Living beyond hepatitis C is the hope for every hep C patient. Faith and trust when you have hepatitis C is not always easy. Dealing with hep C diagnosis, searching for treatment and holding onto to hope for a new life free from hep C, every patient has walked this road.

Hep C knows no boundaries, it does not hold back from race, sex, religion, social status, rich or poor, or country. Hep C like any other serious health condition causes you to look on the inside out of life.

For me personally, when I heard I had tested positive for Hepatitis C, the first thing I said was, “That can’t be, I would have known if I had hepatitis.” When it was explained that Hep C was known as the “silent killer,” I choked back the tears and held back an enormous tidal wave of fear that felt like it would take me down at any moment. With a whisper I said, “Dear God, this can’t be true.” Can you relate?

I had to look beyond the moment. Beyond the diagnosis. Beyond fear. Beyond tests. Beyond failed treatment. Beyond getting back up and moving forward. For me, living beyond Hep C had to begin on the inside out. It had to begin with a foundation of faith and trust in God, in Jesus Christ and His plan for living beyond Hepatitis C.

Choices. I had choices to make even when it didn’t appear I had any. I had choices. I could choose to focus on fear and be paralyzed by it, or choose to put my faith and trust in God’s Word, His Son, and His plan for me, even when my physical eyes could not see it.

I had a choice to believe I was going to win over Hepatitis C no matter what. I could see fear. I could see failed treatment. But I chose to see that God was bigger than it all.

God would either heal me while I was on this earth, directly by his hand or through medical means, or He would heal me by taking me to heaven because I believe His ultimate sacrifice for me through Jesus His only Son who died for me. Either way, I was a winner. Victorious over Hep C.

I didn’t know what all His plan included but I knew His plan didn’t include; giving up, not fighting Hep C or not living a proactive lifestyle. It didn’t mean I stopped moving forward, it meant, I moved forward armed with faith and trust in each step of the journey.

I recently came across this awesome nugget about faith and trust in the devotional book, “Streams in the Desert” by L.B. Cowman, edited by Jim Reimann.

“There are three levels of faith in the Christian experience. The first is being able to believe only when we see some sign or have some strong emotion. Like Gideon, (Judges 6), we feel the fleece and are willing to trust God if it is wet. This may be genuine faith but it is imperfect. It is continually looking to feelings or some other sign instead of the Word of God.

We have taken a great step toward maturity when we trust God without relying on our feelings. It is more of a blessing when we believe without experiencing any emotion.

While the first level of faith believes when our emotions are favorable, the second believes when all feelings are absent. And the third level transcends the other two, for it is faith that believes God and His Word when circumstances, emotions, appearances, people and human reason all seem to urge something to the contrary.

Paul exercised this level of faith when he said, “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved” (Acts 27:20), then nevertheless went on to say, “Keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.” (Acts 27:25).

May God grant us faith to completely trust His Word, even when every other sign points the other way.

When is the time to trust? Is it when all is calm, when waves the victor’s palm, and life is one glad psalm of joy and praise?
No! For the time to trust is when the waves beat high, when storm clouds fill the sky, and prayer is one long cry, “Oh, help and save!”

When is the time to trust? Is it when friends are true? Is it when comforts woo, and in all we say and do, we meet but praise?
No! for the time to trust is when we stand alone, and summer birds have flown, and every prop is gone, all else but God.

When is the time to trust? Is it some future day, when you have tried your way, and learned to trust and pray by bitter woe?
No! For the time to trust is in this moment’s need, poor, broken, bruised reed! Poor, troubled soul, make speed to trust your God.

When is the time to trust? Is it when hopes beat high, when sunshine gilds the sky, and joy and ecstasy fill all the heart?
No! For the time to trust is when our joy has fled, when sorrow bows the head, and all is cold and dead, all else but God.

“No in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 37-39)

This entry was originally published on Life Beyond Hepatitis C, and is reprinted with permission.