REHEARSE HIS FAITHFULNESS!

I stood before 400 people and testified to the awesome healing power of God! I proclaimed His goodness and faithfulness! I praised Him for doing the impossible! I encouraged others to stand and believe that God was GREATER than any problem or circumstance they faced!

You see my son Adam was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 22 months and the tumor along with the 8 1/2 hour surgery to remove the orange-sized growth, caused a seizure disorder that would control our lives for a number of years!  During his first grade year he had a seizure at school almost every other day. One specialist told us since there was seizure activity coming from every part of his brain, he would ALWAYS have them!

I walked out of that office knowing I had exhausted every medical and natural pathway to end these wicked seizures! If you’ve ever seen one you know why I call them wicked! They’re terrifying to see and you’re helpless as you watch your precious child stop breathing as their sweet little bodies writhe and contort. But God…..

He heard my cry that day that said to Him  I BELIEVED this was not His will for my child and that I knew He was willing and able to heal my beautiful boy! From that moment on, Adam has had only a handful of seizures and mostly only with high fevers or sleep deprivation! Quite amazing since for 5 straight years and dozens of medications, there seemed to be no relief in sight! He will be 30 years old this year and has been married to his beautiful wife Melissa going on 3 years!  But God!…. He is FAITHFUL!

The “rest of the story” and the meat of my message today takes us back to that great testimony I gave to those 400 people! What you don’t know is that it had been exactly one year at that point since Adam had had a seizure! Not even fever or sleep deprivation brought one on! What you also don’t know is that very next night after I stood and proclaimed Adam’s healing, he had a seizure out of the blue! There was not one thing that caused it! It was random, unprovoked and it broke my heart! He was 13 and about to leave on his first church mission trip!

As I laid there that night on the top bunk keeping watch over Adam, tears of deep disappointment rolled down my cheeks! How could this happen God? Didn’t you see me stand up boldly before all those people and testify about how You healed my boy?Didn’t you hear how I proclaimed Your goodness and faithfulness? Didn’t you love it when I exhorted them all to trust You for their miracle?

Then I heard it! Words that would forever change my heart, shape my attitude and become the filter and eyes that I would see everything through!

“REHEARSE MY FAITHFULNESS”!

Those three words that my precious Lord spoke to me, would begin on that very night to turn my heartache into hope, my tears into triumph and my confusion into the certainty that MY GOD IS FAITHFUL NO MATTER WHAT I SEE!

Rehearse! Being a theatre major, I knew what that meant but looked up the official definition.

Rehearse: “to recount; to say again, to go over again and again.”

THERE IT IS! God wanted me to go over and over again and again and recount ALL the ways and ALL the times He has been FAITHFUL to me, my family, my friends, to all the many prayers I have seen answered!  But on that night my soul was desperately disappointed and my mind wanted to run rampant with thoughts like, the seizures are back, they will keep coming, he’s not been healed! But God….. in His loving kindness and tender mercies repeated: REHEARSE MY FAITHFULNESS!

And so I did! Up on that bunk that night, the Lord brought to my mind all the many many times in my life when He protected my family and me, forgave me, gave me grace and mercy, healed my body, touched my kids and brought them through sickness, brought our marriage through different challenges, provided financially, brought favor with job promotions, brought precious friends into our lives, blessed us with a home and cars, vacations and met each and every need. Always. Every. Single. Time!

He replayed in my mind all the times He had come through for us from the moment Adam was diagnosed with his brain tumor! The time he ended up in ICU at 5yrs old having had 26 continuous seizures which paralyzed him on one side of his body and left him unable to speak or swallow! Dr’s said that all those seizures had fried his brain and that it was likely the damage would be permanent!

I did it then too! Right there in that ICU I recounted all the ways the Lord had touched Adam and carried our family through each and every dark, scary, discouraging moment! I BELIEVED in the promises of God including Psalm 103 that says He forgives all of our sins and HEALS all of our diseases! I REHEARSED HIS FAITHFULNESS! The next morning Adam woke up totally whole and completely healed! Praise our Faithful God!

Love, love, love this verse in 2Timothy 2:13! Even if we are unfaithful, HE REMAINS FAITHFUL! It’s who HE IS! Faithfulness is His character! Let that sink into your mind and then get deeply rooted and grounded into your heart! God’s Faithfulness is not dependent on what we do or don’t do! We can be absolutely faithless or unfaithful and He is still going to keep every one of His promises to us and love us unconditionally! Deuteronomy 7:9

REHEARSING HIS FAITHFULNESS renews and builds our faith and helps us to believe that even though you don’t know how or when, God will come through for you again! And on that night in that top bunk, the Lord filled my heart with hope to trust in His Faithfulness even though it looked as if everything was falling apart! And Faithful He has been to keep Adam healthy all these years!

Oh precious ones, I know there are so many of you going through dire circumstances that have caused your faith to waiver and your heart to lose hope! Just in the past few days I have spoken with precious friends, one just being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, another whose husband has been suffering with a painfully debilitating disease for 12 years and he’s just in his 40’s. You each have your stories of struggle or know someone who is trying not to sink into the quicksand of despair!

If we choose to look at our circumstances and the things going on in the world, we will go under emotionally and or spiritually and it will affect us physically as well! But God!!!…… He wants us to REHEARSE HIS FAITHFULNESS in our lives! For those worried about this country and the elections, we need to rehearse God’s Faithfulness to America since the 9/11 terrorist attacks! Even with economic crisis’, a fractured and disunified government, and now a Presidential election that is looking more and more like we may be voting for the lesser of two evils (my personal opinion only) , God has kept us safe from further attacks and blessed our economy to recover from stock market dips and high unemployment! I believe He will continue to provide for and protect His children!

In all of this we have a Good Good Father and a Faithful God who wants us to trust in His unwavering and everlasting love for us! He wants us to take a look back throughout our lives and go over and over and recount the countless times He has never left us or forsaken us, the times His strength empowered us and His grace was sufficient! The times when things looked impossible yet He made path to victory in the midst of the desert!

REHEARSE HIS FAITHFULNESS today or tonight as you lay in your bed and turn your thoughts of discouragement and even despair into faith in the One who knows the number of hairs on your head! The One who captures every one of your tears in a bottle and hears and is moved by every cry of your heart! The One who gave His very last drop of blood and breath so you and I could have all that we need to live the abundant life He wants us to have here on this earth! For He has overcome sin, sickness and death! But what really moves Him to act on your behalf is His deep deep love for you, His beautiful child! Trust Him with the impossible!

OUR GRACIOUS HEAVENLY FATHER! YOU HAVE PROMISED US THAT YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US AND THAT YOU HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD AND ALL THE PERILS IN IT! HELP US IN OUR FAITHLESSNESS AND UNBELIEF TO CONTINUALLY REHEARSE YOUR FAITHFULNESS TO US AND TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE AND THAT THERE IS NOTHING TOO HARD FOR YOU! HELP US TO GRAB HOLD OF EACH OF YOUR PRECIOUS PROMISES FOR US AND NOT LET GO UNTIL WE GET OUR FREEDOM, OUR HEALING, OUR VICTORY IN WHATEVER WE ARE BATTLING! HELP US CONQUER OUR FEAR, DOUBT, UNBELIEF AND YES EVEN APATHY! THANK YOU FOR BEING OUR REDEEMER, OUR HEALER, OUR DELIVERER, OUR PRINCE OF PEACE AND PROVIDER! GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS OH GOD TO US! WE LOVE YOU WITH ALL OF OUR HEART, MIND, SOUL AND STRENGTH! IN JESUS MIGHTY AND MATCHLESS NAME!

LOVE ALWAYS,

tara

John 3:30