Hi, I'm Stan Lim. Some of you may know that I am the producer of this "God is Faithful" podcast series.
Over the last 10 months since we started the God is Faithful podcast, we have heard touching reminders of our Lord's love and faithfulness during these challenging times. I was also especially surprised, but appreciative of the humility of many of our contributors who opened up to share their personal struggles with feelings of hopelessness, depression, loneliness, stress and anxiety. Many of these testimonies came from people whom I looked-up to and respected as mature Christians. These honest and humble confessions encouraged me as I also went through periods of negativity and doubt.
Recent events have given me reason to share a short podcast myself.
A few weeks ago, my entire household tested positive for COVID-19. Ironically, just a few days before that diagnosis, I had just completed my annual physical exam, where I had the best health and medical test scores in the last decade. For the past year, I had been exercising more, eating healthier and losing excess weight. I was feeling great! But a few days later, I had severe flu symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19. My wife who had tested negative just a week earlier now tested positive. Subsequently, when my mother and daughter got tested, they were also positive.
Today, I want to share three key points with you. The first is that God is GOOD. I want to thank our Lord and to acknowledge his mercy, grace and compassion to me and my family. My mother, wife and daughter all had mild symptoms that lasted only a few days. I had more severe symptoms that made me very tired and sleepy for three weeks. Given how deadly this virus could be, I am thankful that God spared us from more severe consequences. By taking us through this experience, I hope that my family now has antibodies that will protect us from future infections.
The second point I want to share is the gift and privilege of prayers.
As soon as we found out about our condition, many of you including our church leaders, Elders, Ministers, Deacons, home group, men's group, women's group and other church family started praying for us. Even though I was alone in quarantine for a week, knowing that you were praying for me was a source of encouragement during my physical isolation. Thank you all for your prayers for me and my family.
Many times during my recovery, the Lord reminded me of His Sovereignty and Absolute Control. I was impatient to be get better, and felt frustrated that for 2 weeks, all I wanted to do was sleep. On some days, it felt that I only woke up to eat and drink a little, and then go back to sleep. I wasn't even interested to watch tv. I surprised myself at how absolutely unmotivated I was to do anything.
After a few days of this, Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God" started repeating in my head. I told God that I trusted Him, didn't I? So why not trust him to heal me in his time? Just as Pastor Hans preached last Sunday, God often uses challenges, difficulties and even silence to help us grow in our faith.
I got to a stage where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I started to pray because that was all I could manage to do. I would wake up in the middle of the night or day, and was too tired and lazy to do anything. So I just thanked the Lord that I was still breathing, and go back to sleep.
Initially, my prayers were mainly for myself and my family - that we could all recover and be healed. As I got better, I started praying for others in our church, some who have much more serious and life threatening conditions than myself. Just as others in our church had prayed for me, I felt more and more empowered to pray for others as well.
A childhood friend send me encouragement from Philippians 4:6-7 NIV
"Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which tra
