So much power in a word <3

I am sharing this with permission from a friend who had asked for prayer for another friend. 

Her friend was hospitalized and on a ventilator due to the Coronavirus. 

This situation was one of the more serious cases that we really don’t like hearing about, but in the midst of it comes a story that we need to hear right now because it is a testimony of faith. It is a practical application about speaking life instead of death and hope instead of hopelessness. 

This woman was not able to advocate for herself in the hardest part of fighting the disease, but her husband stood in the gap. 

She found out after she began to recover that often the medical personnel would say she probably wasn’t going to make it but her husband’s response was “That is unacceptable.” And then he would speak about who was in control of his wife’s life. 

Now we all know that at some point in time, this woman, her husband and all of us will eventually die. That is how life cycles here on planet earth. 

But the time frame and the quality and quantity of every single life is not under the jurisdiction of anyone but the God who gave us our first breath and has continued to sustain every breath since that moment. The God who formed us in our mother’s womb before we were even a thought, spread His hand out over us and even if some other person decides to end our life before its time, He knew this in advance too. 

So I am not saying that if we all would just speak these same words over someone who is gravely ill, we can stop death. 

I am saying that we see here a model for how to speak life. 

Every day since this whole thing started, there are voices speaking death over us. 

Every prediction that does not factor in the way God does the impossible in our circumstance….every model that does not account for miracles and mercy…every statement that crushes hope and paints darkness over our future…is unacceptable. 

Every voice that discounts that God is in control and fails to seek His wisdom, direction, correction and Spirit in this season (or any season, for that matter) is counter to His purpose for each of us and all the world. Every plan that relies on human ability alone to carry it out and looks to the strength of worldly systems to sustain us is unacceptable if I am going to place my trust in God alone. 

I can’t stop the media, the talking heads, the politicians, the editorials, the comments, the posts of others…but I can stand as a guard over my own heart and my own mind…and when I sense the darkness of a God-less mindset speaking to me…I can say in my head…that is unacceptable and I can turn my thoughts to my God, who is able to do immeasurably more than I could ever think to ask or could even imagine. 

I can choose to speak life inside myself and let that light and truth pour out of me. 

That is the choice I will make.