This year, I lost one of the most influential women in my life! This woman was not my birth mother but she cared for me and my success like any mother would. She went out of her way to make sure my educational needs were met and that every Christmas my sisters and I did not lack for anything, providing us the latest Nintendo, Sega Genesis or The Game Show! This lady prayed earnestly for my mother when my mother almost lost her life! The woman I am talking about is my Aunt Morteil Williams, my mother’s baby sister.
About a year ago we learned she had Leukemia. Everyone was devastated! Aunt Morteil! Cancer? See, our family had been very fortunate because cancer had been a true rarity in our family and living beyond 90 years old had become the norm.
At the diagnosis, everything seemed fine. She took oral Chemotherapy and she still taught everyday in the inner city schools in Southeast DC (one of the toughest districts & school systems in America, located in Washington DC)
In November 2012, she was omitted to the hospital. I went to see her at George Washington Hospital (the same place my mom studied as a nurse in college over 50 years ago). My aunt's health had taken a turn for the worst and she was losing her battle against cancer. The doctors gave her weeks to live. She was released from the hospital. I stayed with her to help administer her medicine. Her health kept declining. We decided to take her to John Hopkins Hospital, one of the nation's leaders in cancer research and treatment.
At that point, I didn’t think my Aunt would make it another week. My aunt told the nurses and doctors to do whatever they can, understanding that aggressive Chemo at her age came with a health risk. The goal was to get the cancer in remission.
After a few rounds of Chemo, she started looking better and feeling better but the doctors said that the cancer was out of control and our goal of remission was not obtained. Soon my aunt was released from the hospital in within a few months she was on hospice care.
We had been praying all the time for my aunt’s healing. During our March 21 Day Fast & Consecration we prayed for her nearly every day and she would call from her hospital bed to join the call.
I prayed publicly and privately, I fasted and I had other people pray for her. At one point, my mom started saying, Aunt Mortiel was going to die. But I did not want to accept that, I could not accept. How can aunt Mortiel die? She is only 71 years old. Her mom from the Young’s family line is still living and she is over 90 years old. Aunt Mortiel helped and encouraged everybody, she had a big heart, NO IT CAN’T BE! The young’s don’t die young. The Young’s don’t give up on God. The Young’s keep the faith.
At some point, I even got on my mom for giving up on God and having a lack of faith but she hadn’t given up on God nor did she lack faith. She just understood and had accepted that God had said NO!
Well, on May 16th 2013, my mom called me at 5:30AM to report that Aunt Mortiel had went to be with her Heavely father.
I had just ended a 36 hours fast for Aunt Mortiel’s healing and I was thinking, how could God disappoint me like this?
After all that praying, fasting, reciting healing scriptures about the woman with the issue of blood, God making the blind see, etc and Aunt Mortiel died? I truly felt like God had let me down and I was not sure where to turn. I talked to my aunt Elanora and she told me God had said no. But ensured me that Aunt Mortiel had accepted God’s will and was at peace with leaving this Earth. Aunt Elanora said, we just have to let God’s will be done and continue to pray for strength to get through it.
I don’t think I am the only one who has felt disappointed by God. So if you or anyone you know has been told NO by God. I encourage you to read the below tips and SHARE this blog.
Here are three tips to how you can manage your emotions and maintain trust in God, when he says NO!
1.) Understand God’s perfect plan for your life “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to me, I will listen to you” Jeremiah 29:11
2.) Pray for acceptance of God’s will even if it is not your will. When God gave the first instructions for prayer, it was the “All Father Prayer” within that prayer God taught us to prayer “Let your WILL be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven”. Many of us have recited this prayer thousands of time over ago. But do we belief it? Do we live it? Do we let the WILL of God reign in our lives or do we run with our own agenda and push God’s will to the side.
See, prayer cannot change what God has destined to happen. When we pray, we should not pray for this or not, but we should make our request known to God and then pray that God gives us the strength to handle whatever is within his WILL. See, what we pray for may not be the will of God.
If it is not the will of God, our prayer cannot change that. But it can help us to get through whatever situation, or circumstance that comes our way.
3.) Understand it may not be "NO", maybe it is "not right now"! Pray for patience. Remember “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your REQUEST be known to God! and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 Also check out Charles Stanley's five minute video on “How can I wait patiently on the Lord?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuEFdtIv4lo
Also T.D. Jakes shares in a sermon more wisdom about how to respond when God’s says no! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULFVD-PI6Yg
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Love Your Sis!
Jill
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