Why Do You Serve a God You Don’t Trust? Lana’s Healing Story | COMPASS in the Storm Ep 3

Full Transcript

Transcribed from the episode audio. Names, places and scripture references have been corrected, and caption noise has been removed.

Hello my podcast friends. This is Lana Bach, your host on COMPASS in the Storm, bringing you a special November surprise podcast. My guest today is none other than yours truly, Lana Bach. I’m your host. I know it may sound a bit unusual, but every November I make it a tradition to share something extraordinary that happened in my life.

God did something in November of 2017 that changed my life forever and I thought why not share it this year on my podcast. So stay tuned for the rest of the story. First, let me say that I am not sharing this story as a form of bragging rights, saying, “Look what God did for me.” Although I kind of am because I know if he did it for me, he can do it for you. So, you may want to listen until the very end.

You may not believe what I’m about to tell you, but my medical records and witnesses will verify this unbelievable story. I look back now and it seems like one long nightmare. At one point, I was losing 2 to three lbs per week. Clothes just hung on me. And when I looked in the mirror, I saw a skeleton.

Inflammation in my body was off the chart. My heartbeat averaged 140 beats per minute for almost six months. What doctors thought was rheumatoid disease turned out to be a complex autoimmune storm that was making my body attack itself with everything it had. Treatment after treatment, but no medication was able to stop the cytokine storm in my body. My loving husband had to assume all of my chores along with his.

And every day he spent hours trying to prepare some kind of food that I could just swallow. After he helped me to bed each night, he would go sit in his favorite recliner in the living room, watch the news, and just catch his breath from the busyness of the day. And one night, I could hear him weeping. He wanted so badly to fix me, and I so badly wanted to release him from all the work and worry that came with caring for a fatally ill loved one. After years of just getting sicker and sicker, I heard the words, “We’ve done all we can do for you.”

And the doctors proceeded to tell me that the high inflammation levels in my body would soon cause a heart attack or cancer would begin to attack my body. I once was very healthy, vibrant, golfing and walking. And now there I was unable to even hold a hairbrush. I’m not telling you my medical history so you’ll feel sympathy for me or to show you my scars. I am trying to stress how hopeless I felt which in turn made me ask God why why God and why me God and that is something I know many of you are asking at this very moment it is truly amazing the questions we ask when we don’t understand why something is happening to us why me Lord Is it wrong to question God?

I never doubted that God had the power to help me get better. And I remember thinking, why God? Why would you make two people go through such horrific pain? We love you and served you through many tough times. But this was too much.

I didn’t understand why this was happening. So, I decided to punish God. I decided to not read my Bible. And most times, my only words I spoke to him in prayer were, “You don’t care about me, God. I know you can heal me.

Why are you withholding health from my body?” And then I would push the Bible away. Later in the day, I would feel horrible for what I said to a loving God. And repent, crying for forgiveness for my anger. It was a cycle round and round.

And then one day, in my deepest despair, while I was having a hissy fit on my couch, complaining about my illness, the Lord stopped me and spoke to my spirit. And I felt him say, “Lana, why do you serve a God who you don’t trust? Either I am God and you can trust me or I’m not. Wow. It was like a knife just plunged into my heart and cut out all the anger and fear.

And through my flowing tears, I said, “Oh Lord, you are so right. I am so sorry. I choose right now to trust you, Lord. Whether you heal me or not, I choose to trust you because I know you are the one true God. One week after that encounter, two pastors from my church came to pray for me.

Pastor Ross and Pastor Paul. And in our ministry, my husband and I have seen the healing power of God in the lives of friends who physicians had given up for dead. So, it was not unusual for pastors to come and pray for my failing body. And that’s what they did on November 9th, 2017. Friends, the next morning, November 10th, I woke up a completely different person.

As soon as my eyes opened, I felt like I had been in a fog that I just walked out of. And that morning, for the first time in almost 2 years, I was able to use my bedside bars to pull myself up. I was able to stand up by myself and use the walker by myself to walk into the living room. My heart was pounding with excitement. I knew something was happening in my body, something powerful, something good.

It was definitely God. My husband was already awake and in the kitchen. And when he saw me coming down the hallway, I could see the shock in his face as he shouted, “What are you doing?” I just started crying. I felt something supernatural happening.

And I answered, “Honey, I think God is healing my body.” Steve came alongside me, grabbed me by the arm, and we walked to the couch. We sat crying, wondering, “Is this really happening? In a few weeks time, friends, my blood work went from the worst in my life to the very best I’ve ever had in my life. My doctors, all of them were shocked and wanted to know what in the world happened.

So, I told them I’m so thankful for God’s healing power. I want to say a very special thank you for all those people who prayed so diligently for me and my illness. My family, my friends, my church missionaries, I’m just saying churches, thank you. But that’s not the end of the story. Four years later, almost the date of my healing, my husband became fatally ill with interstitial lung disease.

Prayers went up for him. Pastors came to pray for him, but he passed away within 3 months. During that entire horror, I heard God’s word in my heart saying, “Remember, you said you were going to trust me. So, you are going to trust me, right?” I could honestly say that through the pain and tears, I was able to trust God.

How? because of the storm he brought me through 4 years earlier. There is no doubt in my mind that one of the reasons I went through that fatal illness was to prepare me for what was coming 4 years later, the loss of my husband. I’m even more thankful now for the lessons of that time in my life, as hard as they were. What did I learn from this experience? Our faith in God is only as strong as our trust in him.

God meets us in our pain, transforms it into purpose, and walks alongside us every step of the way. Now, my storm was a fatal illness, but maybe your storm is something else. The loss of a marriage, a wayward child, a foreclosed home. The storms of life will come. The question is, how will you navigate that storm to come through it a better person, not a bitter person?

This is what I know. The Bible tells us in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” If if you will move toward God in times of trouble and in your storms instead of away from God in your difficult season, he will draw near to you and you will discover a depth in God that cannot be experienced without going through some type of adversity. This is part of the journey of learning to trust God. You may never know the reasons why he allows you to go through difficulties in life, but he wants to bring purpose through your pain.

The Lord instructs us to be a testimony for him. And when he does something that’s so special in our lives, even salvation, we are to share it with others for their purpose so that they will be drawn to him. I hope this story of encouragement will draw you into his arms, that it will draw you into his love. Know that God has a purpose in all that happens in your life. For those who are watching and they are asking, “Why did God heal her and didn’t heal my loved one?”

I don’t have an answer. All I can tell you is it all comes down to trusting God. Either he is God or he’s not. And his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts. So we look through a small screen trying to figure out why things happen when really there’s a bigger purpose.

I’ve experienced the joy of healing and I’ve and I’ve experienced the pain of loss and in both they have required trust in God. So I hope you understand that the Lord has me share this not to show anything in my life but to show you his greatness and his glory and what he can do for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” If you are going through a life storm right now, I want to say a prayer for you and invite you to ask the Lord to help you through the storm in your life. Lord, I pray for the ones who are listening to this podcast experiencing the worst storm of their life.

I pray that they will invite you to walk with them through their storm and be willing to draw near to you, to experience the love you have for them. May they feel your strength and love as they spend time reading your word and as they share their heart’s cry with you. Thank you, Lord, that you promised never to leave them. May each one listening come into a deeper relationship with you as a result of their stormy season. And I’ll thank you for this in Jesus’ name.

Amen. If you are seeking hope and encouragement during a hard season in your life and you haven’t already subscribed to my podcast, I invite you to subscribe to COMPASS in the Storm. We’re here every first Tuesday of the month. And in this podcast, we highlight inspiring stories of people who have overcome the most challenging storms of their lives through God’s grace and strength. We share scriptural truths that will strengthen your faith and trust in God.

These truths will give you hope and help you to navigate through the troubled waters of life God’s way. Thank you for being with me, friends. I hope this podcast has been an inspiration to you. And don’t forget to mark the first Tuesday of next month so you don’t miss my next podcast with Valerie Juillerat. Valerie bravely battled the darkness that threatened to consume her life and her family.

But she’ll share with you an inspiring word that will renew your hope in the Lord. Thank you and we’ll see you then. Don’t forget, stay the course.