Faith against the odds...

    Angie was enjoying time with her family some days before Christmas, when she started experiencing stomach pain. She took the medication her doctor had prescribed but it had an adverse effect. Immediately, her youngest son put her in the car and took her to the hospital. On the way, she began foaming at the mouth and having seizures. She stopped breathing and her husband pulled over while her son performed CPR until the paramedics arrived. In the ambulance, she went into cardiac arrest multiple times. At the hospital, the emergency team began doing chest compressions but she kept seizing. Several times, her heart stopped beating for up to fifteen minutes. One of the emergency technicians prayed that God’s power would flow through him to help bring her back.
    While friends and family came together to pray for her, her husband, Bill, cried out to God. He reminded Him that she was a good person and that their family needed her. He begged Him not to take her. Bill felt a surge of energy and knew that she was going to be okay. After a few hours, her pulse became steady but doctors warned Bill that she might have severe brain damage and might never be the same. In spite of the news, Bill kept praising God. He chose not to give in to doubt. The technician who had prayed while attending to her, met Bill and Bill hugged and thanked him. He told him not to thank him, but to thank God for what He was getting ready to do. Her family and friends continued to pray with expectation. On the sixth day, she was awakened from her medically induced coma and taken off the ventilator. She was asked a number of questions and was able to correctly answer every one of them. Doctors were shocked. Medical staff called her the Christmas miracle. She continued to recover and eleven days after her ordeal, on Christmas Eve, she was released from the hospital, with no long-term health issues. In fact, she feels better than she did before.
    She thanks God for giving her a second chance. She understands the danger she could have been in because of going without a heartbeat for so long. She gives all the glory to God and encourages everyone to pray no matter how bad the situation might be because she believes that prayer saved her. 
    I am encouraged by this story. What gets my attention is the faith displayed by those who prayed. Angie’s husband received a negative prognosis about his wife but chose to continue praising God. God had given him an assurance and he refused to let any bad news shake his faith in his God. Her family continued praying with expectation, believing that God was going to come through for her. Even the technician working on her in the emergency room encouraged her husband to thank God for what He was about to do. All of this happened before anyone began seeing positive results. I love the fact that, whether they realised it or not, they were all choosing to walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). 
    This is how God wants each of us to live, by faith, not by what our eyes may see. The situation may look impossible - a negative doctor’s report, a failing marriage, a lost loved one who needs salvation, financial challenges. You know the impossible situation you are facing. At the end of the day, however, as a child of God, you are also in the hands of a God who can do the impossible. Your situation may look bleak and may be way bigger than you are, but your God is many times bigger, stronger and more powerful than anything you may be facing. There is no challenge in this world and there is no demon in hell that can defeat your GOD! Philippians 2:10-11 says that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” To me that means that even that negative situation you are facing MUST bow to your God. God still has the final say (Proverbs 16:33), not the challenge, not the devil, but GOD!
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. God desires to help you. He is there, an ever-present help when you need it. When you choose to pray and trust Him for the outcome, He will not disappoint you. Whatever He chooses and however He chooses to do it, will always be His best for you. Be encouraged!

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