My heart is heavy today as my mind is focused on my cousin in another state who is fighting for his life. We got the call three days ago. My first reaction was ‘this can’t be!’ We have some family members and good friends who are in fragile health and I wouldn’t be too surprised to get a ‘bad news’ call concerning them, but not this cousin. He seemed to do everything right, exercised, ate well, took good vitamin supplements, never smoked, not overweight, and both parents lived into their 90’s. Isn’t this the perfect formula for a long, active, productive retired life? He suffered a major heart attack. His heart actually stopped for over thirty minutes. They cooled down his body, put him in a coma to lessen neurological damage, stabilized his vital signs, and now we wait.
When I calmed my hurting heart and tried to ‘think’, the first words that drifted into my mind were….
“He (the believer) will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.” Psalm 112:7
When an unbeliever faces a circumstance that he can do nothing about, he too will invariably put his faith in a ‘higher power’. If a person isn’t able to do this, they can become paralyzed with fear. There will be no peace. It matters who you trust. Haven’t we all been disappointed and fearful because we’ve placed our faith and trust in someone who was not trustworthy? When dealing with critical health issues, I always pray that the Lord will give great wisdom to the doctors who are working hard to mend the problem. Human wisdom can fail, knowledge may be lacking, emotions run wild, and confusion may reign rather than calm confidence. Maybe you’ve noticed when we completely rely on ourselves, we often fall short. We need to go to the ultimate source of wisdom and comfort.
Fear is crippling, it is the opposite of faith. Some people fear everything! There is no peace or joy living in fear. Perfect love drives out fear. Do you love ‘perfectly’? No, neither do I, but God does! John wrote in I John 4: 16 -18, I’ll paraphrase – we rely on the love God has for us, God is love, He lives in us making love complete. This God-love drives out fear, there is no fear when we understand His love.
I awoke this morning picturing my cousin in his hospital bed, in a deep sleep, perfectly still. Then the room grew lighter and I saw Jesus was standing by his bed. I prayed that somehow my cousin felt the Lord’s presence at this moment and as the doctors slowly bring him out of the coma, he’ll be at perfect peace knowing the Lord himself is in charge of life and death. Psalm 115:3 says “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” We can’t change God’s plan, but we can have peace with His plan knowing He loves us. When we feel inadequate, we can run to our Heavenly Father. God knows just what it takes to bring us to His feet!
Someday soon I hope to sit with my cousin and tell him that I claimed a verse for him during this ‘fearful’ time. My eyes fell on Psalms 116: 7 – 9 and I knew the Lord was speaking..….
“Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living”.
Thank you Lord that you are faithful and our hope is in YOU alone.
