My family has endured many trials these last few years. Marissa’s father has suffered a shattered arm, emergency triple bypass surgery, and several other visits to the emergency room. We’ve had several close family members pass away, one of them a niece that was murdered in her own home. We’ve endured several periods of unemployment, one of which lasted 9 months.
Our most recent trial we have endured was when Marissa went in for a routine physical and they discovered a tumor the size of a lime. The doctor told her that a tumor of that size has high probability of being cancer.
I’m not sharing this with you because I want sympathy. Many people go through trials every day, and many have it worse than we do. I’m sharing this with you because in each and every trial we’ve endured, God has shown his face to us. He has been there with us. He has picked us up, dusted us off and set us back on the path, stronger than we were before. I would like to share with you a few passages of Scripture that we’ve prayed through as a family during times of trials.
The first thing I needed to learn during times of trials is that alone, I can do nothing. If I try to gain strength and endurance through trials by myself, I know that I will end up curled up in a ball in my little cave, having a pity party and serving myself a big slice of anxiety pie.
Anxiety puts a knot in your stomach. It feels bad for a reason. Your body is saying “stop it”. Anxiety and stress are tools Satan has used against me during times of trials.
Anxiety and stress open up the door to doubt.
Doubt leads to despair.
Despair leads to depression and isolation, and Satan knows that alone I can do nothing but dig deeper into my cave.
That is how I dealt with trials before Jesus saved me. That was how I dealt with hardship before I found the healing Words of Scripture.
There is nothing that will test your patience, perseverance and faith more than that period of time between discovering a tumor and waiting for the results of the biopsy. Waiting on two words. Is it benign or is it malignant.
We both had faith that God was in it with us. We both prayed that God’s will would be done. We both had peace that no matter what the results were, God was in control, and we would praise him and thank him.
We knew that Marissa would either receive life in the form of more days on Earth with her family, or she would be taken home to receive her gift of eternal life in Heaven.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t tears. There were lots of tears. Some of them even came from Marissa. It also doesn’t mean we weren’t scared.
Anxiety is a powerful thing. No matter how much you try, you can’t push the “what ifs” and the “whys” out of your head. Fortunately for me, just days before the tumor was discovered, my daily Bible reading was on Matthew 6.
Was that a coincidence? No. God doesn’t do coincidences. God knew I would need this passage of Scripture, and I would like to share it with you now. Matthew 6: 25-34:
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The first verse that jumped out at me was verse 27
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
I Googled it and could not find a single person that has added a single hour to his life by being anxious. Speaking of Google, I highly recommend that if you are faced with a medical condition that is causing you anxiety, step away from your computer! Some of the best advice we received was “don’t start looking things up on the Internet”.
So, Marissa was on the computer looking up things on the Internet. Soon she had all of these statistics on the screen. Statistics that were not very encouraging. I reminded her that statistics mean nothing to God. Statistics are a picture of the past, not a prediction of the future.
You can flip a coin 100 times. It might come up heads 80 times and tails 20 times. But when you flip the coin the next time, the odds are still 50 / 50 it will come up heads or tails.
Is God bound by statistics? No.
Do statistics decide if we have cancer or not? No. God decides.
Do we determine the test results by stress and worry? No. God already knows the results. Our stress and worry will not change the results.
Everything is life is 50/50. God either permits it, or he doesn’t.
The only statistic we need to know is God’s will will be done.
Verse 34 tells us "do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
God does not want us to spend our days in anxiety and stress over what tomorrow might bring. God wants us to live each day in His light. He wants us to turn our worry over to Him.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6)
God is love, and God is just, but God isn’t always fast. Sometimes he wants us to wait a bit before he reveals his answer to our prayers. In stressful times, waiting is the hardest part. We just want to get the answer now. Get it over with. We don’t want it hanging over our head like this big, black cloud.
We need to remember that during these times of silence and waiting, it doesn’t mean that God has disappeared. It doesn’t mean that God has abandoned us. During one of my several phone calls with my Pastor, he shared Psalm 91 with me.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by the day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place – the Most High, who is my refuge –
No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
How can you read this Psalm and not breathe a big sigh of relief at the end? God is with us. He never leaves us.
When we began, I mentioned that we have suffered many trials lately. We might be tempted to ask God, why? What did we do to deserve this? This doesn’t seem fair.
These moments are when I turn to James 1:2-12
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. … Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
What we have learned to take comfort in is that we always come away from these trials stronger. We’ve learned to embrace the process because we know it refines us. It takes a lot of heat and pressure to turn a lump of coal into a diamond. Precious metals have to endure extreme heat to be refined before they show their beauty.
We know from experience that there is no reason to doubt that our Lord will deliver us from trails. Do we look forward to trials? No. But we do look forward to any opportunity to draw closer to Christ.
Marissa came up with an analogy recently that I’d like to share with you. When we are in trials it’s like we’re sheep stuck in the mud. We stand there helplessly in the dirty muck waiting for our Shepherd to free us.
What do we do?
Sometimes we don’t get pulled out right away.
What do we do?
We know our Shepherd loves us, and he will never leave us behind. It’s only a matter of time.
What do we do?
We know that he will pull us free of the mud, and wash us clean.
But while we’re waiting, what do we do?
We worship. We give thanks and adoration to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We thank God that He gave us His only begotten Son to die for us, and to become our Good Shepherd. We have a Good Shepherd and his name is Jesus Christ. In times of trials, I encourage you to allow him to wash you with His Word.
I’d like to close with a quote from C. S. Lewis:
"If we are going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things -- praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis … not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They might break our bodies … but they need not dominate our minds."
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