A Total and Complete Victory, Part Two
What? You didn’t read yesterday’s post? Make sure you do that first. It won’t take long, and it’s worth it. We’ll wait, promise. 🙂
When I stopped, I received a one paragraph letter in the mail from our insurance company giving the answer to our third and final appeal regarding our then toddler’s thousands of denied dollars in therapies. I felt in prayer God had something along the lines of a total and complete victory for us, but I was trying to define what that meant. To me, it meant the insurance would cave, and apologize.
In reality, they said we were denied for the final time. This was the end of the appeals process and it was now our turn to pay our hospital bills.
I don’t even have the words to explain the devastation I felt. Where was the apology? How in the world were we going to pay all the hospital bills? Frankly, I had no idea.
But it was Father’s Day weekend, so I put a smile on my face and headed to church. I remember my husband had extra singing duties that weekend because we were having a visiting pastor from another church, and the schedule was a little different. The pastor was (is) from a local church that was experiencing a revival and he was going to share some of the experiences.
It didn’t take long for him to grab my attention. He explained that a lot of people wanted a definition of what God was doing in that church. Thing was, every time he tried to define God, God was somewhere else. He realized trying to define God was useless. He encouraged us to stop trying to define what God was going to do and just trust Him.
I knew somehow this message was God’s love letter to me.
I didn’t walk out with any clear answers beyond knowing I tried the entire time to define the total and complete victory without ever surrendering it to Him. I made a beeline for the altar and surrendered. Again, no idea how we were going to pay that bill, but for the first time, believing God would make a way.
Twenty minutes later I was home and saw our answering machine blinking. I push it and realized it was a long distance call from someone familiar with our situation. I called back and the person said they felt all evening they were supposed to call. Let me know I was trying to define what God was going to do. In their opinion, I was trying to define how God was going to bring about the total and complete victory.
Remember, this was a long distance call. This person was not at the service.
But the caller wasn’t done.
They also felt God was asking them to pay the bill.
In full.
I wept, feeling so loved by God and yet unworthy at the same time. How I fought Him, and yet less than thirty minutes after surrendering, the money was there.
When I called the hospital the next day, the woman I’d been communicating with said because I initiated contact with her from the beginning and kept her in the loop, she took 20% off the total bill.
Oh, one other thing.
The church where the visiting pastor is from?
It’s called Victory.
