When the storms of life are raging and God is seemingly silent, do you believe that He is still there? 

Bianca Juarez Otlhoff reminds us that we have the ability to be transformed and increase our faith in the midst of fiery trials.

Bianca shares from personal experience and reflects on God’s presence during her mom’s battle with cancer.

“My mom was diagnosed stage four and she was just in bed every single day writhing in pain; you’d hear her from the other room just writing in pain. I had younger brothers and sisters so I would take care of them, clean the house, and help school them as well.”

“I remember coming home one weekend and my mom was reading the Word of God. She didn’t have a whole lot of energy, but when she did she would just pull the Bible up to her face closely. The chemotherapy she had was inserted in the top of her cranium. She had brain surgery to put that in and it dripped chemotherapy twenty-four hours a day. It affected her vision, hair loss, mobility, etc. I mean it was a tragic situation.”

“Here’s this woman struggling to hold the Bible up, but she would just read God’s Word because she believed in the faithfulness of God. She turned to me one day when I came home and I sat down next to her. I was stroking her bald head and she said, ‘Bianca, I know that one day God is going to heal me.’”

Bianca was struggling to understand how God was going to heal her mom given her grim medical diagnosis and visible suffering.

“I said, ‘mom, I want him to heal you too, but how do you know?’ She said, ‘He gave me a promise in his Word.’ She turned to Psalm 92 where it says, ‘The righteous will flourish like a palm tree’ and she said, ‘I know that this verse is for me.’”

“You to look into the face of a loved one that’s holding on to hope and want to hope with them, but it was a little hard for me. Until she said, ‘Bianca, I know that God is going to heal me – whether on earth or in heaven – but I know He’s going to heal me.’

“As small and as insignificant as that line was, it really reconciled for me: God even if you don’t heal my mom on earth, I know that you’re going to heal my mom in heaven.”

She was able to increase her faith and experience the peace and presence of God in the midst of her mom’s fiery battle with cancer.

We find several examples throughout Scripture of those who also held on to their faith during the fiery trials of life. Bianca shares an example from Daniel 3.

“There’s a beautiful understanding that we see we with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When they turn to King Nebuchadnezzar and say, ‘You may throw us in the fire, but our God is able to rescue us!’ Then they say, ‘But even if He doesn’t we want you to know, King Nebuchadnezzar, that we will not bow down and worship the image made of gold.’”

“They had an understanding that our God is completely competent and can, but even if He doesn’t, they will not cower or bow down. That was a moment of transforming my faith. I will choose to believe in you God, even if you don’t give me my wish.”

We can cling onto the promises of God throughout the storms of life and trust that He will never leave our side. He will deliver us from the fire and increase our faith in the process.


Bianca Juarez Olthoff fires up audiences around the world with hilarious stories and profound Bible teaching as she inspires women to live with unquenchable passion. She is author of .

Faith in the fire