New Twist to our Prayer Request…

Since our appointment Tuesday both Barry and I have pretty much accepted the no heartbeat diagnosis. It has been difficult (and is still difficult), but we have accepted it as final and have been grieving the loss. In the back of my mind has always been the thought of what if there was a mistake? Or what if God is going to work a miracle? I have tried not to think along those lines because it will only make our appointment Tuesday more difficult.

However, Saturday morning I woke up thinking about my pastor’s sermon this past Sunday. (I’ve included the link…please listen to the sermon. Our pastor does a much better job explaining everything than I am about to do.) We had been away from our church for almost a month with being in AK, out of town for a wedding, etc. so I do not think it was a coincidence that I was back in church for this exact sermon two days before our Dr. appointment. I could not stop thinking about it all day. The sermon was on James 5:13-20. Here are a few of the verses…

“Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:13-16

I have heard these verses before and I guess have just brushed them aside because…who meets with the church elders and anoints with oil these days? But why not??? It is what the Bible says to do! My pastor told a story about a little girl at church that was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The mother called our pastor and asked him what he thought those verses meant and he said, “exactly what they say!” He got together some elders, prayed over the little girl and next time she went to the hospital (without any treatment) the tumor was completely and utterly gone…no trace it had ever been there. Another example that my recreation minister’s wife told me today…a lady contacted our recreation minister and her daughter was in the hospital, doctors had pretty much said she had hours/days to live. She asked our recreation minister about those verses and asked him to gather some elders and pray over her little girl. And guess what? Healed…alive and healthy today.

These ARE miracles…they are God answering the prayers of His faithful children. God WILL work miracles WHEN THEY ARE IN LINE WITH HIS WILL AND HIS PURPOSE and in order to bring glory to His name. We often discount these types of things as just cool things that have happened instead of giving credit to the Lord for His amazing, wonderful works. They are miracles…miracles still happen today.

We see tons of miracles in the Bible…one for example being Lazarus. The man had been dead for several days and Jesus raised him from the dead! The same God who displayed these miracles in the Bible is the same God that we serve today!!

These verses do not mean that God will answer every prayer for healing in the way we request. It does not mean that you have to have a certain amount of faith for God to answer your prayer. It does not mean that if God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we want that He didn’t listen or that we didn’t pray “right”. What it does mean though is that God wants us to be obedient - He wants us to ask Him for healing, He wants us to have faith and believe that He can work miracles, and He wants us to trust Him that His will will ultimately be done. He will grant our prayers whenever it is in line with His glory and His purpose.

I think it scared me to voice any of these thoughts today because I didn’t want people to think I was crazy or in denial. But I finally came to realize that I don’t care what people think. I care what the Bible has to say and those verses clearly give us instructions regarding what to do when “any one of you is sick”. Well, our little baby is “sick”…we need a miracle. I know what I saw on Tuesday…I saw no heartbeat. It was evident at 6 weeks, at 8 weeks, at 10 weeks…and it was not there on Tuesday. There was not a mistake in the medical equipment. We need a miracle for this little one.

If we had this baby in our arms and been given a diagnosis that was definitely going to end in death we would obviously be praying for a miracle, we wouldn’t just accept it. So why should we just accept this diagnosis? God is SO COMPLETELY CAPABLE of working this miracle IF IT IS IN HIS WILL. So why are we not praying that He will work this miracle, will bring healing to this baby in order to bring glory to His name. There would be no other explanation for it except for…OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WORKS MIRACLES.

So we contacted our recreation minister, who contacted our pastor who is contacting some elders at our church and they will be praying with us at 4:30pm this afternoon (Sunday). I am really really excited about it. Part of me is scared to really believe that this can happen, but that is the devil putting doubt in my mind. God IS capable of this miracle and we are believing that He can bring healing to our baby (I say our…but this baby has always and will always belong to the Lord…not to us…) in order to bring glory to His name! His will WILL be done in this situation and whatever the outcome - He IS in control. Our job is to be obedient. And then we must simply let God be God.

Please join us in faith in praying for this miracle. Please pray that God will heal this child in order to bring glory to His name. I am excited to see what God has in store for this whole situation!