Wisdom from a Church in Mountain Home, AR
While listening to some new worship music on YouTube I happened to come across a video with a message that really impacted me. Before going into the song, the guitar player starting talking about what had happened to them (him and his wife) in the past year. Their newborn baby had been struggling with a medical problem, and sadly, instead of pulling through it, they lost the baby.
Immediately I felt uncomfortable about him being on stage saying these things. Why is this so sad? This isn't inspiring at all! How can he even be up there, singing about Jesus, when his baby was taken from him before the age of one? It doesn't seem fair does it?
He talked about how his prayers were not answered. He had prayed for his baby to be cured, but it didn't happen.
Yet he and his wife remained on stage, singing beautiful worship songs to the Lord.
He says that this sad experience has only taught him to be closer to God, not further.
Many Christians, whether non-denominational or not, begin to lose faith at the first suggestion of bad things happening in their lives.
If you attend any churches in Mountain Home AR, you might be familiar with some of these parables.
Jesus discusses this multiple times in the Bible - saying that those who lose faith at the first sight of suffering are like crops sowed in rocky soil - they believe, but they can't take root. As soon as a small wind, or gusty wind comes up, they are uprooted and immediately loose their way. The wind is suffering - when things don't go as planned, do you loose your faith?
Check out the parable of the sower, Mathew 13.
Another time Jesus talks about the foundation of a house being built on sand versus on steady ground. A house built on sand will fall down as soon as a storm comes.
This worship leader's faith was built in good, fertile soil. He did not loose faith, even though he lost his baby. Instead, he believed in God that much more.
A cancer diagnoses causes many emotions in a person. But a lack of faith should not be one of them, even when it seems like the recovery plan is not going how you or your family has planned. God has a plan. Trust Him.