Theresa's Moms' Group: Hope and Testimony

This was the last week of Theresa's Moms' Group.  I want to thank her so very much for taking the time to type out these reviews and share from her heart.  It has been such an encouragement to me, and I hope it has been to you, too!  This entry was especially meaningful to me because it was about HOPE.  I have thought back on this message several times in the past few days.  Mostly when I go for runs and pound my worries into the pavement and pray for the seemingly 'hopeless' situations in my life. 
 I loved to hear the details behind Theresa's journey to know God, as well.  Her salvation was one that our family prayed about for years, and one that my grandfather was blessed to hear news of only days before dying of cancer.  He cried happy tears, righteous tears, and told me he would pray for us all until he no longer could.  Even after he slipped into an unconscious state, I wondered if he still prayed for us.  His hope for us in the Lord, even in his final breaths. 
Theresa, we praise God for you and the blessing you are in our lives! 

~jen

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This week we finished the “What Every Mom Needs” lesson series.  With the distraction of Easter and three new babies being born into our group (Praise the Lord), we fell a little behind, but today we finally discussed the topic, HOPE. 

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  In other words, when we have true faith and understanding of God and His perfect word, we are assured of the things we hope in our hearts, but may not have been confident of existing before our faith became real.  This verse is true in my life as it is for anyone who has gone through any amount of time without having the Holy Spirit alive and working in their lives.  While there was a long period in my life when I wasn’t quite sure who God was, what Jesus’s life had to do with mine and God’s word was foreign to me, I always hoped that there was a heaven, that God listened to prayer and He loved me.  I hoped He was indeed real and that I could connect with Him in some way. I hoped there was a heaven to go to one day when I left this world…and I hoped I was good enough to get there if there was.

This week we looked at how coming to faith in Christ inspired hope in our lives.  We had the joy of sharing testimonies of when we accepted Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and gave our lives to Him.  I love hearing other people’s testimonies because each one is different, but they are all powerful reminders of how God reaches out and grabs hold of us.  No matter what our past, current circumstances or struggles, He can take hold of our lives and change them in a way we could never imagine possible.  For me, this happened about 9 years ago, although looking back I can see God working throughout my life.  I was raised in a happy home by two of the most loving parents anyone could have.  I went to church with my mom and grandparents on Saturday nights, and hated every boring minute of it.  I always believed there was a God and that he loved me and I believed there was a heaven where I could go one day if I was good.  The problem was I was never really sure what “good” meant.  So I spent much of my youth trying to figure out how to live it out.  Many who knew me in high school probably would have called me a ‘goody-goody’.  I became prideful about how “good” I was.  I figured surely I had a ticket to heaven and if I wasn’t good enough to go, then God wasn’t just.  The truth is, however, I wasn’t perfect (shocker I know).  And no matter how much I tried to convince myself that I was a shoe-in for eternal paradise, the question always lingered in the back of my mind...Am I really good enough?  I might have been better behaved than many of my peers, but I didn’t even measure up to people like Mother Teresa.  So where was the line?  During sophomore year in college I met my husband, Josh.  He was different from any other guy I had met.  Aside from being irresistibly cute, he was genuine like no one I’d ever known.  He was trustworthy, and had more integrity than most college freshman.  There was just one problem; he read the Bible which I had been told to stay away from because it would make me weird.  Still, I was drawn to him and as we dated I unknowingly started to see Christ in his life.  I met his family and again, saw genuine people.  Neither Josh or his family ever started discussions with me about Jesus – they just lived out their faith.  A semester after meeting Josh I transferred to a college in California to pursue acting.   When 9/11 happened my senior year, the secure world I had been living in became dangerous and scary.  The career I was reaching for seemed so pointless.  I realized I could go at any time and I didn’t really know what that meant.  I wondered where God was in all of this and if he really existed.  Josh advised me to pray for God to show himself to me.  So that’s what I did.  My second semester senior year I was in a “History of California” class.  One chapter was about the missionaries who came to California to reform the Native Americans.  The book didn’t look on the missionaries favorably.  It talked about how they took away their traditions and forced their beliefs and way of life on the natives.  In preparation for a test, I studied with a fellow classmate whose parents were missionaries.  Upon reaching the topic of the Native Americans I asked him what he thought about how the Indians were treated.  He told me he wasn’t there so he didn’t know what exactly happened, but what he did know was that his parents were sharing the gospel by helping people.  Then he point blank asked me the one question that someone needed to call me out on… “Have you ever sinned?”  I was a little shocked at the question and answered, “Well, I try not to.”  Then he came right back and said, “Ok.  Have you ever lied?”  He had me.  I couldn’t say no, or I’d be lying!  He went on to explain to me that lying is a sin just as much as murder is a sin.  Sin is sin.  No one is perfect and sin separates us from God.  No matter what the sin.  ”For the wages of sin is death…”  Since everyone sins, no one is “good” enough to go to heaven, “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  He shared the simple message of the gospel in a way I had never heard in all my 20 years of attending church. No one is good enough to go to heaven, but God gives everyone, no matter how badly they’ve messed up, an opportunity to join Him in heaven through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ.  I wanted to know more, but honestly felt a little awkward talking about Jesus in the school cafeteria where other people could hear us, so I told him my boyfriend was into that stuff and I’d talk more with him about it.  That night I called Josh and told him I wanted to start reading the Bible.  A couple nights later I was on the computer and an old friend of mine IM’d me.  We were chatting and out of nowhere he typed, “What do you think about Jesus?”  I just about fell off my chair.  After talking for an hour about the salvation that Jesus offers us, I said I needed to call Josh. Mind you, it was about 11pm California time, so about 2am Michigan time.  I called Josh and he answered with a groggy voice.  I cried into the phone, “I want to be saved!  I want to be saved!”  Josh got out his Bible and read to me from Romans and prayed with me.  After we prayed Josh asked me if I was trying to get ahold of him for a long time because he had his ringer off on his cell phone, but had just randomly woke up and saw his phone blinking.  It was that night I accepted the gift of salvation God had to offer through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus and received the Holy Spirit into my heart.  I finally had an assurance of what I had hoped for.  I know now, without a doubt in my mind, there is a God who loves me, who cares and who provides.  There is a heaven to enjoy after this life not because of my own righteousness, but because God cared enough to send his son to erase my sin so I could spend eternity with Him. While I still try to live a life honorable to God out of thanksgiving, I no longer live in fear of whether or not I am good enough.  Life just makes more sense.

How about you?  Have you surrendered your life to our creator?  Have you humbled yourself to the fact that you are not perfect and you need a savior?  Have you accepted the fact that God can erase all sin no matter how underserving you may feel?  If you haven’t I encourage you to ask God to show himself to you. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)  If you have already surrendered your life to the Lord, I’d love to hear your story of salvation. 

Questions/ Discussion

So what does this mean for us as mothers?  Frankly, of all the things we need as mothers, I think hope is the most crucial. 

1. How has having the faith that God is there with you and available for you helped with the smaller parenting issues?

2.  How has the knowledge of the fact that this world is not our home and God has something better waiting for us helped you through the big things?

One of our moms struggled with infertility for four years before she and her husband finally adopted their first child.  She shared how without faith in God and hope in Christ, the situation would have been devastating.  She and her husband saw God’s faithfulness first hand when He finally provided their baby girl for them.  Three years later she had the unexpected opportunity to experience God’s ability to provide miracles when she became pregnant with her second baby girl.  Another mom shared how her little boy’s food allergies can be stressful to handle and often seem overwhelming.  She knows that without hope and faith, she would have become paralyzed with fear.  She has hope that her Lord and Savior is watching over her son for when he is in daycare and while there are things she can control, she has the assurance that God is more than capable to handle the unknown for her.  Another challenge faced by a mom in the group was the loss of income when her husband was laid off.  That time could have been taxing on their marriage and much more stressful than it was with the hope and knowledge that God would provide for them.

In the day to day struggles and joys we experience as a parent, ultimately it is faith that gives us the hope which allows us to see beyond the here and now and keep our focus on God. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (Corinthians 4:16-18)

Biblical Application

When Jesus walked this Earth he came across some parents facing what would seem to be utterly hopeless situations.   In Mark 5:22-43, Luke 8:41-56 and Matthew 9:18-26 we find Jarius, a father whose daughter was dying.  He ran out to Jesus asking for help.  Before they reached his house Jarius was informed that they were too late and his daughter had died.  Jesus comforted him by saying, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”  And that is exactly what happened. “They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead, but he took her by the hand and said ‘My child get up!’  Her spirit returned and at once she stood up.  Then Jesus told them to get her something to eat.” 

            In Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30 we meet a Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon possessed.  Although she was not a Jew, she had heard of Jesus and believed He was the messiah.  She asked Jesus to heal her daughter and expressed that although she was not Jewish she hoped that he would extend a piece of the graciousness to her that he would extend to one of His people.  “Then he told her, ‘for such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.’” 

In Mark 9:14-28, Luke 9:37-42 and Matthew 17:14-18 we meet another parent whose child was suffering from demon possession.  “When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.  Jesus asked the boy’s father, ‘How long has he been like this?’ ‘From childhood’, he answered. ‘It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him, but if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’ ‘If you can?’ said Jesus.  ‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’  Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’” After this Jesus commanded to spirit to leave the boy and it did. 

Finally, in Luke 7:11-16 we are introduced to a widow weeping next to the coffin in the funeral procession of her only son.  “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry’.”  He proceeded to touch the coffin and raise the son up and return him to his mother.

Within each of these accounts, there are common themes and lessons we can learn.  First, God cares.  Second, he has the power to do anything. Third, we are all children of God and he desires to be a part of each of our lives.  Lastly, each of these parents had to have faith in Christ before their hope was fulfilled.  These parents faced the toughest of all situations and found hope in Christ.  We can look at these examples as we face even the smallest challenges as parents and be reminded that God cares; He can do anything.  He wants to be part of our lives, but we have to invite Him in first.  We must have faith before our hope can be assured.

One more thing I want to point out is that though we do not have the tangible access to Jesus as the parents in these accounts, we still have access to him through prayer and guidance through His word.  If we want to see God working in our lives and the lives of our children we need to cultivate our relationship with Him through prayer and reading the Bible.  Josh is a great example of this as I know he, his parents, his grandparents, his sister and friends were all praying for my salvation for years.  I also learned years later that Josh had fasted for me the day before I accepted Christ as my savior.  He was actively seeking God on my behalf.  We can do this as parents for our children.  “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2-5)

Homework

Look at a situation that seems hopeless or too hard to face - whether it is in your own life or someone else’s and make a commitment to pray for that situation on a continual basis.  Journal about it and see God work, but have patience and be reassured that God’s timing is always best.