When I was asked to share a ‘short testimony’ based on the theme of our Retired Officer’s Retreat (Living Life to the fullest) I was encouraged by the subtitle “Choosing to Be Hopeful” remembering how the Lord worked in my life over the last 35 years filling my heart with Hope.
So to begin, I believe that we don’t really appreciate the blessing of “HOPE” until we’re at the place of HOPELESSNESS and I was certainly there in the fall of 1989.
My life was in disarray and after looking in all the wrong places for answers (substance abuse, transcendental meditation, horoscopes and positive thinking tapes) I truly felt I had NO HOPE.
With no help forthcoming – I was you might call – desperate but was gratefully led by God to the Salvation Army in Mississauga. There I not only heard wonderful Biblical preaching and teaching but claimed the promises from:
Romans 15:4 “For everything that was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might find HOPE.” and also in:
Psalm 130:5 “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits and in his WORD I put my HOPE.”
Within 6 months I was not only a regular attender but a born again Christian and my hopelessness had been replaced with HOPE and ever since that time I have chosen HOPE in a variety of situations.
20 years later — on August 1st, 2009 when we were settling into a new appointment in Kamloops B.C., we heard the news that I had cancer. I do admit that for a couple of days we were both pretty upset but on that very Sunday, Wayne was preaching a sermon titled “Partnering with God” and the theme verse he used was:
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, an I will listen to you.”
From that day forward to May, 2010 – we trusted in that promise choosing Hope and focusing my treatment on a Naturopathic journey. I was not only fortunate to have the prayers of many many friends but was also blessed by the Lord with a number of messages from a variety of sources based on the Scripture passage of Jesus healing of the woman with bleeding (for 12 years) found in:
Matthew 9: 21-22 “She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed. Jesus turned and saw her and said “Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that moment.”
The amazing part of this was that I read this passage in August and when I did, I heard Jesus saying that to me – “Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you.”
Another exciting part of this journey was that in October at a Women’s conference – the guest speaker closed off her teaching focusing on this same passage – again I heard Jesus speaking into my heart ‘Take heart Daughter, your faith has healed you.’.
Then in January, 2010 we were at an Officer’s retreat – and you guessed it – the guest speaker shared a story of how he had preached on the same passage at another event – and a woman who was in the audience cried out with a claim that ‘she felt she had been healed at that very moment herself’ and of course I heard him speaking to me – again.
So now to May, 2010 when I decided I should have surgery and just as I was preparing to go to the hospital – I had my T.V. on and a Catholic mass had begun and you know it – the priest was preaching on ‘The woman with bleeding.”
So – do I choose HOPE I sure do.
I’d like to close with another focus on HOPE from:
1 Peter 3:15 “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the HOPE that you have.”
I had a wonderful opportunity to give an answer to my Doctor and Surgeon in Kamloops who had both warned me against not following their advise back in August to follow along with the more traditional treatment plan and if I didn’t I would most likely die. When that didn’t prove to be true and I sat with them – I had the opportunity to share where my HOPE came from and how God had promised to heal me – not once but 4 times with ‘Take Heart Daughter, your faith has healed you.”
Lastly I have had the opportunity to prepare over 60 ‘diamond dotz crosses’ with 20 of them having the word ‘HOPE’ on them. Realizing I could place a magnet on the back of them and that my front door was metal – I’ve placed one on it and when folks come to our door – I can share with them ‘HOPE LIVES HERE”.
My prayer for all who read this article today is found in ROMANS 15:13 “May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Amen.