Spotlight 16/2016: Faith makes all things possible
Should we struggle and fight or give up? The struggle to gain the victory with Christ can be an extreme experience. District Apostle Raúl Montes de Oca (Brazil/Bolivia) is convinced, however, that we can rise to the challenge.
We have probably all made experiences on our path of faith or within the scope of our work as a minister that remain unforgettable because of the special emotions that were associated with them.
A few years ago—I was still a District Elder then—I was in the interior of Uruguay with some ministers. We were visiting a young sister whom I was privileged to accompany through a very painful process. She was fighting a terminal disease.
Marta was a faithful child of God. In her fight to survive, she never complained or questioned the will of God—even when she felt that the disease she was suffering from was the instrument that God was using to move her from this life to the afterlife.
From the beginning of her difficult journey she trusted in the words recorded in Mark 9: 23: “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’”
Although the illness affected her whole body, it could not undermine her feelings for God. She continued to trust and believe in the work of salvation and expected the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise every day.
I don’t for a minute doubt that this sister entered the beyond as a victor.
She had a strong faith and that made it possible for her to gain the victory with Christ, and it helped her to believe already here on earth that all things are possible to those who believe:
- she managed to stand firm in her certainty of faith, even though her prayers and those of the ministers for an improvement of her condition were not answered.
- she managed to be an example of faith even in the most difficult situation that human beings will face: impending death.
- she managed to turn defeat into victory.
Faith and accepting the will of God makes victors of us. This is how it was with our sister Marta, who gained the victory with Christ because she firmly believed: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4: 13).
