Latest / WholeHeart Conversations / Faith: When Scripture Becomes an Anchor
Transcript
- 0:00Constance Lavonice: The Bible says, now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.
- 0:08Constance Lavonice: Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1.
- 0:12Constance Lavonice: It's believing that God is who he says he is and believing that God will do what he says he will do.
- 0:22Constance Lavonice: It's sight, being able to imagine and visualize when it's not yet evident in the physical realm.
- 0:32Constance Lavonice: Faith is a positive expectancy of a future outcome.
- 0:39Constance Lavonice: Faith is an active belief, an expectation, not wishful thinking, but a confident knowing that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
- 1:03Constance Lavonice: Romans 8 28.
- 1:06Constance Lavonice: Whatever the tactics Satan uses, the Bible says that Satan is a thief, a liar.
- 1:16Constance Lavonice: Jesus says he's the father of lies, and he comes to kill, steal, and destroy.
- 1:24Constance Lavonice: Whatever the tactics, God, through the intercession of the Holy Spirit, even when we don't know how to pray or what to say, God will work all things for our good.
- 1:42Constance Lavonice: And if you are new here, welcome to Whole Heart Conversations, a podcast for women discussing biblical faith, mental health, and whole heart, spirit, soul, and body resilience.
- 2:00Constance Lavonice: I'm your host, Constance Lavonice.
- 2:04Constance Lavonice: As Christians, we were saved by God's grace through our faith.
- 2:10Constance Lavonice: And with the same faith, we are able to know God, believe who God is, his character, his ways, his promises, his love, and to walk in that truth.
- 2:26Constance Lavonice: Faith connects us to God.
- 2:29Constance Lavonice: It's a confidence, not in ourselves, but in a holy, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God, the God who created the heavens and earth.
- 2:45Constance Lavonice: Jesus said, If we have faith, even as small as a mustard seed, you, we, can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it would move.
- 3:03Constance Lavonice: Nothing would be impossible.
- 3:07Constance Lavonice: Matthew chapter seventeen verse twenty.
- 3:11Constance Lavonice: Jesus said that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, that's all it takes.
- 3:20Constance Lavonice: If you have a faith as small as a mustard seed, you can speak to the mountain.
- 3:29Constance Lavonice: The mountain represents the challenges, obstacles, or difficulty keeping us from God's best in our lives.
- 3:41Constance Lavonice: It may be doubt, fear, resentment, unforgiveness, anxiety, bitterness, unbelief, physical illness and challenges, etc., etc., etc.
- 3:59Constance Lavonice: Jesus says that we can speak to the mountain, the challenges.
- 4:07Constance Lavonice: Proverbs tells us in chapter 18, verse 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue.
- 4:19Constance Lavonice: So when the mountains show up in our lives, as Christians, we know that God will make a way for us to address them in a manner that is good for our lives.
- 4:36Constance Lavonice: In 2001, I was facing a challenge.
- 4:41Constance Lavonice: I noticed that I was short of breath when I would get up or move around.
- 4:49Constance Lavonice: I told my husband, who was my fiance at the time, that I was short of breath, and we started to walk during the week.
- 5:01Constance Lavonice: And as I walked, I became more and more tired.
- 5:07Constance Lavonice: And it just didn't seem to get better.
- 5:11Constance Lavonice: Eventually, I went to my primary care doctor and he did some tests and he sent me to a heart specialist.
- 5:22Constance Lavonice: The heart specialist placed me on a heart monitor.
- 5:26Constance Lavonice: And within 24 hours, he called me and told me to go to the hospital.
- 5:33Constance Lavonice: I went to the hospital, they ran a bunch of tests, and they diagnosed me with a rare condition called pulmonary hypertension.
- 5:46Constance Lavonice: And at the time, they told me that I would need to transfer to a hospital, which was a teaching hospital, that had the only life-saving, potential life-saving medication that could help me.
- 6:05Constance Lavonice: So the doctor met with my husband, my fiance, at the time, and the doctor gave him the diagnosis.
- 6:18Constance Lavonice: Now, what was ironic was that prior to this time, my husband had prayed and searched the internet, and he came up with pulmonary hypertension based on the symptoms that I was complaining about.
- 6:40Constance Lavonice: But when he told me about it, the only thing that I could um take in was hypertension, and I knew in my heart that it wasn't hypertension.
- 6:55Constance Lavonice: At least I thought it wasn't.
- 6:57Constance Lavonice: The doctor advised him that he might want to reconsider marrying me because I might not make it through the treatment.
- 7:29Constance Lavonice: And at that time, he asked the doctor to give him a moment alone.
- 7:35Constance Lavonice: And as he sat in the room alone with his Bible, he later told me that God gave him two Bible verses.
- 7:47Constance Lavonice: The first was Jeremiah chapter 33 verse 6.
- 7:53Constance Lavonice: Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing.
- 7:57Constance Lavonice: I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.
- 8:05Constance Lavonice: And now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.
- 8:14Constance Lavonice: Hebrews 11 chapter 1.
- 8:18Constance Lavonice: My husband gave me these two verses.
- 8:23Constance Lavonice: He wrote them on a card, and he said, Constance Lavonice, I don't care what they say or what you see, God says, Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing, I will heal my people, and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.
- 8:51Constance Lavonice: And now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.
- 8:58Constance Lavonice: I don't care what they say or what you see.
- 9:04Constance Lavonice: God says, Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing.
- 9:12Constance Lavonice: I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.
- 9:21Constance Lavonice: And remember, faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.
- 9:31Constance Lavonice: He wrote these scriptures on a card, and I was transferred over to the other hospital with the only life-saving, potential life-saving medication transferred to the ICU.
- 9:49Constance Lavonice: By that time, I was in heart failure and my liver and kidneys were failing.
- 9:57Constance Lavonice: The doctor told me that my only options were a heart and lung transplant or death.
- 10:07Constance Lavonice: My immediate response was, that's not going to happen.
- 10:12Constance Lavonice: And the doctor said, You're right.
- 10:16Constance Lavonice: You're not even on the transplant list.
- 10:20Constance Lavonice: And at that time, all I had was the word of God and faith that God is who he says he is, and God is able to do what he says he will do according to the promises in his word.
- 10:46Constance Lavonice: God brought me through that situation without a heart or lung transplant or death as a testimony to others facing a mountain, to choose to believe and rest in his promises by faith.
- 11:11Constance Lavonice: Rest is being still before God.
- 11:16Constance Lavonice: What does that look like?
- 11:19Constance Lavonice: It's found in Philippians chapter four, verse six and seven.
- 11:29Constance Lavonice: Don't worry about anything.
- 11:34Constance Lavonice: Instead pray about everything.
- 11:39Constance Lavonice: Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.
- 11:47Constance Lavonice: Then you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand.
- 11:57Constance Lavonice: His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
- 12:05Constance Lavonice: Don't worry.
- 12:07Constance Lavonice: Instead, replace worry or anxiety with prayer.
- 12:15Constance Lavonice: God wants us to pray about everything.
- 12:21Constance Lavonice: Pray for whatever it is that you're needing.
- 12:28Constance Lavonice: If you need peace in your mind, tell God, I need peace in my mind.
- 12:35Constance Lavonice: Help me to forgive.
- 12:38Constance Lavonice: Remove this bitterness.
- 12:42Constance Lavonice: Heal my body.
- 12:45Constance Lavonice: Whatever it is, pray.
- 12:48Constance Lavonice: Talk to God about it.
- 12:50Constance Lavonice: And then thank him for all he has done and is doing.
- 12:59Constance Lavonice: Thank him, meaning praise him, worship him.
- 13:05Constance Lavonice: Psalms twenty two verse three says that God inhabits the praises of his people.
- 13:15Constance Lavonice: So praise him and worship him.
- 13:19Constance Lavonice: What is worship?
- 13:21Constance Lavonice: Is to give honor and show reverence to God.
- 13:25Constance Lavonice: And we can worship God by singing, studying his word alone or with other believers.
- 13:34Constance Lavonice: We can memorize his word.
- 13:37Constance Lavonice: We can recite his word.
- 13:39Constance Lavonice: We can practice replacing distressing thoughts with the word of God.
- 13:48Constance Lavonice: Choose faith over fear.
- 13:52Constance Lavonice: Faith reduces anxiety, fosters mental wellness, and builds resilience.
- 14:04Constance Lavonice: Unwavering faith will carry you through any adversity.
- 14:13Constance Lavonice: If this message resonated with you, subscribe, share with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more women can find wholeheart conversations.