She is improving. Join me in the fight for FAITH!

The doctor in Ethiopia said that our Baby E is still improving. Thank you so much God! All glory to you. Thank you for hearing us and choosing to answer us in this way. Her diarrhea has stopped. She is taking some feeding by mouth. She does not have a fever. She is coughing less. She still has an IV and needs the Kwashiokor milk. Please continue to pray for her healing and the presence of the Spirit to fill her with comfort. I have spent hours and hours today trying to figure out how to get her some vitamin supplements they requested. Please pray God would help.
I have to say that I am having to battle anxiety right now. I just wanted you to know that in the midst of this it can feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. I just got sick and have a fever. Jay has been sick. We are doing some remodeling to our house and we are putting in a new pool. This is the last 3 weeks of school for my kids. They have parties galore. We leave in a week and  a half for our court date in Ethiopia. All I want to do is stay on my knees for Edil. It is so cool how God uses trials to clarify what matters. I love times when I am so desperate I do not want to get off my knees.
So I am listening to Piper's series Battling Unbelief, http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/by-series/battling-unbelief, specifically the Anxiety sermon. They are may be my favorite Piper sermons, but I love 1 & 2 Peter.)  The Christian life is a fight for faith. 2 Tim 4:7 God commands us not  to be anxious but trust Him Matthew 6: 25,27, 31 and 34. The root of anxiety is unbelief in the promises of God. 2 Responses. 1. This is not good news. It is good news and bad news. Like finding out you have cancer. You need to know you have it so you can fight it before it kills you. 2. How can I have any assurance at all?
Listen to Piper and learn how to fight. "My answer to this concern goes like this: Suppose you are in a car race and your enemy who doesn't want you to finish the race throws mud on your windshield. The fact that you temporarily lose sight of your goal and start to swerve does not mean that you are going to quit the race. And it certainly doesn't mean that you are on the wrong racetrack. Otherwise the enemy wouldn't bother you at all. What it means is that you should turn on your windshield wipers and use your windshield washer.

What I mean is this: when anxiety strikes and blurs our vision of God's glory and the greatness of the future that he plans for us, this does not mean that we are faithless, or that we will not make it to heaven. It means our faith is being attacked. At first blow our belief in God's promises may sputter and swerve. But whether we stay on track and make it to the finish line depends on whether we set in motion a process of resistance. Whether we fight back against anxiety. Will we turn on the windshield wipers and will we use our windshield washer?

The Testimony of Scripture

Psalm 56:3 says, "When I am afraid, I put my trust in thee." Notice: it does not say, "I never struggle with fear." Fear strikes and the battle begins. So the Bible does not assume that true believers will have no anxieties. Instead the Bible tells us how to fight when they strike.

For example, 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you." It does NOT say, you will never feel any anxieties to cast onto God. It says, when the mud splatters your windshield and you lose temporary sight of the road and start to swerve in anxiety, turn on your wipers and squirt your windshield washer.

To the One Who Struggles Daily with Anxiety

So my response to the person who has to deal with feelings of anxiety every day is to say: that's more or less normal. The issue is how you deal with them.

And the answer to that is: you deal with anxieties by battling unbelief. And you battle unbelief by meditating on God's Word and asking for the help of his Spirit. The windshield wipers are the promises of God that clear away the mud of unbelief. And the windshield washer fluid is the help of the Holy Spirit.

Without the softening work of the Holy Spirit the wipers of the Word just scrape over the blinding clumps of unbelief. Both are necessary—the Spirit and the Word. We read the promises of God and we pray for the help of his Spirit. And as the windshield clears so we can see the welfare that God plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), our belief grows strong and the swerving of anxiety smoothes out."

What an amazing word. May we use the trust His promises in scripture with the power of the Holy Spirit. Use your windshield wipers and wiper fluid when anxiety attacks. 

Hear Piper model how to fight for Faith:

• When I am anxious about some risky new venture or meeting, I battle unbelief with the promise: "Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God; I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand" (Isaiah 41:10).
• When I am anxious about my ministry being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise, "So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not come back to me empty but accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11).
• When I am anxious about being too weak to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ, "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9), and "As your days so shall your strength be" (Deuteronomy 33:25).
• When I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle unbelief with the promise, "I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you" (Psalm 32:8).
• When I am anxious about facing opponents, I battle unbelief with the promise, "If God is for us who can be against us!" (Romans 8:31).
• When I am anxious about being sick, I battle unbelief with the promise that "tribulation works patience, and patience approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope does not make us ashamed" (Romans 5:3–5).
• When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, "Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save" (Isaiah 46:4).
• When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that "none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself; if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose again: that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living" (Romans 14:9–11).
• When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promise, "He who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:6). "He who calls you is faithful. He will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). "He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).]

I am printing this out and using it to fight for faith in Christ tomorrow. Trusting that when I seek Him first all these things will be added unto me in the exact measure He desires!

Thank you Father, for your great and precious promises. You are Faithful!

Jesus is the All-Satisfying Treasure!

Ashley