The Boldness to Ask

It’s so easy to feel helpless when your family is dealing with sickness. In those times, we are vulnerable to feeling inadequate because we feel unable to “fix” our circumstances or we feel the weight of the unknowns of sickness.

As a dad, I want to be able to do something to help my family cope in these times. Sometimes it’s humor (ever make yourself look like a chicken with a latex glove?), sometimes it’s holding a hand, and sometimes it’s a desperate prayer because you really don’t know what to do.

I think one of the reasons that I felt inadequate at times in our medical journey was rooted in insecurity. Maybe it was the fear of opening up to others about how hard it is to see your family suffer. Maybe it was the stinging realization that my faith in the Lord to provide was more wobbly than I had thought.

Is it just me?

What I love about faith is the fact that it doesn’t take much. I wonder, though, if God wants us to shift our focus from how much hope or faith we have to boldly ask for more.

“Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.”
Isaiah 61:7 NIV

I read this verse recently, and it hit me square between the eyes: So often I focus on what I feel (inadequate) or have (seemingly small faith), and the Lord is itching to open my eyes to the abundant joy, faith and hope that He’s holding out to me. This isn’t a call to buck-up, grit my teeth and muscle-through. What God helped me to see is the fact that He is calling us, in the moment, to put down our effort and meager faith in exchange for His abundant hope. The inheritance He has for you and me is here today. It’s here now.

Many days I felt like I needed to be strong or push through for the sake of our family, and I realize looking back that I missed something. Even still, when I think about those days in the waiting room or the late nights processing the tests and procedures of the day, I see that the Lord had a double portion of strength and hope He was offering right at my fingertips. God wants us to look to Him, not our own strength (Matthew 7:7).

My strength for His portion.

Have you been in a place where you felt alone or the sting of inadequacy before? What’s a practical way that you turned your focus to the Lord’s promises in those times?