Micah Update: We Wait

Three months ago Micah was listed on the liver transplant list to receive his second liver transplant of his short 7 year life. We continue to wait. There's no way to know when the surgery will take place. And certainly the events that precipitate the availability of a liver are difficult to think upon.

Micah continues to do well most days. He continues to face more regular fatigue. But he completed baseball season alongside of his brothers, Isaac and Ethan. They are all three great at helping care for and play with the two little brothers, Malachi and Titus.

He continues to have surgery on his mind everyday. There's rarely a day that goes by that something doesn't trigger a conversation or some statement related to the wait or the surgery to come. With visiting grandparents this week, it simply came up when he told me they would stay longer if he had his transplant.

Please continue to pray for patience in the waiting, strength and comfort for Micah's body and heart, and trust in the perfect will and timing of God.

I would additionally ask specific prayer for Isaac and Ethan. They have lived these circumstances related to Micah's health for the majority of their life. They don't really know a time when it wasn't part of our journey, our story, and God's work in and through us. However, this time they face the future and the events to come with greater understanding. They know the risk for Micah and the cost to another child and family. Isaac shed great tears the other night as he verbalized his fear, sadness, and struggle with both all of this.

We are grateful for your continued prayers for us, our family, Micah specifically, and for God to accomplish, as we have always hoped, what will ultimately bring him the greatest glory by displaying and declaring the good news through this.

My Confidence

Individuals take confidence in many different things including money, jobs, relationships, and more. All of these things can and often do change. The money we make is not the same. The job we have changes. Some relationship begin while others end, some grow while others go stagnant.

King Hezekiah who reigned in Judah rebelled against the Assyrians. As a result, the king of Assyria sent his commander and other officials to Jerusalem to intimidate or attack Hezekiah.

Encamped against Jerusalem, one official called out to Hezekiah asking, "On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have the counsel and the might for war--but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?"

Hezekiah was a bright spot in the line of kings. He chose obedience to God rather than rebellion. He did what pleased God rather than what incited His wrath. Like David the revered king of Israel, Hezekiah sought to live righteously, removing all place of idolatrous worship. As a result, God was with him and he was successful in his leadership.

What the official of the Assyrian army didn't know was that Hezekiah's confidence was not in the power of his army, the force of his weapons, or the support of his allies but in the might of the great and mighty God. And rightly so!

After many taunts and endless threats of the Assyrians, including their declaration that the God of Israel had told them to attack, Hezekiah's confidence proved true. In one night, the angel of the Lord put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. The next morning when the people woke up they found all the dead bodies. Dead bodies were strewn everywhere.

The right place to put our confidence is never in the ability, logic, power, or devices of men. It is always to put our confidence in the might and power of God. Only He is able to what no man or army can do. What is impossible for us is completely possible for Him.

We could not rescue ourselves from our sin. But God was able. We could not make a sufficient sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. But God was able.

This week we celebrate Christ's final entry into Jerusalem to endure the cross that was set before Him by the will of God the Father. Through the cross, God would pay for every sin and punish every act of disobedience by putting His own Son to death. Three days later, that same Son came back to life by the same incredible power of God, giving life to all who believe and opening the door to heaven for all who follow Him.

Now we take confidence not in our flesh and blood but in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like Hezekiah, we face an enemy and hardship in this world that we should look past in order to see the God in whom our confidence has been placed.

Where does your confidence stand today?

Even in This

I confess, as embarrassing as it may be, that there have been difficulties in my life that drove me away from God. My prayer life went silent like a dropped cellphone call. The dust collected on the cover of my Bible between Sundays as I would not open it. I did not speak of God unless necessary.

What had happened in my life is what happens to others. My difficulties turned me against God. I had concluded that God was responsible for my difficulty and I didn't want anything to do with Him anymore. Even more tragic, I concluded that I didn't deserve the difficulties that God had thrust upon me. I let my hardships turn me against the only person who could comfort, strengthen, encourage, and see me through whatever situations I faced.

There were definitely times that the hardships and struggles were not of my own doing. Either because of sin in general that has broken the world or the specific sin of an individual in my life, I faced hard times as a result. This, however, was not always the case. 

My immaturity didn't always allow me to see that some of the hard times came as a result or consequence of my own doing. I blamed God for what I had brought upon myself. I expected God to allow me to do what I desired without any issue, even if it ran contrary to His will and purpose.  

Regardless of when and how the hard times came, I found myself responding to God as if He had done something wrong. No matter if it was a consequence of my own disobedience or the difficulties that affected me from another person's struggles and life, I usually responded as though I thought the Christian life should not be riddled with such things. And tragically my worship of the Creator God who had rescued me out of the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous light just went cold.  Even now, there must be a constant guard against allowing the circumstances of life to create such a travesty.

As I continue reading through the life and reign of David, king of Israel, I read of David's actions after confronted about his adultery with Bathsheeba. He did repent and seek God's grace and mercy. But then God told David that a consequence for his act of disobedience was that the child born through this act of adultery would not live. Instead of running from God, David ran to God. He fasted and prayed. He laid on the ground in sackcloth through the nights and he would eat nothing.

God did strike the child with illness and he died.  When David asked the attendants told David the baby had died, he got up off the ground, washed and changed his clothes. It is hat he did next that convicted me. 

He went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. 

This is not how I often respond when things don't go as I planned or when I believe or know God to have done contrary to what I wanted or asked. But it is a great challenge to me that in whatever I face I would worship Christ my King because He is worthy.  

The circumstances of our lives do not change the worth of God. When the difficulties of my life keep me from worshipping God, it isn't that God has changed. He remains the same forever. There is no way to improve upon perfection and God is perfect.

Is there anything keeping you from worshipping God today?

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Adore God for who He is, what He does, and the character with which He does it.

2.  Celebrate that God never changes though everything else may change.

3.  Repent of any known sin. Ask God to reveal any hidden sin.

4.  Acknowledge any sin or circumstance that has hindered your worship of God.

5.  Spend time worshipping Him.