Tuesday, March 24th, 2020, I was completely crushed. It was as if I could feel my heart literally breaking. I got the news that the cancer my mom had in her lymph nodes, was now in the form of a 7-centimeter tumor pressing against the right-side of her brain. It was just a month prior on February 13th, 2020, that her doctor had officially declared her cancer-free. I thought we were finally over this long & agonizing journey that originally started back in early June of 2019. Yet, here I was again balling my eyes out in the middle of my living-room floor screaming to God, “I cannot go through this again”, “I do not want my mom to go through this again”, “I’m not strong enough” & “It’s just too much”. To know me is to know that sentences like those are foreign to my character. I am always more than willing to battle and conquer whatever is necessary, will speak life over everyone & everything, and remain positive in situations that appear impossible. However, on March 24th, 2020, I broke, and did not feel that I had any fight left in me. But of course, God knew differently …
“But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord, your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them”. ~ Deuteronomy 4:29-31 ESV ~
I told a few people via text what was going on with my mom, my pastor being one of them. What my pastor said to me in his text was, “We know God does NOT bring sickness, but we KNOW that through sickness, God can get some MAJOR GLORY in working healing, restoration & some serious miracles. DO NOT BE DISMAYED. Your prayers now have a direction & a commission!”. My pastor then challenged me to fast & pray and to get at least 4 people to fast and pray with me. For those who do not know what fasting is, fasting is abstaining from all or some foods for a period of time so that one can connect & hear from God. Fasting is a sacrifice and I was not comfortable at all asking people to not eat for a certain timeframe, especially during a pandemic where everyone is home and eating is one of the things people would want to do. I accepted his challenge though and exceeded the number of people he asked me to get to fast with me. We all are currently fasting from 5 am to 5 pm, drinking only water, believing for my mom’s complete healing & more.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. ~ 1st Peter 5:6-11 ESV ~
Once I started fasting & praying the following day after receiving the news about my mom, I felt rejuvenated & ready to fully submit myself before God & PRAY WITHOUT CEASING! It is so vital that when one is fasting, that they stay in prayer, read scripture & worship. Each morning when I awake at 5 am, I wash my hands, anoint them with extra virgin olive oil, and then get right on my knees & start declaring my mom’s healing. I speak life over her entire body & make my specific requests known to God. This go-round of fasting & praying has been completely different for me. One, I have some AMAZING people on this fast with me, supporting & uplifting me. Two, my prayers have been ones that could only come directly from God because the things & people I have been calling out in prayer, He has been leading my spirit to do. Three, I believe with every fiber in my being that this fast will produce way more than just my mom’s complete healing, I believe God is going to do some MAJOR THINGS!
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him”. ~ Matthew 7:7-11 ESV ~
By the time this article is published, my mom can either be completely healed or we’ll still be in the process of believing God for her healing. Either way, GOD WILL INDEED COME THROUGH! I will NOT let doubt, fear nor worry exalt themselves over God & his promises. Remember, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TOO BIG NOR TOO SMALL FOR GOD! HE’S ALL ABOUT DOING THEE IMPOSSIBLE! I also find it not strange that my mom’s situation is happening during a time where I cannot even get to her if I wanted to because of the pandemic. God works EVERYTHING FOR OUR GOOD, so I believe that this time around, God needed me in a position where all I could do was FULLY TRUST him & SURRENDER before him in prayer. God is going to get some MASSIVE GLORY from all of this. So, to the person who may be in a similar situation as myself, or doubting that God will come through for you & yours in whatever you’re facing, or is just simply in a space of great uncertainty about life with all that is going on; to you all I say, GET ON YOUR KNEES & PRAY! Let your circumstances, as well the pandemic, serve as the catalyst needed for you to develop a prayer life & relationship with God. Now more than ever is the time for us all to get before God in prayer & surrender fully to him. He is always ready for us to get back into alignment with him & make him first in our lives. SEEK GOD!
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words, and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been built well. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great”. ~ Luke 6:46-49 ESV ~
