What will you believe?

We are in a new year, praise the Lord. A little over a year ago we lost our dear son-in-law to cancer. The Lord impacted me today with a blog that may help some of you going through a loss. I pray it blesses you.

We all face difficult circumstances throughout life.  Sometimes, extremely difficult circumstances, such as losing a loved one through illness. If we believe in Jesus Christ however, we can count on Him to be directly involved and because we’ve invited Him in to the situation and have put our faith in Him, our outcome could and often does become fulfilled as we’d hoped. 

But what will we do if it doesn’t? 

​In the natural, I will receive a good outcome or I won’t. Knowing the worst can happen is our default so we are already sensing fear. In other words, I can live expecting the worst, or live believing God will come through. The problem is that believing God can be tough. It’s far easier to fear, than to have faith.

​I used to say that having faith in believing God for the best outcome costs us nothing because one of two things are going to happen:  I will receive a yes, or a no, from Him. I’m already naturally disposed to no, so if my faith has bearing on the situation why not go with yes?  It doesn’t cost me anything to believe, right? The things is, I was completely wrong. Having faith in believing God for the best outcome does not cost us nothing. It costs us everything. Hook, line and sinker. Getting out of the boat and walking on water towards Jesus so far that you can’t even see the boat anymore. Knowing that if He doesn’t save you, you will drown.  I hate to say it, but this is where Jesus needs us to be. However, God does, and always will have, a bigger plan for us despite the thing we’ve lost.

The hardest part of having faith is not necessarily staying steadfast in the belief that God will give you what you are earnestly believing him for; the hardest part of having faith is believing that God will deliver you, even if you lose the thing you were believing God for.
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Despite many people praying and doing all we knew to believe God for a miracle, we still lost our dearly loved son-in-law Jeff to cancer a year ago. Today God once again reminded me of where I need to be.  I need to be in the same place Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were when being faced with the very real possibility of being burned to death. They found themselves in a pagan land. They found themselves with two choices: Compromise their faith and bow down to a golden idol and be saved, or refuse to bow down and be burned alive. I know what I’d be thinking: I’d wonder if God would forgive me later for bowing down this one time to literally save my skin, but whether or not they thought that, they didn’t do that. Here is what they said:

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

They said that God could do it. God will do it. But if God doesn’t do it, we’re done. But you can’t take our faith, full stop, period. Even if that event had ended with them being burned alive with Nebuchadnezzar being the apparent winner, he wasn’t. God would have had a bigger plan, despite them being burned alive. As we know, God sent an Angel into that fire with them and with his physical eyes Nebuchadnezzar said “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

​And so, in looking back at our families’ tragic loss, albeit a year later, I have chosen to continue to believe the same way they did despite our outcome, God help me. It would have looked something like this:

“If Jeff continues to become more ill, the God I serve is able to save him from cancer, and He will rescue Jeff from cancer. But even if He does not, I want you to know, Satan, that I will not serve you through unbelief or say that you won. It’s not over yet, not by a long shot. You cannot have my faith, full stop, period!”

We too have gone through the fire, and perhaps you too are now going through your fire. Despite that, God does, and always will have, a bigger plan for us despite the thing we’ve lost. Even if it costs you everything, just continue believing.

For an incredibly uplifting song which reflects this message, listen to Even If, by MercyMe
​(Thank you Edie!)

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