We received news yesterday that one of our closest friends, Hunter Prevatt, has a growth in his lymph nodes. The doctors have immediately gone to work to run a battery of tests to determine if this growth is malignant or benign. And around that same time the news broke, each one of us that love and care for Hunter felt a wide range of emotions.

Fear is a very difficult emotion to navigate. God’s Word instructs us that “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:8) But this is so hard to put into practice when emotions are raging and uncertainty is all around.

Faith is also quite a difficult reality to master. Especially when someone you love has just been given a wide range of possibilities, none of them looking like the most ideal of circumstances.

I have realized in the last 24 hours that there are certain things we cannot control. We cannot control the outcome of the tests that are being run. We cannot control God’s decision to heal or not heal. We can however, control our perspective. We can control the choice between faith and fear.

We can choose faith if we really believe that God is in control of everything. If we choose to believe that he has given us a spirit of power, love and self discipline. Or we can choose to fix our attention on the things that we cannot control and let our emotions rage wildly and let fear consume our thoughts.

There is no other option in my mind right now. We choose faith. I choose faith. I choose to place my trust in my God. That is what I can control.

I have been so encouraged by Hunter’s faith in the midst of all of this. He is standing tall and allowing God to bring his way whatever may come. His first response to me after he got the news was, “My faith is not shaken.”

Lord, help me to believe when I am scared. Help me to have faith to believe in the all-surpassing power of God. I choose faith. There is no other option.