thethreshingfloor

The trials of Christians. The triumphs of Christ.

Tag: faith

  • Trusting God Through Illness: A Personal Testimony

    We say we believe in God, but in times of trouble what you say has got to count.

    Michael Hirst was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 55. However, his first reaction wasn’t like most people who had received bad news.


    “I was absolutely fine, I had no problems with it at all, when the oncologist explained to me what the plan was I just said “fine, ok, let’s get on with it and I remember thinking I bet he didn’t have many interviews with patients as easy as this, cause for many people this is distressing. I didn’t find it at all”.

    Mike exuded a sense of deep trust and peace as he recalled his experience, he knew certain that he was to go ahead and trust God would hold him no matter what happened to him or his family.

    The oncologist found a 10cm tumor in his rectum and Mike had to undergone surgery to remove part of his large intestine along with the tumor. He would have many months ahead of him going thru chemo and radio therapies.

    ” Phil 1:21 To live is Christ, to die is gain and that governed my whole thinking about it and I thought its not an issue. I had that approach all the way through”.

    My children were very worried about me and it was hard for them, but I had absolute trust in God in what He was doing. A friend who actually passed away from cancer told me at the time, ” This is when your faith stands out when you said that you believe”.

    This was in fact something very real for Mike, not that he had taken his life or his illness for granted but he continued his life and went for his treatments faithfully while trusting God to work out His plan for him.

    Pauline, Mike’s wife had the same approach. She said

    “You give it God and say well whatever it is give me the strength to carry on and sort it out.

    Mike was physically getting weaker as he battled with cancer, but mentally he never stopped. He was still trying to help his friend to build his house in Sheffield and one day he finally felt exhausted and unable to lift another slab of roof and asked someone else to help him.

    Mike’s experience may sound glib or insensitive to others who are going thru similar distresses but he expressed how in his mind the only logical approach was to trust God like he said he would and continue to live his life and approach the illness as a matter of fact.

    He thought that he may come across as harsh towards others who may be going thru cancer but Mike as just being as honest as he could.

    “My faith in God is real to me and that’s how it was. It was not that I took my life for granted. I had never questioned God, I had complete peace. But I did struggle with the pain after surgery”.

    “I am okay with death but I struggled with pain, I asked God to help me make it painless if possible if I die”.

    Mike joked that he had lost about 7 stones or nearly 40kg during the course of the illness but he got a free new suit for his son’s wedding that someone else couldn’t fit it as it was too small.

    Mike was an outdoor educator and remember walking up to King’s Dale in England,North Yorkshire, taking some equipment and what would have been a 10 min walk normally took 30 minutes for him. When he got up the hill, his colleague was aghast at how thin he was. But Mike didn’t notice that about himself, he just felt exhausted.

    Life was as normal as it could be for Mike and his family, they carried on as usual and continued to work and serve God.

    Mike and Pauline were also running and serving in King’s club, a children and youth Christian summer camp. Due to Mike’s illness, his eldest son, Simon came and took his father’s place and served that summer. “He just came and stepped into my shoes”.

    Shortly after Mike’s operation, he led a group of youth from Manchester

    “I laid out all sorts of phrases and words on the floor like ‘fame’, ‘money’, ‘good health’, ‘relationship with God’ and told them to pick what was the most important things in life. “In reality, there isn’t a right or wrong answer because it’s based on your experience, a lot of the youth said good health was important.

    When it was my turn, I said nothing is as important as our relationship wit God, including health. There is nothing wrong wanting good health but most of all our relationship with God”. I remember some of them were shocked, astounded or impressed.

    Compared to the right relationship with God, good health fails into insignificance

    “Even though I look at Wensleydale because it beautiful its God’s creation, but I think heaven is even better than this. I cant imagine what is going to be like but I know it is even better than this”.

    The cancer didn’t get into the lymph nodes or any part of the system but I had 5 years before I was given the all clear. By the time he was 60 he was cleared of cancer.

    “Its life isn’t it, you don’t know whats round the corner, I don’t view it as hardship or tribulation. This is just life”.

    “Living in Britain is not hardship even personal trials and tribulations cannot be compared to other people in the world being imprisoned for Christ, or being persecuted or wars.

    We have a very easy life and it doesn’t do any good to us in terms of strengthening our faith. When life is easy, our faith is often weaker and not challenged.

    Mike doesn’t view his experience going thru the cancer as a trial.

    “I have faith in God and know my eternal destiny and know God’s in control. People may find my statement harsh, but I am only trying to be honest about my own journey”.

    “Take God at His word, eternal destiny is more important than immediate destiny. Take God at His word during difficult times. It was a physical situation that had to be resolved. I accepted the diagnosis. Everyday is a bonus, a sense of gratitude.

    Your at the end of your tether and you surrender to God”.

  • Through a miscarriage, she continued to trust God and His faithfulness.

    Tabby with her husband and 3 children

    Tabby heard God told her one Sunday during worship that she was to have another child sometime in 2019. But both herself and her husband already have 3 children and their family was complete. With her youngest at the age of 4 in 2019, gone were the days of diaper changing and sleepless nights.

    “My husband was very much against it and I was already in my late 30s. The thought of having a baby made me feel tired and I was enjoying having this time with my children with them being a little older. I was also very resistant to this idea”.

    They decided to shelve this thought thinking it was her own thoughts and left it as that.

    Her pastor prayed for her on her birthday and said that God was going to bless her with another child. Both Tabby and her husband were shocked as they didn’t share with anyone what God told them.

    We decided to try and failed month after month.

    “I was beginning to feel sad and disappointed, I began to long for this 4th child but was met with failure every time. At the back of my mind I wondered if I took pregnancies for granted as I was blessed in the past every time when we decided to try for a child and was successful”.

    After a few more tries, she was finally pregnant. However, it didn’t go as expected.

    Her pregnancy symptoms were not that strong as she had experienced in the past , but she wasn’t too worried as she had seen her doctor and everything seemed to be alright.

    One evening, she started to bleed heavily and she knew she was experiencing a miscarriage. It got so severe that she had to sit on the toilet.

    “I was experiencing wave after wave of cramps that felt familiar, like birth cramps. I tried to close my legs instinctively in hope to keep everything in”.

    This was not to be her story.

    She was admitted to A&E and the rest of the miscarriage took place in the hospital. Tabby was devastated when the doctor told her that the pregnancy was simply not viable, it was about 12 weeks old. There was a lot of bleeding as a lot of lining, pregnancy tissue and placenta were fully formed.

    Tabby started to weep uncontrollably.

    “The nurse wiped my tears, I was heartbroken but as I recalled the gentleness and the compassion that the medical staff shown me, I was deeply touched and recognized God’s grace in this moment”.

    That night, Tabby stayed overnight in the hospital but thank God she didn’t need any more intervention.

    Filled with gratefulness to God that the attending doctor was very experienced and told her that her body was expelling the pregnancy on its own so its best to let nature run its course without having to go thru D&C.

    “I asked God why couldn’t I keep the baby? If it was His will why should it fail? I wrestled with questions and was filled with heartache for a much desired 4th baby”.

    “I didn’t doubt God, but I kept asking why wasn’t it meant to be? Why did I have to go through this pain and hurt?”

    Tabby spent the next 2 weeks recovering and one morning she heard the Holy Spirit say “Look, at your 3 children, do not think about what will hold in the future and what just happened”.

    During her most difficult times, she felt the presence and grace of God surrounding her. Loving her and supporting her through the loss of the pregnancy.

    “After my miscarriage, I sense the strong presence of God every morning sitting with me and being with me. Just comforting me with His own presence.”

    In a way, she was thankful for this incident, as those moments was when she was closest to God. She stopped asking why, but decided to just look towards her life with hope with her family.

    Many well meaning church mates advised her to rest well and don’t think about having a number 4 child too soon.

    “The truth was I was thankful for my existing children, but the desire to have a 4th child was still very strong, but at that point I had decided to surrender because I knew I had tried my best.”

    Little did Tabby know what God had in store for her in the following weeks.

    Her husband woke up one morning and told her “I heard the name Zadok!”.

    The couple were surprised and started to search the bible for this name, to be found in the book of Ezekiel.

    The following month, Tabby conceived. Her pregnancy turned out to be smooth with no hiccups. She was exhausted as she had to care for her 3 children.

    Most of her friends were surprised that she conceived very quickly as well, as she had said that she wasn’t going to try anymore.

    She birthed a baby boy the following year, her number 4 child at home with the help of her husband who delivered the baby.

    They named him Zadok.

    “The birth was so fast that I did not even realize I was in labour until I felt the urge to push”.

    The Robinson’s 4 children from left to right, Zadok, Jemimah, Matilda and Samuel

    I still do not understand why the miscarriage happened. Sometimes I feel like its walking the long way round before getting to a destination. But I know through it all, God had never left me. His promises are real, He will always accomplish what He says.

    2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

    Zadok the youngest and her 3rd child Samuel

    The birth of her fourth child brought so much joy to the family. The siblings all pitched in to help look after the little one and helped around the house.

    “I am always kissing this little one and telling him how glad I am to have him in my life”.

    In fact Tabby and her family enjoys this new addition to the family so much and it brings out the maternal instincts in her daughters as they both want to look after him.

    Even Samuel, the third child is always there for his new baby brother, bestowing his love on Zadok.

    Tabby looks back on this experience and sees the grace of God in their lives.

    The pain of trials and challenges is always so that we can have fresh eyes and renewed heart to see God’s grace and presence in our lives.

    “Life is hard.” says Tabby, “but I continue to trust God, whatever it is, He will carry us through and there is always a purpose for our sufferings.”