God works for good . . . YOU GOTTA READ THIS ONE. Romans 8.28

She is an amazing lady—now more amazing than any of us knew before!  Her calling in life has been to advocate for schoolchildren who are unable to maintain in the convention classroom setting, who have special challenges . . .  and without her, honestly, would be lost.  She is an angel to hundreds—both students and forever-devoted grateful parents.  Let’s call her ‘Cherie’.

Cherie had not been feeling well for a while, and in the final analysis, scans, a scope, blood work, etc. revealed a bleak picture—thyroid cancer, which included a two and a half inch tumor attached to her vocal chord.  After conferring with physicians, she and her husband made the difficult decision that she ought resign her position, (breaking her heart and so many others!), and put their home up for sale so that she could live out her remaining days in the Midwest with their married son.

That’s where I come in . . . I was asked to go and pray for her before she went to surgery the first of this week.  I told my girlfriends yesterday that getting the call to go and pray for healing is a mixed blessing, and not to be entered into lightly.  See, if I pray, and God decides not to heal that individual until they get to Heaven, well---some say, “But you prayed, and they died anyway; God healed that guy over there, but not my mom!  So does he love that family more than mine?”  BUT, friends, listen carefully—it is ours to pray, it is his to answer.  We have our part—the prayer of faith—God has his part.  His ways will always be higher than our ways, but Paul gives us a promise in Romans 8.28

       We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are the people he called, because that was his plan.        New Century Version   And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.           NIV

Frankly, this verse is easy to quote when it is for someone else, not so easy to embody when it is for us.  In other words, we can say to a hurting someone else, ‘hang in there, God’s got a plan, he’s at work…’ but we don’t want to have our own experience that would cause us to have to cling to that!

And so I found myself sitting with Cherie, her loving husband and adult son, and another intimate friend of hers.  “What would you like God to do for you, Cherie?”  “Well, I would like him to get all the glory for what is happening in my life—even if that means, I am going to be with him soon,” she said with a confident, huge smile on her face.  HOW COULD SHE SAY THAT?  Because she knows God’s heart toward her is good --  she knows that he doesn’t make mistakes  --  she trusts him and his ways implicitly  --  and she counted on Romand 8.28 -                      And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him

“But I do believe that God is in the healing business, so I am going to ask that, in the name of Jesus, you would be healed …. ‘that okay?”  “Well sure, its what I want, of course!”  And so I prayed, joining my pleas with thousands going to the Father on her behalf, asking him to come and do what only he could do.  And, would you know it?  HE DID IT AGAIN.

The surgeon said she would know the ‘stage’ of her cancer by day’s end, and so we entrusted all that was entailed to God.  Surgery was seamless.  Before dinner, the text message came that THERE WAS NO CANCER.  ‘What does this mean?’ I thought.  My reply to her husband, ‘Are you saying that they didn’t find any more cancer?  Please—what does it mean?’ 

When I walked into her hospital room the next morning, that was the cursory report, but they had yet to see the doctor to get the full report.  So, we thanked God together for what we knew, and waited.  But not long.  Three hours later, we got the report—there was no cancer….period.  In fact, she was home before dinner time, a beautiful representation of God’s grace, power and mercy.  And, what of her physician?  Oh, well, he said it was a miracle, too!  God works for good . . . that’s because he is so good! 

Christine

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