Learning to Overcome

     Have you ever been told that you have a disease that is incurable?  So, I could have never imagine that my youngest daughter Olivia would be diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Its pretty overwhelming to have your child sit in front of a doctor, give his pronouncement, and then tell you there is no cure.  The only hope he offers is a series of toxic drugs along with it's major list of side effects.  Wow!  What a test of faith for all of us in our family.  throughout life everyone of of us will be tested in our faith... usually letting us know God is God and we're not.  Only the Lord makes the impossible possible.  Hebrews 5:7 is an encouraging verse: "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission."   I've had fervent crying and tears over the last few days.  It's flat out hard to face such hardship to see your kid hurt and you can do absolutely nothing to fix it yourself.  I have no idea how so many people make it through difficult moments like this.

       My life seems to be on trial.  A few years ago, I thought I could make it through my mom's fight with Lung Cancer (she never smoked a day in her life). She was so healthy, vibrant and fun to be around.  During her last moments with us, she tried to show courage, strength, and hope to our family.  But in the end she lost the battle.  Then within the next year we lost four more family members including my Dad and our only nephew who was killed by a girl texting and not paying attention to her driving.  Tough moments but we've been getting through it slowly.  On top of that, I've continued to pastor our church through a major legal battle against a company that has been seeking to steal our property so that can cover up their own illegal activity on Wall Street.  Fun stuff, Aye?  Now on the heels of that comes this news. So how do I handle it all?  Here's a few emotional ques helping me.

First,  Scream at God when you need to, tell Him its unfair, and get the anger out of your system.  Yelling at your family or friends will not help you.  God can take your yelling.  Doesn't mean you'll get much of a response but you can take it out on him.  He's not afraid of a little anger since he's prone to a little himself.  As we look at the Book of Psalms, we see that anger is an integral part of the prayer life of the psalmist. Anger is a recurring theme -- all kinds of anger: personal, national, political, and even anger toward God. One Third of the Psalms are expressions of people's anger.  It's okay to vent. God can take it.

Second,  recognize that every TESTIMONY begins with the word "TEST."  According to our understanding of the English word "test":  A test or examination is an assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs).  In other words, when we face a test we have the opportunity to find where our faith levels really are.  One of my favorite verses comes from I Samuel 30:6.  King David and his men had just lost everything they owned along with their families.  It was so bad that David had no one to encourage him so he encouraged himself.  I Sam. 30:6 says, "David encouraged himself in the Lord."  In my experience I usually find myself having to rehearse all the things in my past that God has done for me to encourage myself.  He's always been there and promises he will always be there through my future.  God is a good God!  All the Time.

Third,  rehearse God's promises to Him!   A few years ago a prophet named, David Minor, sat at a table and prophesied to me.  "You've gone from mountain top to mountain top. However, you've never been to a valley before.  God is sending you to a valley.  It will feel like you've been set on a shelf.  No one will call you.  No one will ask you to come.  You will be taken into a Valley.  You have met Jesus many times on the mountain tops but this time you are going to meet Jesus in the Valley. Then God will take you back up to the mountains and you'll go to greater place than you have ever been."  He is right and you know what it sucks being in a valley.  There are 4,290 valleys in the Bible.  In every valley you can find a promise from God.  There is:

The Valley Of Death  Ps. 23

The Valley Of Weeping  Ps. 84:6

The Valley of Decision Joel 3:14

The Valley of Dry Bones  Ezek. 37:1-14

Valleys of Battle Josh. 7:1-3; 8:1-29

plus many more...

Finally, try to learn from your problems what you don't know. Problems are our opportunities to grow!  With our family, we are praying and believing for Olivia's total healing.  However, her health begins with changing our diet together as a family.  In recent years, there have been tons of resources, movies like "Folks over knives,"  books on Dr. Gerson's cure for cancer that have all demonstrated our eating habits are hurting and damaging us.  So God is putting his finger on the importance of healthy eating.  Do you remember the beginning statements of the Hebrew Young Men in the Book Of Daniel?

Daniel Chapter 1

⁸ Daniel made up his mind not to harm himself by eating the king’s rich food and drinking the king’s wine. So he asked the chief-of-staff for permission not to harm himself in this way. ⁹ God made the chief-of-staff kind and compassionate toward Daniel. ¹⁰ The chief-of-staff told Daniel, “I’m afraid of my master, the king. The king determined what you should eat and drink. If he sees that you look worse than the other young men your age, he would have my head cut off.” ¹¹ The chief-of-staff put a supervisor in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel said to the supervisor, ¹² “Please test us for ten days. Give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then compare us to the young men who are eating the king’s rich food. Decide how to treat us on the basis of how we look.” ¹⁴ The supervisor listened to them about this matter and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵ After ten days they looked healthier and stronger than the young men who had been eating the king’s rich food. ¹⁶ So the supervisor took away the king’s rich food and wine and gave them vegetables.

Then in the New Testament the apostles charged with the Gentile mission were told to

To abstain from food polluted... and the meat of strangled animals and from blood. Acts 15:20

Why on earth was this "discussion" regarding what we eat so important to be included in the Bible?  It's because God designed our bodies to be able to eat certain things.  To many of us look for healing but then turn around and eat and drink all the wrong things.  The United States government is creating a "nutritional famine"  that is causing a Hugh profit for the health care industry. The pharmaceutical companies cannot make money if we eat the right things and let the body heal itself.  Who would have thought that our health would become the target for "profits" on Wall Street?  

Well, my life is becoming a story about overcoming.  I want to be found on the side of compassion, love for my family, staying true to knowing what is right.  On the one hand I am glad we have a name to "tag" for ourselves in prayer.  We can now pray for Olivia to be healed of Crohn's disease.  I also want you to know... that I am here to pray for you, no matter where you are, who you are, I have plenty of time to pray now that I'm sitting in a valley.