Is anyone of you sick? He should....

This morning during my quite time, I felt a shift inside of me to share a story with ya'll.

Almost 2 years ago exactly, I was walking down the spice aisle at the commissary when I got a phone call from my 20 year old husband. I remember being kinda annoyed because once I get a phone call I almost always forget what I need down that aisle and the next and the next...I answered the phone and Jake tells me, "I was just getting a check up and I am going to have to go get some x-rays done so I might not be home for lunch." Ok, I thought wondering if this sort of thing was normal. I knew awhile back ago Jake had tested positive for TB when they tested him and still to this day has a nasty scar on his arm where it never healed. I just assumed it had something to do with that.

I believe it was during the end of May because I knew he was about to leave for his 7 month deployment in August. I suppose those xrays sat on the desk awhile before someone saw them because Jake was called back to have more x-rays done in June.
I was sitting on this red couch in our front room when Jake came home and walked up the stairs. He sat down beside me and looked at me and quitely said, "Everything is going to be ok. Do you believe that?" I start to cry. "The doctors found something on my x-rays that they are very concerned about. There seems to be a large mass on my lungs in the x-rays they have been taken and they want to start treating whatever is wrong immediatly."

Of course I just stare at my healthy, strong 20 year old husband whom I have been married to for a total of 4 months and could NOT believe it. We call his mom and share with her what we know while I call my family.

I remember being mad at the military but I don't ever remember being mad at God.

We start making appt. for more bloodwork and tests up at Tripler to have a cat skan ran.

During this time we were going to our church each Wednesday night for bible study. Jake wednesday night group consisted of several men a 'few' years older than him. Jake ran across this verse and afterwards decided to call these men up and have them pray over him:

"Is any of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord....the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5: 14, 16b

After that night we went to the hospital for the tests. I was so angry because Jake literally left for Japan in 2 WEEKS! Not as much angry with God, as I mentioned before, as I was with the military. The man left me in this little waiting area all alone while Jake went down the hallways for his tests. I remember sitting there, I was freezing because it was such a cold place, and listening to some soap opera on the tv. I kept thinking, "why is everyone so mean here? Don't they realize Jake is leaving? Don't they realize how scary this is?"
I was NOT the best christian example that day to any who spoke to me. After the tests, we left and called his mom again. 
They said they would call us back the next afternoon.

As you can probley tell right now what the outcome was. But that afternoon we didn't know. Do you want to know what my husband did? He prayed. He was calm. He silently cried and held me and was so much stronger than I would EVER be. We watched some movies I think, I can't really remember and we must have eaten dinner but he constantly prayed not for him....but for me...
what a man I married!

The next morning the tests came back. Completley clear.

I believe with everything inside of me they came back clear because of what Jake did. He followed Christ's words of love and had the elders pray over him. God tested Jake and knew the outcome already.

I know many people would say, "oh, that is just a coincidence, something must have messed up the x-ray. God doesn't do miracles anymore, that's just in the Old testament. or something ignorant like, Well, he was lucky!"

NO, we serve a great a merciful God! A Lord who is full of compassion and mercy!-James 5:11b

I don't know why I felt the need to share this this morning. I know there are many people out there with hurts and sickness. I just thought our story could shed some hope and I urge you to pray and have other gather and pray around you because God is the greatest doctor of all!