Two Sunday's ago we had a guest speaker in our Sunday school class. Sister Cooley, I forget her first name. She was inspirational, anointed, and right on time in her message.
For the past couple of years, my husband and I have been believing God for a miracle. Praying that He would bless our home with another child. We have prayed and prayed, believed and had so much faith. We put action behind our faith, as the scripture tells us faith is dead without works. Every month I would gear up with excitement thinking, this would be the month! Yet, month after month I was disappointed. I would go through stages of telling myself, "it's better this way, you don't really want anymore children anyhow." I would try and put my focus on other things, but eventually that old desire to carry another baby would work its way front and center in my heart. I would get so angry at God for not answering our prayers, we live for Him, we do our best to be good Christian's, so why hadn't our dream come true???
Sister Cooley, told her story of how she was diagnosed 5 years ago with ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is the silent killer. It doesn't have many symptoms, so most times when women find out they have it, it's in the advanced stage. She explained how she had big faith that God would heal her and that was that. Well, the cancer wasn't miraculously healed, she went through surgery. She kept asking, "God, why didn't you heal me? I had so much faith, I believed that you would." Finally the answer came to her, God hadn't healed her as she believed He would in a big miraculous way for the simple reason of teaching her the lesson of Trust.
Trust.
It's a small word with huge meaning. Trust is a scary thing. We have faith in certain people knowing that they can do certain things because it's their profession or they have become masters at it. But, when we put our lives in their hands to safely carry us through whatever it is that they do so well, we are trusting them. Trust isn't always easy. We have faith that God can do anything, He is God! He created the universe with all the galaxies, moons, sun, stars, planets, all the way down to our very blood cells, and fibers that make up who we are. When you think about that and try to wrap your brain around it you begin to get a glimpse of just how big our God is. So if he can create such things with just the spoken word, then surely He can heal cancer. He knows that we know He can heal us, but He wants to see if we will trust Him if He doesn't. That's is heavy! I learned that day that I had issues with trusting God. Why? He is God. Trust is the door to the unknown. The unknown is scary, if we can see what lies ahead, we're ok. But walking in the dark without knowing what's in front of you is terrifying. I realized that in my dark hours of hurt and disappointment, God was walking with me. He was holding my hand, directing my every step.
Trust is something beyond faith. Scripture also tells us that without faith we cannot please God. I have faith, I carry my faith wherever I go. I still have faith that God is going to bless us with another child. But do I trust Him? Even if He doesn't give us another child, will I still trust Him? I am reminded of the story of Job, he had everything taken from him yet He trusted God. You probably haven't gone through the trials that Job endured but life may have been rough for you. Your circumstances may have caused you to become bitter, angry, hurt, depressed, and those are all human emotions, normal emotions to have. But God is wanting to see if you will move past those human emotions and rationalizations and trust Him. I want to encourage someone today, who may be going through a difficult trial and you feel that God is nowhere in sight, remember, He is walking with you every step of the way. He may be silent right now, but in this silence you must trust Him.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Memorize this scripture, bury it in your heart. So when you begin to struggle with those emotions of hurt, anger, bitterness, just speak that scripture out loud to yourself and know that no matter what, ALL things will work out according to God's purpose for us. God bless~
