What to do First when You Receive Earth Shattering News| Transformed4More.com| Blog for Teenage Girls

I was 15 when I was told I might have cancer. That I might never be able to have kids. That I might have to have all of my “female parts” removed to avert a crisis. Fifteen.

How do you face a prognosis like this at that age? Why would God have a young person face this? What did they mean I may never have kids? Like never ever? Questions like these filled my mind.

So what do you do? What is the first thing to do when you receive “earth shattering” news?

Tell your friends? Family? Church? Drive around and cry? Plead? Beg?

No.

Take it to the Lord

Sitting in that doctors office, I knew the first thing we were going to do when we got home was pray. Prayer proved a consistent part of my family’s life and any time we had an issue or someone called for prayer, we all stopped what we were doing, came together in the living room and prayed. This time would prove no different.

We prayed and then called everyone we knew to pray for us. My mom had her sister fly up from Florida and we all prayed together again (goodness I’m tearing up now) the night before my surgery.

After that prayer, I could sense that everything would be OK, but that my walk in recovery would not be easy.

What ended up happening…

After nearly two hours in surgery, the surgeon discovered that a gigantic football sized tumor had grown off of my ovary. They ended up taking the tumor and the ovary, but my other one was spared, so I would be able to have children.

Recovery was long and arduous (as a 15 year old at least). It was a month before I had any stamina. Initially I couldn’t get out of bed without help, shower by myself, or eat much food. I developed lung issues and had to do breathing treatments everyday. I missed a month of school. It took me over a month to make up all of my work.

But God is faithful.

From this experience I came to know God as a healer. Since then, I have been able to tell others that God CAN heal and that He will walk with you every day during the valley.

What to do when you get Earth shattering news. Click to read. Click To Tweet

Your “Earth Shattering” Trouble is His

No matter what news you may be facing, you need to listen to this sermon.

Loran Livingston is one of our favorite pastors. He preaches at Central Church of God in Charlotte, NC. A few months ago, I listened to this sermon and it reminded me once again of 15 years ago, and all the times since then, that God really cares about our troubles.

I highly recommend you watch the sermon, but in case you don’t have 40 minutes, here’s the intro…

Isaiah 36 and 37 tell the story of Hezekiah, King of Judah, and an invading army called the Assyrians. Their leader, Sannacharib, threatens to destroy their entire land and warns Hezekiah that their “god” cannot help them.

The first thing Hezekiah does is go to God, “When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord…” (Isaiah 37:1). If you read on through verse 7, the prophet Isaiah gives a word from the Lord that Sannacharib will be destroyed.

Pastor Livingston ties all of this together in an excellent way. I hope you’ll watch the full sermon below. :).

In Closing

GOD REALLY DOES CARE.

If you are being faced with earth shattering news, take it to God. He cares. You are His child. He can do more than you can imagine.

Feel free to share this post with anyone you think may need it or need a reminder as well. :).

Freebie

To go along with this post, I wanted to share something from our free resource library. It’s a sheet with “13 Promises of God for the Hard Times”. Click the graphic to access. Feel free to cut them up and put them in places where you’ll see them so you are reminded of God’s faithfulness.