My faith is weak right now. All around me I see heartache and sorrow among the people of faith. We all need to see Him move. To be reminded of His mightiness. Of His faithfulness. In the meantime we can remember what He's done, but it's not enough. We need more. We will claim His promises and wait with urgent expectation for them to be fulfilled.
Jeremiah 33:3, " Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
I can't tell you the passion I feel for this desire to see Him move. He still answers little prayers, which I know are faith-builders for the big ones, but He has filled me with a yearning for more. I have prayed with faith for the healing of so many lately, and we have not seen them healed. Yet. It is not about me, I know that. But it is about Him. His word says He will not let His people be put to shame. So...where are the miracles? I don't even care if it's healing that we see, I just want to see something. And I know others do too. It is time.
"Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I." Isaiah 58:9
Sometimes people pray for things like this for selfish reasons, but I don't think mine are. It's not that I don't believe He can work, or will work. It's not that I even have a specific prayer that I'm pouting about Him not answering. It's that people think they have so little hope. It's hard to convince them otherwise. And it's not just nonbelievers, who don't know better. Every time He doesn't answer a prayer that we offer in faith it's like it puts a notch in the limb we've put ourselves out on. He knows that. He will move before the branch breaks...won't He?
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24
Hebrews 11:6 says "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.". I am earnestly seeking Him and begging for the reward of seeing Him do something big. Only God is sovereign, and only He decides what "reward" it is that I will get, but I'm not going to stop asking. He has blessed me abundantly, but Abraham set a great example of asking boldly for more and more grace when He asked God to spare Sodom for the sake of a few (Gen 18:22-32).
I have a long list of people who are very sick that I'm praying for. Please consider adding them to your prayer list too, and I will post updates about the amazing ways God responds.
First, there is a woman named Barbara with precious, young, grandchildren who was told she likely has extensive cancer in her abdomen and lots of organs. Last I knew she was hospitalized for the pain and things were not looking good. Next, there is a young lady named Jackie who is unmarried and always wanted a family, etc. She was just diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and they started her on chemo while in the hospital. She is healthy, not a smoker or anything like that. Another is a man named Ryan, whose wife posted a note on here and is praying for his miraculous healing from Stage 4 stomach cancer. He was diagnosed last year, when his daughter was born. He is currently in a lot of pain and has a scan on Monday. They have a blog you can follow at http://watersfamilyforum.blogspot.com/. Lastly for the new ones, I can't believe I didn't post this sooner, but my little niece, Nora, has a tentative diagnosis of craniosyntosis, which means her soft spot closed up too early. It's a huge deal because if that's what it is they need to open her skull before her brain grows to be too big for it's space. They found out on the one-year anniversary of their house burning down! Satan will do anything to destroy us! Anyway, she has a consultation with a surgeon on Monday.
Please always keep praying for Debora P.'s healing, and Alison A., Jessica H., and my continued cancer-free health.
Two late praises are that: My friend Kristy, who has been struggling with lyme's disease for a very long time seems to have been healed. When I saw her she was claiming His victory over the enemy's apparent dominion in her body! Also, Alison had some symptoms of returning cancer a few weeks ago but a scan showed no cancer! He is definitely at work in all of us!
Psalm 50:15 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
15 and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
One-Year Anniversary of Healing
It's been a year. A glorious year. A year with much less doubt and much more faith. A year of my being a better person, mother, wife, daughter, friend, and Christian because of my increased faith. A year without much fear, which I didn't even know I struggled with before my diagnosis.
I just read the blog I posted last February 2. I wrote it right after Dr. Rassam said those life-altering words--"It's gone, your cancer is all gone! I can't explain it. I've never seen anything like it!" Words that changed everything. Words that shouldn't have changed anything.
Nothing changed that day besides my understanding of who God is. He was always Good and that is still true. He performs huge miracles every day, but we don't all see them or remember to praise Him for them. He also allows sad things to happen, for our well-being and the good of mankind, but we are quick to assign blame and remember His role in that.
He is at work in all our lives. Sometimes we're more aware than others. As long as we're living there is still time to change our ways and turn to Him, but sometimes it's harder to hear that call. I learned a bit about leprosy from biblical days the other day and was surprised to discover I had experienced similar sensations during chemo. That leprosy differed than the more current understanding. The biggest thing is that people lost sensitivity in their bodies but didn't notice until something that should have caused noteworthy sensation didn't. Like they might have cut themselves or gotten hot water on themselves but couldn't feel it.
That leprosy happened to many, many people in the Bible until Elisha healed one person of it and later Jesus and the disciples healed many. It was such a clear parallel to the way our hearts are within us now. We slowly accept worldly values and become desensitized to sin until we're so immersed in it we don't even notice. But there's healing available for all of us. Sometimes crazy things like a girl being healed of cancer opens strikes a chord and jerks our heads back to where they should be (looking up at God). Sometimes God uses other things to get our attention. I pray that we all will remember the things that He does to slough off the dead parts of us before it is too late. I don't want others to have to go through horrendous experiences just to get re-focused. But most importantly, I don't want any of us to miss the lessons from our experiences and spend an eternity regretting it.
"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him." Nahum 1:7
I just read the blog I posted last February 2. I wrote it right after Dr. Rassam said those life-altering words--"It's gone, your cancer is all gone! I can't explain it. I've never seen anything like it!" Words that changed everything. Words that shouldn't have changed anything.
Nothing changed that day besides my understanding of who God is. He was always Good and that is still true. He performs huge miracles every day, but we don't all see them or remember to praise Him for them. He also allows sad things to happen, for our well-being and the good of mankind, but we are quick to assign blame and remember His role in that.
He is at work in all our lives. Sometimes we're more aware than others. As long as we're living there is still time to change our ways and turn to Him, but sometimes it's harder to hear that call. I learned a bit about leprosy from biblical days the other day and was surprised to discover I had experienced similar sensations during chemo. That leprosy differed than the more current understanding. The biggest thing is that people lost sensitivity in their bodies but didn't notice until something that should have caused noteworthy sensation didn't. Like they might have cut themselves or gotten hot water on themselves but couldn't feel it.
That leprosy happened to many, many people in the Bible until Elisha healed one person of it and later Jesus and the disciples healed many. It was such a clear parallel to the way our hearts are within us now. We slowly accept worldly values and become desensitized to sin until we're so immersed in it we don't even notice. But there's healing available for all of us. Sometimes crazy things like a girl being healed of cancer opens strikes a chord and jerks our heads back to where they should be (looking up at God). Sometimes God uses other things to get our attention. I pray that we all will remember the things that He does to slough off the dead parts of us before it is too late. I don't want others to have to go through horrendous experiences just to get re-focused. But most importantly, I don't want any of us to miss the lessons from our experiences and spend an eternity regretting it.
"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him." Nahum 1:7
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