Sometimes trusting in God doesn’t come naturally. You must choose to exercise faith.
SHAUNA: Hi, I’m Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. And here’s a great story from Joni about Romans 8:28.
JONI: Gemma has been a Christian for many years, and she knows Romans 8:28 like the palm of her hand. It was a verse that she ran to when her 86-year-old mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Her mother started forgetting more things than usual, but when she began putting the car keys in the refrigerator, well, Gemma knew something awful was brewing. It didn’t take long for the doctors to diagnose her beloved mother. She was, indeed, in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s.
Now, Gemma is a pragmatist. She knew that her 86-year-old mother was not going to live forever; she didn’t moan and groan about the spilt milk that happens in old age when people draw near to the end of their lives, but Alzheimer’s? Gemma had not counted on this. All she could foresee were years of terrible, slow mental decline of her precious mom. That’s when Gemma grabbed hold of God’s promise in Romans 8. She believed that somehow, some way, God was going to make this all work for her mother’s good and his glory. She was able to rest in that promise until six months later, the doctors discovered that her mother was also in the advanced stages of cancer. Gemma was devastated. Come on God, isn’t Alzheimer’s enough? Are you intending that my mother should also suffer from cancer? Where’s Romans 8 in all of this?
But still Gemma held on to the Lord. She trusted that God would help her dear mother bear up under this double diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and cancer. And what do you know, God did. Because this is what Gemma told me. She said, “Joni, God was so good in giving my mother that Alzheimer’s because mother really was not aware – she never knew – that she had a cancer; that would soon take her life. She was still in that pleasant stage of the disease where she could recognize me and the rest of the family, but she did not have to be terrified of what cancer would do to her. And flipping the coin, getting cancer was also a blessing because the disease took my mother’s life before her Alzheimer’s left her with nothing but a shell of herself. Joni, if my mother was going to have to die [and I knew that one day Jesus would soon take her home], he couldn’t have planned a more compassionate way to do it. Believe me, we saw Romans 8:28 lived out in that last month my mother was with us.”
Wow! God bless Gemma. What at first appeared to be a bizarre and awful plan – the double whammy of cancer and Alzheimer’s – turned out to be a blessing. You know, Chuck Swindoll once said, “We must cease striving and trust God to provide what he thinks is best and in whatever time he chooses to make it available. But this kind of trusting doesn't come naturally. It's a spiritual crisis of the will in which we must choose to exercise faith.”
SHAUNA: Oh, Joni, thank you! Gemma chose to believe the promises of God, and you and I need to do the same. Something that always encourages me in my faith is listening to Joni’s timeless radio programs. I’m inviting you to make her program part of your daily plans, too. Just go to joniradio.org. You’ll find countless blessings from the Lord and from Joni waiting for you! Let’s hold on to God’s amazing promises because in the end, it will always, always be a big blessing in your life. All you have to do is ask Gemma.
© Joni and Friends