IS MY MOM DYING?

She grabbed me and started crying. My mom had just returned home from a stay in the hospital.

I held her as she cried. When she stopped, the only question I could think to ask was, “What’s wrong?” With a tube feeding oxygen into her nose and a scowl on her face—directed at me, she cried some more.

Sometimes questioning can seem uncompassionate. But my mind was pondering “What’s really going on?” And I was eager to inject a huge dose of trust in God and Bible-believing faith into the situation.

A week ago when I visited her, she said, “I’m feeling great.” Mom was on the go. And at age seventy-five she was learning computer skills for the first time. She had some health issues, but overall, life was good.

What happened?

She contracted the common flu and then started thinking pneumonia might be next. Soon, she was in the hospital. The doctor proclaimed: “Congestive heart failure.” Mom believed the doctor. Then fear unfurled its effects into her life.

I knew fear was seriously undermining my mom’s health. There is a Bible verse I have often recited to my Mom. “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

A week later, I spoke with my mom after her appointment with a heart specialist. She reported: “I don’t have congestive heart failure.” Now her vigor was rapidly returning.

The facts caused the fear to dissipate. That method sometimes works. And sometimes “the facts” remain frightening. Regardless, God has provided a far superior approach. When “fear” enters into a situation, immediately reject it as not being from God. Keep rejecting it! Keep saying and believing what God has given every believer—power, love and a sound mind.