Around a month ago, we visited a community called San Lucas where we stayed for church service. At the end, when the pastor was giving the announcement, he asked the church to join him in prayer for a lady that was probably in her last days of life. We all left and went to Doña Francisca house. She was in bed, she could barely open her eyes, and she could barely talk.

I sat on the side of her bed and held her hand while the pastor was giving her words of encouragement and praying for her. She had diabetes, and had been taking medicine, but she wasn’t getting any better. We truly thought she was not going to make it; she looked bad. After we prayed for her, I told her that we would keep praying for her and she turned to see me and said, “Sister, the Lord has saved me from worse.”  

The words, “God has saved me from worse”, got stuck in my mind. How could this lady, who was surrounded by worried loved ones and in an awful condition, say such a thing? Doña Francisca had so much faith that God was going to get her out of bed walking that a week later we got to see what she believed become real.

When we returned to San Lucas the next week, we saw a lady cleaning beans in front of her house. For a moment I thought it was Doña Francisca, but I told myself that it couldn’t be her because she was really sick last time I saw her. There was no way she was already back in the kitchen working. We walked to her house, and to my surprise it was her. She was already working. As soon as she saw us, she ran to the house to get chairs and coffee for us.

Doña Francisca is a huge example of what it means to have faith in God. She knew that to her God, sickness and diabetes was not a problem. What seemed to be the end for us was just the beginning of another testimony. 

Faith is a small word that can change our lives and make it better. Walking by faith is something so hard to do but so powerful. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Most of the time we like to see things happening, but what about those times that we can’t? What about when the people surrounding you think that you’re about to pass away? What about the times that the only thing we have is our faith in the One that makes all things possible? 

Faith is focusing on God and not on the storm that is happening around you. Faith is putting your eyes and mind on Him and not on the circumstances. Yes, diabetes can be treated and it might be a matter of taking enough insulin, but it is not as easy in a community where people don’t have the knowledge to treat it or the medicine to heal it. This lady might not have access to many things but she has access to God and truly puts her faith in Him.

We would all be better people, better Christians, if we had faith like Doña Francisca. If we would change our minds and trust Him; trust Him in everything. Trusting in Him even if we don’t receive what we want. Trusting that whatever happens is his way of saving us from worse. 

My prayer is that our faith gets strengthened and we learn to live it.