What do You Want for Your Birthday?
What do You Want for Your Birthday?
By Pam Holt
"What do you want for your birthday?” is a fairly common question, but
this time, I was asking Jesus and His reply went straight to the top of
my gift list!A family tradition began when our children were young: inviting the Lord Jesus to tell each of us how we might honor Him at His birthday time. Christmas 2004, I once again put the question to Him in prayer. Clearly and unmistakably, I heard Him answer.
I was aware that, over the years, an understandable distrust of unbelievers’ motivations had gradually enlarged from its roots in my life to become a generally suspicious attitude toward many people. At the moment, I could not see the degree to which it was shriveling my faith, but I would soon learn.
The Lord lovingly led me into 1 Peter for one of the richest studies
I’ve done in several years. Verse after verse leaped off the pages,
showing me when, how, and why I could trust Him to lead, protect, care
for, and triumphantly reign whether or not others’ motivations were
honorable (as if I could know, anyway!) About mid-December of that
year, I was ready to present to Him my gift—a willing heart and
prepared mind to change as He had requested.“Where do I start, Lord?” Within days, the answer came in the form of a call from the Women’s Clinic. My recent mammogram, when compared with the previous years’, showed a suspicious area that should be re-checked. On January 3, 2005, they said what every woman hopes never to hear: “a definite mass” and five days later, “malignant.”
You would assume my primary battle was with cancer. Not so much, thanks to other people’s prayers. Instead, it was trusting God’s good reign over my life through fallible human beings—most of them not-yet-followers of the Lamb. Almost daily I was tempted to carry out one or another version of “cut and run” to protect myself—isn’t that ludicrous? It’s almost too embarrassing to tell! Those verses from 1 Peter got a good workout as the Lord arranged practice after practice in standing on their truths!
By June, the cancer part was over, medically speaking. It’s plain that God chose to answer those prayers by healing me for now. The other thing He did was precious. Once again, He broke through and rescued me—this time from a self-made version of “keeping myself from evil,” which was actually strangling His life and love in my life. There have been some delightful consequences of continuing to learn that freedom, but that’s another story for another time.
Pam and Joe Holt have served in numerous Military ministries in the United States and Germany. They moved to Columbus, Ohio, in the fall of 2004 to live near their son and family.