Recently, we have been watching the Olympic qualifying competition for the swimming and now the gymnastics. It’s hard imagining the pressure that these athletes are under to attain their dreams. They have put in lots of hours of hard work, sweat and I am sure tears, to get just to the place to have a seat at the table. It all comes down to their numbers.

WE HAVE GREAT NUMBERS THIS WEEK!

When we arrived out here at MD Anderson Kevin’s AFP number was 21,000 and this past Monday it was down to 900! (When we are all said and done – it will be zero!) This is after one round of chemo!

Praise the Lord for all Blessings that Flow! {Insert BIG Jesus Dance!}

Friday, during our consultations with the Oncologist along with our meeting the Urologist Surgeon, it has been decided to put a hold on our chemotherapy treatment this week since Kevin was doing so well tolerating treatments, and to go ahead with the Orchiectomy surgery on this Friday.

We knew this would take place at some time during the course of four chemo treatments, but didn’t know when. The physicians both feel that it will give them more data to help with the later surgery of the mass that is in Kevin’s abdomen area.

This surgery is done through outpatient and we hope to have plenty of recovery time over the weekend to be ready to begin the second round of chemo next Monday (July 9th).

I will have to say the 6 some odd hours that we were inside a tiny examining room talking with all these doctors, we went through the gambit of emotions. We were excited about the numbers but skeptical at why they wanted to do the surgery now. The more they explained the more at peace we felt. It was just part of the process.

We prayed many times during those hours while we waited to our God who has told us confidently that HE HAS THIS!

We asked for God to supernaturally bring clarity to the entire situation at hand. We asked for confirmation as to this being God’s plan.

As one of the physicians came into to talk with us that day, he began with the niceties of “where are you from?” “what do you do for a living?” “how many children do you have?” then came the one that we haven’t been asked before…

“What religious preference are you?”

{meanwhile, understand I was sportin’ my new “God’s Got This” t-shirt.}

We told him we were Christians…“We believe in JESUS!”

He shared with us that he likes to pray before he performs his surgeries…Kevin jumped right in and said, “You can pray right now if you like!”

We became a puddle on the floor as this physician called on the Great Physician for His Wisdom and Guidance in doing this surgery. He prayed for complete healing from this cancer over Kevin and his body and that it would not return in the Name of Jesus!

{yep…I bet many of you are just as stunned as we were.}

God had just showed up once again.

We sat there speechless for about 10 minutes after he left the room.

{This may get long…but stay with me.}

We got a devotional sent to us from a friend on Saturday as we were preparing our minds for this week. It really stirred us in ways that we had not yet been stirred. It was preparing us for Monday’s meeting with the doctors. We talked it over with friends, and I would be amiss not to share because I think God might want to use it right now with someone else.

{I don’t know the author so I am so sorry not to be able to give credit.}

“As a believer, do you really want to know God and learn His ways? Are you after His heart (true love and relationship) or His hand (only what he can do for you)? The bible says in Psalm 103:7 that “God made his ways known to Moses, but His acts to the people of Israel” Why did Moses know God’s ways and not the people of Israel? Moses sought after God’s heart and wanted to learn His ways, while the people of Israel only wanted to know God’s acts. Many of us aren’t much different today. In moments of reflection, I catch myself trying to understand how God may feel. In this instance, I ask how it would feel to be in a relationship with someone you absolutely love while that person is only in it to use you. You’re not in that person’s heart. He/she isn’t trying or willing to learn about you or your ways to know how to please you or love you. That would hurt, wouldn’t it? It would hurt me – to love someone with all of my heart and their heart is not in it.

With that in mind, let’s take a step back and examine what is meant by ‘God’s ways’. In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord declares “For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways; as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God’s ways is God’s timing. One of the challenges I’ve come to learn believers have is the ability to wait on God to do what He promised. We have grown so accustomed to a culture and society of immediate gratification. We want everything quickly. Everything is catered to making things convenient for us despite our patience or dislike for it. Somewhere in all of the quickness, we’ve been led to believe that slow isn’t good. However, some things ARE good when slow, especially when you understand the power of process. There lies a blessing even in the process – in ‘the meantime’ where you’re waiting for that thing to come to pass. Your process is important because once God gives you a dream, an anointing – when he has placed something inside of you to work through you and use you – He needs to sharpen in you the necessary lessons you need to handle and maintain the blessings he pours into your life. Job understood this, he says, “But God knows the way that I take; when he has tested me I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).

As believers, we are to wait with confident expectation. We are to wait with our faith. Although the result of manifestation is not yet seen, we believe it to be. Since we believe ‘it’ to be, we should put our faith to action by preparing for the thing/s we wait for. It’s no different from a pregnant woman who knows that ‘life’ is inside of her. She has not yet seen her child, but she waits with expectation and believes God for a healthy baby. As she is waiting, she is preparing her nursery and buying things for the baby. When the baby actually manifests, she is ready to handle and maintain the new change in her life.

It is critical to understand God’s ways because if we don’t we will get ahead of God. Timing is important. If you don’t understand God’s ways and all you look for are His acts, you’ll get frustrated while you’re waiting. You may then be led to take matters into your own hands and there can be a danger in getting things before you’re ready for them. You may lack the skill, wisdom and ability to handle and maintain that next level. King Saul is a perfect example of doing things too quickly, outside of God’s timing. We learn in the story of King Saul how things can start good, but end bad when we do not wait on God. Because Saul didn’t continue to go through God’s ways, he couldn’t maintain what God had given him and lost his kingdom. Saul was immature in his relationship with Christ. He feared the people and gave them what they wanted which threw off his timing. He stopped waiting on God, took matters into his own hands and ended up losing everything he once gained. Instead, God rose up David, who eventually obtained the kingdom and was known as a man after God’s own heart.

It is true that life has a way of beating us up sometimes. It has its sharp corners, twists and turns, and delays and detours. Many of us want our dreams and desires to happen NOW and we get tired of waiting. But understand that your process develops your testimony. It gives proof that God has manifested in your life, so you can help someone else. Naturally, there are lessons we need to learn through experience. Take the time to experience them. When you learn God’s ways, you’ll know how to get God to move on your behalf through patience and obedience. When you learn His ways, you don’t have to worry about his acts. We are to be made perfect in God as we continue to walk with Him and mature in Him. As we consistently allow God to wash us with His Word, renew our minds and manifest in our lives by our faith, bit by bit, we become perfect in Him. This is a process.

When we, like the guards of the city, wait for the morning we are waiting for more than simply time to pass. We are waiting for the sun to rise and day to break, for the light to replace the darkness and the cold to be replaced with the warmth of the sun.It is time for us all to move to a deeper place in God. The world needs to be touched by those who really know God. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:4).”

I wish I could claim that I know this teaching…but I am still a student.

Everyday.

____________________________________

Prayer Requests:
* Ask God to guide us as we trust Him in this process.
* Ask that God will reveal His necessary lessons so that we can be chiseled for Him and for His glory. Take us to a deeper place with you, Lord.
* Pray for surgery and recovery on Friday.
* Pray for our families. For God’s supernatural strength to carry us.

Thank you Body of Christ from the top of our heads (bald ones too!) to the bottom of our manicured toes! (just mine!)
Happy 4th of July! Hug your family a little harder today as you share barbecue and blueberry cobbler! We are going to go see what Houston has to offer with Fireworks…Texas Style!

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