Faith and Hope

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Good morning and welcome. It is good to be back in the pulpit. Two weeks of no preaching is a strange thing for me but it was also incredibly restful. This morning I wanted to share with you a story. This is a story that is close and personal to me.

The Diagnoses

F.R. Was about twenty-seven years old and the wife of the local Pilgrim Holiness pastor. They had three small children the youngest at the time was about a year old.

In January or February of 1950, she noticed a lump on her breast. The Doctor advised immediate surgery. She did not go at once, but at Easter time she went for the operation, hoping it would not prove serious. However, they and all their congregation prayed that whatever it was, it would be all right. They even prayed that if it were His will, the Lord would touch her before the operation and it would be gone.

Faith In the face of Adversity

Many of us have heard stories like this before. Cancer strikes someone. It is a serious situation. In faith that person comes before God and asks for healing. We know that this is a challenge that many people face. Yet, Healing doesn’t always come. Sometimes healing never comes on this earth. It is always scary to see this in people’s lives. It is never an easy time. Yet, this young woman with her husband had faith that God would provide and that hoped that he might heal her.

The Surgery

When the doctors began the operation they found the lump to be malignant and removed it. They didn’t only remove the small lump though they also removed all the connected glands, to her shoulder and to her wait on that side. They also found cancer against the spine and near the lung. It was the type which developed rapidly. They did all they could for her but warned her husband of the seriousness of her condition, even saying that she could not possibly live a year.

Time to wait

At first when I was pereparing to write this section I was going to put “I can’t imagine” what it would be to wait for what the future might hold but I know I have gone through family medical trouble that I know what its like to wait and hope for what may come. THis is a hard place to be. It also started to get me thinking about the scriptures and what God tells us about our perseverance and our faith and how important they are in moments like this.

Turn with me to Romans chapter 5 There we will be reading verse 1-5

Romans 5:1–5 NIV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Justified and Faith

God promises us forgiveness on the cross that if we believe in Him through Jesus Christ we can have the forgiveness of sins. It is in this faith that we can come to peace with God and no longer be at odds with him.

It is when we come to our knowledge of God that we grow deeper and we can trust and be at rest in the work he is doing in us. This is a powerful idea and is essential to our faith. It is the second half of this passage that really hits home for me when reading this story to you though.

Romans 5:3–5 NIV

3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Post Operation

She came home, and less than ten days after the operation, fully aware of what the doctors had said, she and her husband sang together in church. Her arm in a sling, and with bandages from arm to thigh, but they sang,

Have thine own way, Lord;

Have thine own way,

Thou are the Potter, I am the Clay

With such a spirit of utter devotion that every heart was melted. She testifiedd that whatever the outcome, she would not have missed that experience for anything. That she felt the nearness and reality of the Holy Spirit as never before in her life, and she praised God for victory in her soul.

They sang the following Sunday, “Ready to suffer grief or pain”

Ready to suffer grief or pain, Ready to stand the test; Ready to stay at home and send Others if He sees best.

Ready to go, ready to stay, Ready my place to fill; Ready for service lowly or great, Ready to do His will.

It was wonderful the grace which God gave them, to trust, and to face the future, whatever it might bring. Knowing how those little children needed their mother, one only a year old, knowing all this, but still trusting, not just for healing, but in complete consecration and yieldedness, trusting to God to whatever was best.

Suffering’s Many forms

The truth is that suffering comes in many forms. When we look at passages like

Romans 5:3 NIV

3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

We would be told that this refers to spiritual things. I do not think it is limited to that though. Suffering and the greek word for it Thlipsis is broader than just spiritual things

Suffering’s Many forms

When broken down the word is most commonly translated as suffer or suffering. However it can also be understood as Distress, persecuted, affliction, trial, hardship, anguish, many troubles in this life, trouble, and hard pressed.

While studying this word the common definition was

Distress-An oppressive stat of physical, mental, social, or economic adversity.

This is why suffering when we read this passage can be seen in light of the many different struggles we may be facing in our day to day lives. We don’t just have to think of suffering as spiritual persecution or tests but it can be in our battles with cancer, financial hardships, or emotional distress and so many other things.

Camp meeting

With that kind of faith and victory, they attended camp meeting in August. She had become so weak she could scarcely walk about the house. She could not was dishes or care for the baby. When they came tomy house, she would manage to get from the car to the couch, or to the hammock in the yard, where she would lie quietly until her husband was ready to go home. The incision was still draining, although it had been six months since the operation. She had begun to have coughing spells and would choke till it seemed she’d chock to death. X-rays showed that the spot in the lung was increasing in size rapidly.

This was her condition when she went to camp meeting in August of 1950. One night some of the elders of the church at Camp meeting felt led to have a special prayer for her and to anoint her with oil. That same evening the Lord was speaking to two friends, one in New York State and one in New England, neither of whom knew of that special prayer service. They were impressed to pray earnestly, that very evening each in a distant city.

Perseverance

Perseverance is a challenging task. When I think of perseverance I think of the endurance of a marathon. The thought of running 26.2 miles is horrible to me. I look at a mile and say hmmm is this what i want to do right now.

Endurance, perseverance is what we are called to in times of hardship. To stand tall in the face of challenges. It is important that we remember that we do not have to do this alone.

This story we are going through is a reminder of that. Friends, family, loved ones, and most importantly God can be there for us to endure. Leaning deep into the loving arms of God is sometimes the only way that we can endure the hardship that we face in this world. It is in his arms that we are able to turn to Hope!

The Healing

So they prayed and she was anointed, and she declared she knew she was healed. In a few days they went home, camp being over, she felt well. She lifted and carried the baby around. she did an immense washing, and ironed all the clothes. A family of five, away for ten days, makes a lot of laundry after all. She scrubbed the floor. She ran across the yard after the children and did everything a healthy young mother would do. The incision stopped draining and healed.

This was over 20 years ago. She has had no relapse. the doctor who had said she couldn’t possibly last very long, after the lung had begun troubling, was astonished and said “something other than medicine has helped”.

This is the Story of Florence Richmond, my Grandmother.

I never met her. She passed just a few years before I was born of cancer. The amazing part is even though she died from cancer the doctors said the second round of cancer had no connection to the first.

Faith and Hope

It is our faith in God and in his love for us that he sent his son to this world to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus did that for us despite the fact that we were sinners. Despite the fact that we could not stand anywhere near the presence of God and our lives as sinners is contrary to the Holy nature of God. IT is in this forgiveness and love that we find faith.

It is in this faith that we find Peace

It is in our peace with God that we find Strength

It is in His strength that we find perseverance in suffering

It is in his strength to persever that we are shaped to have a strong character

IT is our strong character that Gives us hope and it is our hope that reminds us that God’s love us such that he pours out into us through his Holy Spirit and we can go on.

This is the joy this morning when we give it all to him. When we trust him.

Sing “Have they own way”

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