980s. She moved with her family to England.
Along her path she encountered powerful messages of faith, at times manifested through the presence of strangers who entered her life. She looks upon all she went through by obeying the divine guidance of the Lord, and avoiding demonic influences and people while seeking help for her life threatening disease of which there is no cure. She had dreams of such vivid images and actions, which convinced her of the path to follow away from the temptations of the weak and demonically possessed.
Heavily laden with interleaved Bible verses, showing Dzingayi’s love of the Lord and her conviction to her faith, she provides accurate yet terse recounts of her drug therapy. For not having English as her native language, Dzingayi does a very good job of writing very bluntly and succinctly the facts and her experiences, only embellishing her writings with Bible verses rather than her own opinions.
This book shows clearly how the message of believing in God, obeying His love even if it does not make logical sense, has provided Dzingayi with the strength and fortitude to carry forth throughout such devastating losses – first her husband then her own health. It is an inspiration to all those suffering with AIDS with a simple message of strengthening their faith in the Lord.
