The Chatty Homemaker

Faith is the victory

I John 5:4 & 5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Our faith is the victory we need to overcome the world. Not just any faith, but faith in the one who laid down his life for us. Through faith in him we overcome the allure of the world, and the strong holds it has over us. II Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

We now have victory by faith in Christ, over the sins that so easily beset us, and cause us to fall. They are all nailed to the cross, and covered by his blood. There is great power in that faith to abolish even the most prevalent of our sins. Read Matthew 9:2, 22, 29; 15:28; 17:20-23; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; 11:21&22; Luke 5:20 There is great power even in the smallest amount of faith in the God who created you, and died for you. There are many more passages to be read than these, but this is a good starting point.

Victory over worry

My faith has given me victory over many things. Worry being one of them. Philippians 4:6 & 7 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds trough Christ Jesus.”

My husband and I have clung to this passage a lot over the years. He has preformed many miracles in our life, and I am sure he is not done yet. One such miracle came when I was pregnant with our beautiful Mary. Just before I conceived her we had a miscarriage that put me in the hospital needing a blood transfusion, and surgery. This had happened to us once before and it was months before I was able to conceive again. So, the next month when I fell off of the platform at church, and flew into the front pew knocking out of its position in the sanctuary, we didn’t think about it hurting me too badly.

I shook it off and went on about my life. That is until I got a positive pregnancy test a few short weeks later. My doctor told me that he wanted to see me earlier if and when I got pregnant again. So, I called his office right away. I went in the next week and they did all of the beginning of pregnancy work up stuff. The ultrasound didn’t show much since I was only about 5 weeks along. Of course they do blood work to go along with the start of pregnancy workup, so this was all normal for me.

What we didn’t know

I went on about life praying that everything was okay with the baby, since it was so early the heart beat was there but very hard to detect. The doctor thought she saw it fluttering, but couldn’t be sure. We scheduled a repeat ultrasound for the following week, and in the mean time waited on blood work results to come in.

A few days later, as I was out shopping with my dad and aunt, I got a call from the doctor’s office. This was not so normal. I just figured maybe they were calling to confirm the appointment for next week. When I answered, though, the voice was not that of Amy, (the receptionist), but of Shannon, (one of the nurses). This was different, she never called unless there was a clerical error, or something wasn’t right. My heart sank. She had a heaviness in her voice as she began to tell me that she didn’t want to be delivering this news, but also didn’t want anyone else to do it. Her and I had become quite close. She went on to say that they found antibody markers that are only present when the body is trying to fight against the pregnancy.

In that moment I felt deflated, and sorrowful. What we didn’t know was that it was caused by the fall off of the platform. When I had gotten the positive test I remember asking Aaron if he thought I fell before or after I had gotten pregnant. Since neither of us could remember when it had happened we just kind of forgot about it. Then Shannon said, “It’s usually caused by a traumatic injury of some sort. Have you fallen recently?”

To say I was worried would be an understatement

I told her about the incident at the church, and that I couldn’t remember when it happened. She told me to try not to worry and that they would monitor the levels of the antibody throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. She also told me that with all the advances in medicine this problem rarely results in miscarriage anymore. Worst case scenario would be a long stay in the hospital on monitors for the last trimester.

After I hung up with her I went and found my dad and his sister. They were at the checkout. So, I walked up there with my things and placed them on the conveyer belt. My aunt turned and asked me what the doctor had wanted. I told her with tears in my eyes. Everyone in there stopped and looked at me. My aunt took me by the hand and said, “We just need to pray and trust Jesus.” Of course she was right. Why was I worrying? This was not for me to worry about, but to pray about, and know that God loves me and this baby even more than I do.

We prayed right there in front of all those people, holding up the checkout line and all. No one got upset with us, but all gave that sympathetic look and I just knew that maybe some of them were praying for my baby, too. When we left there I had a great peace in my heart.

I didn’t want to worry him

I asked them both not to say anything to Aaron yet. He was driving a semi truck at the time and was in Kentucky. I didn’t want to worry him so far from home. It is dangerous out there even when you are fully focused. I didn’t want him distracted. I don’t normally keep things from him so it was quite difficult to keep something this important from him all day.

He made his way home at about 2am. He came in the house and I prepared myself for the conversation we were going to have. At first he was telling me all about his day and how he was upset with his dispatcher, and I didn’t blame him. Then he looked at me and asked what was wrong. Now I had to tell him. When I was finished talking he asked me why I hadn’t told him sooner. I gave my reasons, and he was shocked that I would think so little of his faith that I would think he would be worried about it.

This made me stop and think about how I had been acting all day. I had not exercised very much faith at all in my Lord. All day after I got home to a practically empty house, I would be fine and happy one minute and crying and scared the next. I would pray, and be fine, then I would take my eyes off of the Lord and worry again. This cycle went on and on all day. Maybe it was because I hadn’t told Aaron yet, or maybe my faith wasn’t were it should’ve been. Either way what he said next changed it all. He looked me in my eyes and said, “The more you worry the more you tie God’s hands. When you give it to him in faith that is when he can really work.”

He was so right

He was so right. As soon as I did that I never had another worry about it again. Wouldn’t you know that when they did my next blood draw for monitoring they could not find any signs of this ever being a problem! God had preformed a miracle. He loves us so much that he did this amazing miracle for us. The doctors were baffled. They said that they had never seen this happen before and didn’t know how it was possible. My husband and I looked at him and at each other and said “Faith in God and fervent prayer.” (James 5:16)

Faith has conquered again

Most recently our eldest son Noah has been having trouble with his macula. We were given some very unexpected news at a recent, routine eye exam. They said that he may lose his vision. They referred him to a specialist, whom he saw yesterday. I am pleased to report that faith has conquered again. Noah is not going to loose his eyesight, but even more than that they are quite certain that he will be able to regain the sight that has already been lost. He still has to see a second specialist, hopefully tomorrow. This is a retina specialist. He only deals with problems with the retina and will better be able to help Noah.

The doctor he saw yesterday was great. He took time, and lots of images. He has narrowed down the possible outcomes to only two. Both are treatable, and reversible. God is so good to us.

Please don’t misunderstand when I rejoice in this good news. I am not making light of the fact that even with the greatest of faith this could’ve gone much differently. Faith does not fix everything the way we want it fixed. God is not a magic genie who answers our every wish with a, “Yes master.” He loves us unconditionally, and he knows what is best for us. We had all accepted the fact that just as easily as God allowed Noah’s issue to be fixable, he could’ve allowed it to not be. Noah was already preparing himself to be blind in at least one eye. His heart about it was very encouraging. He is a very strong young man. I thank God every day that my children have a strong faith, and relationship with God as their heavenly Father.