A Fighting God

“Let my prayer come before Thee...” Psalm 88:2

How many times have we felt like God was not listening to us? How many people around the world live lives of desperation, keep searching for answers and go around in circles? Sheila Walsh, the singer and bible teacher, tells the story of when she and her husband were desperate for a child, and at 40, she finally conceived. The doctor called her back to the clinic for an amniocentesis, and when the results came back, the doctor advised Sheila and her husband to terminate the pregnancy. The couple refused, and Sheila remembers sitting on a rock, beside the sea, gazing outward and talking to the child growing inside her, “I will fight for you!” And she did, through weeks of turmoil, and being attached to a fetal monitor. 

On the 35th week, the doctor called and said, “Sheila, I have something to tell you. Your amniocentesis results were put in another woman’s folder, and yours was put in hers.” With the relief came the realization that another woman received some devastating news. Sheila had been carrying her burden all those months and she thought, “Did God allow me to go through this for her because she was alone, would she have aborted her baby had she known?” Whirling in her mind was the conviction that the enemy had wanted to destroy her son, her wonderful, bright, funny, God fearing, son! 

The enemy wants to destroy us too, in any way, at any time. And that’s why we not only need to be confident in our prayers, but we need to surround ourselves with good Christian brothers and sisters who can help us, support us, guide us, encourage us, and pray for us, when we feel forsaken by God. If we can love our children so much, we should realize that God loves each one of us in a bigger, more profound way. He loves us so much He was willing to sacrifice His Son for us. He too says to each one of us, “I will fight for you!” He loves us so much, He allows us to go through our own journey, painful though it may be, just so we realize our full potential as His sons and daughters. There is no safer place for us than right next to His heart.