Trusting God With Your Situation

by James M
(Melbourne, Vic)

Last year I was diagnosed with a blood disorder called myelo dysplastic syndrome, which is also pre-leukaemia. It is where the bone marrow is not producing enough blood cells required. Because of that, I had low blood cells, which resulted in low energy, heart pumping really fast and pale face.

For my treatment, I needed to have a bone marrow transplant as my blood cells were getting progressively worse. The transplant really complex and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Basically, they find a donor who has a very similar bone marrow to myself and they replace my marrow with the donor’s.

Just before the transplant, I had to go through to doses of chemotherapy which were a week each. It was to kill off the cells so they don’t attack the new bone marrow once it is in because it is ‘foreign’.

After the transplant, It was recovery time which was 6-12 months in isolation, due to a very low immune system. Now as a teenager, I didn’t really want to be in isolation for that long, I wanted to be wild and free. So right from the beginning, I did the one thing I was called to do. I gave the whole situation to God, asking him to handle it and prayed for the best outcome that he wanted to provide.

I prayed so hard, my body prayed through its pain, my heart prayed through its desire. People around me, family and friends prayed for me. People I didn’t even know prayed for me. I wanted to see the power of prayer, that prayer that works, the faith that gets rewarded.

But it got tough, For three weeks, I had a really bad start, I wanted to bail out of the situation because I was so sick, I didn’t smile for 3 weeks, I didn’t want to talk because I had ulsters in my mouth and down my throat, hurt big time when I talk, chew or swallow. But I had to hang in there.

I ended up having a reaction and had to go to ICU so they could stop the reaction, it was a anaphylactic reaction. My tongue was swollen and stuck outside of my mouth, my eyes were so watery like I was bawling my eyes out when I wasn’t and they were turned in the wrong direction, also they were constantly blinking involuntarily.

I couldn’t sleep that day no matter how tired I was because it was rapidly blinking. I was delirious, talking like a mad man, seeing things. They gave me injections; oxygen and any other thing they thought might work for 4 hours until I finally calmed down and slept. In the midst of all those problems, God helped me through it all.

He whispered that I will be ok when I needed to hear it the most. He made me sleep 20 hours a day for a week so I could escape the pain. He guided me in what to do. He even relieved the pain one night when I couldn’t bear it anymore; I never slept more peacefully that night.

Now I stand here, not 12 months, not even 6 months but 5 months, fully healed by the grace of God! I am going to school, to study year 12, which I would’ve had to do next year if I didn’t recover within 5 months. I’ve moved on from that chapter, to a new and exciting chapter in my life.

Above all, God has blessed me hugely, through a quick recovery, he inspired others through me. You know what’s even more amazing, because I gave the situation to God, I went through the whole process, without one burden, it was like my cares were released. I had no worries, just focused on getting better.

I want this testimony to encourage you to hand over your situation or problem to our God. We are all different, we all have different problems but we all have a problem and serve the same God. So when you go home tonight, or whenever you get the chance, I want you to hand over the situation to God and pray like a warrior!

But there are conditions! Once you give it to God, you are to leave it to him. You shouldn’t wait around until one little thing goes wrong and then take it away from him and try deal with it yourself again. You’re pretty much digging a bigger hole for yourself. It will show that you have no trust in God, no faith, no confidence in God.

Matthew 6:25-34

So whatever hardship you’re facing in life, let’s trust God to handle it and work through it with him, so we can become Godly people, people of faith, people of conviction and people of strength.