Difficult Decisions

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I recently spoke with a young woman whose husband had a serious illness. He sought out a well-known specialist who told him he could be a candidate to participate in a blind study of a new medication that could possibly hold a cure. There would be no charge for the participation in the study which normally would be extremely expensive. All experiments conducted on animals so far had proved successful.

The husband wanted to do the trial, but his wife wanted no part of it. As I spoke to her, the Lord whispered, “Have no mind in the matter.” (I understood that to mean that we were not to tell God what to do; we were to present the problem to Him so that He could do what He wanted according to His way and timing.)

I asked her, “Have you prayed about what decision to make?”

“No. I flat-out don’t want him to take the chance. What if it doesn’t work? What if he’s one that only gets the placebo drugs in the control group?”

The Holy Spirit urged me again. “Would you be willing to ask God for His wisdom as to what you should do? God tells us in James that if we lack wisdom, we should ask Him and He will give it liberally. He does caution us in this same passage however, that once He gives His wisdom, we must not waver in doubt or we will be as unsettled as a wave tossed on the sea.”

Reluctantly, she agreed.

As we prayed, the Lord nudged me again to pray that we would have no mind in the matter. That we would open ourselves to the Lord’s will and wisdom that is beyond our own; to let Him take charge of the situation. To take our hands off, give Him our fears, and let him direct our thoughts so that this husband and wife could come into agreement with God’s will, whatever that might be.

On the way home, I continued to pray about the situation, wondering how it would all turn out.
Speaking with her the next week, I asked how our project was coming.

“Oh, we decided even if he wasn’t helped, he might be helping someone else.” She looked at her watch. “In fact he’s in for his first injection right about now.”

God’s ways never cease to amaze me.