Has your faith been tested?

C Craft

C Craft

Well-Known Member
Well the tittle pretty much says it! Has your faith been tested? I am a Christian, as I say in my prayers ever now and them, Lord I am probably not one of your best works. I hold my faith close to my heart! As a kid my Mama made me go to church every Sunday. Now might be a good time to say I grew up in a small town of about 480 people. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone knew the others business. I like to say I could get into trouble and my Mama knew it before I got home!

So once in service I turned to religion and once again away from it. I strayed down a bad path and then I met the woman that was to become my wife!! If not for her and the good Lord I would probably not be around or the person I am today. I took my family to church and then one day I had the calling to be saved.

There is not a night goes by that I don't sit and say my prayers! My wife has been sick for about the past 10 yrs. Recently a new phase of her illness has came about and she has been going thru hell on earth! I haven't left her side recently as it has been horrible. She is suffering from a reaction to a drug they had her on for RLS restless leg syndrome Apparently this reaction is somewhat common but we were never warned about it!!

Anyway back to the subject at hand. All this has really tested my faith. It is so hard to sit and watch the love of my life suffer and their is nothing I can do to help! I pray constantly for her health. The other night I told the Lord he was not much of a conversationalist! The good book says we were created in his image. So I figure he must have a sense of humor!

Please say a prayer for my wife. We will be having an anniversary on the 16th of this month. We will be married 41 years! Sorry guys if I am charring on, however a few more prayers can't hurt!!
 
I pray for your faith to hold even stronger through the testing times.
Unfortunately many christians faith is held in the belief that God will answer all their prayers the way they ask them but many have had prayers that seemed to be unanswered in this way. Paul the Apostle had a "thorn in the flesh" that he prayed to be taken from him but he remained steadfast in faith in spite of this affliction.
Remember Elijah who thought he had been abandoned
Remember Job
Remember that God holds close when we cry out in prayer
Remember the persecuted who have held their faith at the cost of life
Our faith is in eternal life through Jesus Christ
Remember that our faith is not reliant on God "fixing things for us" even those we love, even though there are verses to show Him having done exactly that.
While you pray for your wife, also pray for the Holy Spirit to comfort you both, to lead you to His Word for the uplifting that strengthens your faith ahead of the body.
May He Bless you both in your walk.
 
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Guys, I have never been one of those that thought just because I have prayed over something, that it would be answered. There is a lot said that in the statement, God moves in a mysterious way! This latest problem with her is just so hard to watch and harder for her to go thru. Sometimes these tremors/seizures are so bad she has gone 48 hrs. plus. Before they slow enough for her to even rest with her medication. When she does it is from utter exhaustion! That in itself is taking a toll on her body!!

I am not sure if what I wrote last night made sense at all, I haven't left her side much in the past month except when she sleeps. If I sleep then it is not with much rest as I am always afraid she will need me and I won't hear her!!

I want to thank you for your prayers! I haven't lost my faith, however I do feel it is being tested!!
 
Craft. My faith has been tested many times but the biggest one came in 1999. My oldest son was 18 and had just graduated high school. He was involved in a car accident and airlifted to the hospital with a massive head injury. We were told by the neurosurgeon that he had a 10% chance of living through the night and that if he did live he would never be anything more than a vegetable. So I know first hand what it's like to have someone you love suffering and there is absolutely nothing you can do for them. Feels like the whole world crushes down on you. But God is in control. He did live through the night and he's alive today. He had to re-learn everything. Even how to swallow but after 70 days in the hospital he walked out under his own power. He wasn't moving with the grace of a gazelle but he was upright. If you met him today you would never know how badly he was injured. He doesn't have vision in his right eye because bone fragments from his skull severed his optical nerve but his eye looks normal. Sometimes it easy to wonder where God is and why we are facing what seems to be an insurmountable trial. Keep your faith. Standfast. My wife and I saw miracle after miracle through this. We have a son who is alive and has blessed us with a grandson that is the love of our lives. God bless you sir! We will be continually in prayer for you and your wife.
 
Knowing our community is blessed with so many Christian knifemakers makes this forum a Blessing to me and I pray that you are also uplifted to know you are among so many Brothers (and sisters) in Christ.
 
Cliff...you will pass this test. I am sure many are praying for you! My wife and son's and I will be too. (please let your wife know that many here on KD will be praying for her.)

I want to commend you on the consistently sweet and helpful spirit you display on this forum. You are one of the folk's on here that I wish I lived close enough to so I could have you over for a cold pop and a good talk...

keep the Faith brother!
 
I appreciate all of your words and prayers. I know God is still with us, it is more the mortal part of this equation this getting me down so! Doctors (most doctors) don't get it. The wait to get word from a doctor or even to get in too see one! Everybody is specialized and no one treat the whole patient anymore.

Don't get me wrong I know what the upcoming holidays are all about, and it is now what most think of when you say Christmas. I also know this time of year a patient can get dumped aside for a month at a time!! That whole time is more minutes that I watch her suffer and yet I know they are sitting at home with their families. Secure in the world that doesn't feel the true pain of their patients.
I am getting where I go to do something and can't remember what that was! I have been dealing with this for over 10 yrs now and I guess it is wearing on me. I feel like I am useless to her because as much I want to I can't stop her pain and suffering!!!

Thanks guys sometimes you just need to vent to keep from walking outside and screaming!!
 
I swore I would not wade into these waters but I really feel you, your wife and your family.

The good news is that medical science is better than it's ever been and is getting better every day. This is where your best hope lies.

Good luck and I hope for the best for you
 
C Craft said:
I feel like I am useless to her because as much I want to I can't stop her pain and suffering!!!
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How do you think your wife would have coped without your strength of love and support these last ten years???
How do you not know that this will have been one of her most treasured and trusted helps and next to meds, love is the very best comfort for those in pain.
As men we all want to fix things for our loved ones but when that is not possible then our love is their strength and praise God that He has given us this capability
 
Von Gruff said:
How do you think your wife would have coped without your strength of love and support these last ten years???
How do you not know that this will have been one of her most treasured and trusted helps and next to meds, love is the very best comfort for those in pain.
As men we all want to fix things for our loved ones but when that is not possible then our love is their strength and praise God that He has given us this capability
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Well spoken! I fully agree on this.
 
This thought came to me a while ago. I sit down and said a prayer to the good Lord and told him I was going to lay this with my wife in your hands!! Here is what made me to do this!

I was once speaking with a prayer group my wife was part of. It has been sometime back. My kids had flew the coup and the wife and I were empty nesters as they say. It seemed every time I turned around my kids were doing something that really didn't have my approval but I hoped the values we had instilled in them would come to the surface and between that and the good Lord looking on them, well maybe they would find the better path.

Any way I had told this lady that my kids are about to drive me and the wife crazy however we had been praying for them!

She took a minute and said Cliff, have you turned them over to the good Lord. Well yes they were both baptized when they were younger and as I said I have been praying for them. To which she says, but have you turned them over to the Lord. Perplexed a little I said I had been praying for them to find their way!

She cleared her throat and said to me. Let me try this in a different way! What I am asking are you cleansed in the water or the blood. Now that meant something to me.

I am going to tell you something that will go against the grain when it comes to your children. Before I could say anything else, she said! If you pray for them and still worry about them, you are cleansed in the water. If you pray for them and tell God it is in your hands Lord and you worry no more, then you cleansed in the blood. I sit there for a minute thinking of what she had said!!!

That night when I said my prayers, I asked the Lord once again to watch over my children,...……….. they are in your hands Lord. I laid my head down after the prayer that night and I slept better than I had in a long time. There is comfort in laying your problems in the Lords hands!!
 
Hi Cliff, I've been married only twelve years and my wife has a back condition I knew might handicapp her later in life. It hasn't yet but I knew that one doesn't marry for health. I also have an example I had, that I wanted to share. I've seen this thread for awhile but haven't had the time to sit down and write what I want to say.

My former pastor (now living in heaven) modeled sacrificially loving his family and especially his wife. I won't go into detail about their health conditions but he lived out that verse in Eph 5, "husbands love your as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for her...." Anyway, one day we had a guest speaker in church who was preaching on marriage or something like that and I noticed my pastor walking out of the service (not sure exactly why, I hadn't been paying too close attention until this part). Anyway about the time my pastor was walking by me the preacher was getting louder, "you need to be willing to die for your wife." I don't know if the preacher was pointing his words at my pastor or not, but I heard my pastor say, "I already did." And I know he did because I saw it.

I have that memory and that situation happened before I got married. That situation taught me the reason for his life of dedication to his wife that I saw, it was his love for her and his desire to be Christlike and that has, in turn, been a model for me. Not saying I'm perfect, but I know what love needs to be in a marriage at least. It's dying for someone else. That definition of love seems to be a major theme in New Testament Scripture. I needed that teaching moment in my life. And the way it happened kind of unexpected in the middle of a church service made it memorable.

Anyway, my point is that your doing it. You're being Christ to her by being there for her needs. And even though her needs are greater than you can meet, because of exhaustion, etc. Christ can refresh it. Someone gave Ed Caffery Phil 4:13 the other day and I wanted to post on his thread, too, but he'll probably read this here. "the One who strengthens me" is almost like another name for Christ - kind of like on those posters we see with His names: "I am..."; "The Lamb of God"; "Immanuel..." etc. If it is His name it is His nature. You cannot separate strength from Him. And He is faithful. God bless you and feel free to e-mail any prayer requests. I have been praying for you (and Ed and Jeremy Bartlett) just haven't had time to concentrate on a detailed reply.
 
Guys I real appreciate the prayers and good thoughts. We were back to the wife's Neurologist today. He has ordered another battery of tests! So it will be sometime after the new year before we get any closer to answers. In the meantime she has been going thru some real bad pain at times. He did double up her pain medication. I have my doubts as too whether that is going to help or not! It sure seems like what Ed Caffery, said a while back. The wheels of medicine move excruciatingly slow when you are looking for answers!!
Please keep my misses in your thoughts and prayers!
 
A difficult time for you both Cliff so prayers are first for a relief for your wife's pain and more importantly for a diognostic breakthrough that will allow for constructive treatment and overall of this for continuing of the faith that has kept you trusting in Gods Grace through this long ordeal.
It is a double edged sword (figuratively speaking) for pain medication to be doubled in that it may relieve the symptoms but it is masking the problem at the same time so I pray that the tests will reveal what has caused this health issue and a means of healing.
As we begin the celebration in rememberence of the miracle of Christs Birth as our Saviour I pray that this will bring some relief to your wife and a Blessing to you both that carries you through till the healing is effected.
 
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