It's Testimony Time!

When circumstances occur in our lives that are too hard for us to handle, we become desperate. Many of us ask for prayer without hesitation. We go out of our way to ask people to pray for the situation. Unfortunately, though, when God comes through we don't have that same passion or desperation to tell everyone what He's done. We either get too busy or don't even think about it unless someone checks in.

      I've been guilty of this. In fact, I noticed it because I was doing that just last month! I felt convicted for not doing more to share the story of what God did for my family. People need to know that God is real and that, in the midst of these painful times, there is hope. They are looking for evidence and our testimonies are just that. Here is the testimony of how God moved in my life last month.

      My dad had been sick for a few weeks. The doctor he was going to didn't know why his flu-like symptoms weren't going away. My dad's coworkers kept insisting that he might have Valley Fever (a fungal infection that enters the body through the person's lungs). He brought it up to the doctor on his next visit and so his doctor ordered a CT scan to be done on his lungs. The technician in charge of doing the scan did it a bit lower than usual (catching my dad's kidney as well). When the scan came in the doctor told my dad that he had Valley Fever and that it appeared he also had a mass in his kidney.

      Apparently the mass was the size of a lemon and had been there a while. Fortunately, it was inside one of my dad's kidneys. The doctor had my dad go to a specialist who performed surgery to remove the organ. Here's where the desperate prayer requests came in. We didn't know whether the mass was cancerous or not. We would only be able to find out once the kidney was removed. I was so afraid and heart broken. I was desperately hoping that it wasn't.

     The doctor had the tissue from the mass tested. When the results came back, we found out that it was cancer. It turned out my dad had stage 1 cancer, but God moved even before our prayers came. If my dad hadn't gotten Valley Fever, he never would've had that CT scan done. If the technician hadn't done the scan lower than usual (no reason to...just God), then they never would have found the mass in my dad's kidney in time to remove it ALL before the cancer spread. It was all contained in the kidney they removed. They got it all out! My dad doesn't need chemo, just scans every six months to make sure it doesn't return. Those are all things to praise God for (and believe me, I did and still am)!

       Despite that incredible testimony though, I wasn't broadcasting the testimony as much as I had the prayer request. I fell into the busyness of life and then the daily routine. I didn't even think to do so until people asked me about how my dad was doing. Then, the thought occurred for me to blog about it (because I want to do a better job with sharing the testimonies of what God has done/is doing in my life). A part of the verse in Revelation 12:11 (NIV) came to mind immediately: "They triumphed over him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony..." 

      I wanted people to know that God still moves. Miracles are not a thing of the past; they still happen. God is real. There is so much hopelessness around us, but I don't want people to be discouraged by what Satan is doing because God is still moving powerfully. I want to do my part in encouraging people of that.

      It's funny because I was at a conference with mine and my husband's youth group last week and one of the speakers spoke on Mark chapter 5 and the way Jesus cast out the demons from within the demon possessed man. The speaker stopped reading a few verses from the end of the section and so I kept reading. After reading them, I knew that I had to write this post and tell you all about what God did.

     Mark 5:18-20 NIV says, “As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, 'Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.' So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”

      It seems we've become more amazed by what Satan is doing in the world than by what God is doing. I love reading and hearing testimonies because it reminds me that God still moves. It reminds me that He will have the victory in the end and that He has more power than evil does. When things get difficult, don't fall on your knees in hopelessness, fall on your knees in prayer because we serve a faithful, loving, and powerful God who still performs miracles.