Divinely Designed, Destined and Different

“God didn’t save you; doctors did.” 

This sentiment came from someone convinced of their truth.  I look back I’m so sad to think how hopeless things must look when we are dependent on human knowledge and that’s it. 

I acknowledge I am a recipient of the advancement of modern medicine. I am entirely aware that I had lived in another time, I probably wouldn’t have survived fulminate hepatic failure, but I also know my birth and existence in time didn’t happen by chance. Acts 17:26  

I also know God gave doctors the wisdom and knowledge necessary to save my life because all the knowledge and wisdom doctors or anyone else can claim lies in and through and because of Jesus. Colossians 2:2-3

There was a reason I survived – something divinely designed and destined and different – and nothing I deserved. A purpose now packaged with the gift of liver empowering my body to wake up again, neurologically intact, that restarted broken down organs spontaneously, that abandoned old behaviors, with the memory of my people and history with a new perspective and gratitude about life.

Gifted also with a testimony to share with the rest of the world about Jesus so others would believe. Revelation 12:11 Psalms 119:46 – ESV 

Something merciful and gracious happens when we, like the bleeding woman made well in Mark 5, open ourselves up to hearing the Word of God. It sparks the curiosity and courage inside of us to know God better, even if we don’t understand right then. We do nothing more than exercise our free will to choose.  Romans 10:17 – NKJV  Even in the darkest days of despair, choosing to get God’s Word inside of you instead of what the world has to offer can spark the faith we need to reach out and touch Jesus. Mark 5:27

I couldn’t deny God’s control. His mercy-filled intervention. No, not after what Jesus and I had been through together. 

Did they know Jesus and I had found each other just a few months before? Did they know how many times I’d cried out for Him to intervene? Were they at my bedside to understand how genuinely dire the prognosis was – how completely backed up against a wall with no escape in sight and how He parted the sea for us? 

My eyes opened spiritually like they never had before. Gratitude fueled me forward. To want what God wanted for me. And to start by honoring the one body I’d been given and a new accountability partner – my newly transplanted liver – would be a considerable incentive. 

God had heard my cry. So instead of fixing me quickly to go back to past attitudes, old comfortable habits, a heart wanting to blame, He took me through the middle of a terrible storm, one that had been brewing for a while, to change me.

He did a new thing in me, and He wants to do something new in you too. Isaiah 43:19 

Often we wonder why He would do that? Isn’t God supposed to be loving, merciful, and gracious? But, of course, the answer is yes to all those attributes.

But God wants something better than we are even capable of realizing. So He may be taking you through a difficult time so that He can do the new thing inside you, and so you never want to go back either.