Ben, a young man in Belgium and whom I never met, went home to His Maker this past week after fighting a heroic battle of lung cancer for the past two years. Too common an event, so why am I writing about it when possibly some of you or your friends may also be facing a similar challenge? Because this young man taught me about uncompromising faith and hope and I want to encourage you! He exhibited a faith in God so powerful that it penetrated beyond his immediate circle of friends and family; beyond his country, beyond our casual understanding of what FAITH in God really means.
He remained strong throughout his journey, he was a light on to the world as it says in Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven."
When the doctor's needed to tell him there was nothing more they could do, they wrote the word God in the middle of a piece of paper. They had learned about and seen his faith in action.
When I spoke to Ben's friend while visiting Belgium in April, a young man who didn't understand Ben's Faith in God, he simply shook his head when I asked him how Ben was doing. He said WOW, he never loses hope - how does he do it?
He did it because he kept his faith! He was not moved by what he saw or felt, like it says in Psalms 62:6-8 "He [God] only is my Rock and my Salvation; He is my Defense and my Fortress, I shall not be moved. With God rests my salvation and my glory; He is my Rock of unyielding strength and impenetrable hardness, and my refuge is in God! Trust in, lean on, rely on, and have confidence in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is a refuge for us (a fortress and a high tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!"
His faith did not waiver. He kept up his hope, his humor, and his strength in God until he was, as his Pastor said "for a short while - no more on this earth." But, instead he is at peace, free of pain and struggle until we meet him again ~ for eternity!
This same lesson has been passed on to me by another friend. Jan, yes older than Ben, but twice healed of cancer in her life. As she lives through her third attack of cancer, she recently said to me: "God continues His miracle of allowing me to live despite the cancer, which scientifically should have killed me at least 3 years ago." She faces cancer with a smile on her face and says to me "what do I have to lose? Either I am healed once again, or I go home and face eternity, pain free with God." She has uncompromising Faith in God and what a blessing she is!
So I share these lessons of uncompromising Faith. And as we face our struggles, what does our faith look like to to us and to the world?
Be strong in the Lord and be blessed,
Michelle Lord Samples
Certified Christian Life Coach
http://www.fromtheheartlifecoach.com/
Resources:
Matthew 17:20 (NLT) “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."
Mark 5:34 (AMP) "And He said to her, Daughter, your faith (your trust and confidence in Me, springing from faith in God) has restored you to health. Go in (into) peace and be continually healed and freed from your [ distressing bodily] disease."
John 6:47 (AMP) "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, he who believes in Me [who adheres to, trusts in, relies on, and has faith in Me] has (now possesses) eternal life."
John 20:29 (AMP) "Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, Thomas, do you now believe (trust, have faith)? Blessed and happy and to be envied are those who have never seen Me and yet have believed and adhered to and trusted and relied on Me."
Romans 5:1-3 (NLT) "Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance."
Romans 10:17 (AMP) "So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself)."
Romans 15:13 (AMP) "May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope."
2 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NLT) "So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by [faith] believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. "
Hebrews 11:1 (AMP) "NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]."
