Injection of Hope

From A Place of Healing, J.E. Tada

I like the fact the Bible acknowledges that we will find ourselves in emergencies and times of deep distress or intense fear when we need immediate help or an emergency injection of hope directly into a main artery of our soul
  
 And you know what? If you ask for that help, strength or hope....I bet you get it. Sometimes there are too many things for you to learn through some "wonderful" trial for the trial to be taken away. But He is more than willing to fund you with all the hope, strength and love that can ever be found. It's like we are Olympic Fill-In-The-Blank-With-Favorite-Sport, and He is backing us to finish the training so we win. If we stop training....there is no way we will earn the Gold medal. 
No, no! Don't think I am saying we have to "earn" anything. The Word is clear that "without faith, it is impossible to please God."...but I think when we face trials like illness, job searches, hard marriages, moving....whatever is a trial in one's life with God in the foremost of our thoughts and statements, we win the Gold, because we stand out in the world as different. 
I have heard stories of people coming to God because they watched someone work on a tractor in the pouring rain all day....and that person never swore nor lost his temper. And that difference was enough to that person to change one person's life forever. Makes you think a lot before you speak or think, huh. So ask away... I bet God will help you out with the hope department. 


A death wish? Not at all. It's a simple longing for the comfort, relief, refreshment and joy of my Father's house.Even the best memories of walking and running and swimming and riding a horse---why these are whispers and faded newspaper images of how much more I will have in heaven. No one wants a personal war, and everyone who has one would like to be rid of it. But in Christ, the hardships themselves are not wasted....will bring back benefits to our lives a thousandfold. Physical pan is a reminder too. It's a sharp, unrelenting prod to remember than many men, women and little ones who belong to our Lord Jesus are also wrestling with pain. I only know that because I wasn't healed, because God had plans for my life that were wider and higher and deeper and more profound than I could have imagined.  


Oh, goodness, yes. There is a stronger longing for eternity with a chronic illness than I ever had before. I was always pleased with the idea of being with God, my Dear Heavenly Father....but when faced with chronic pain, it looks and sounds even better. And no, I am not suicidal, if that is a fear....I just look around me now and see the brokenness on this groaning world, and it amazes me that I did not see it more clearly before.
Often times when a trial hits....we sit and fight ourselves. We can do it. We don't need help. We can fend off this depression. We can handle this marital issue. We can take being single. We can handle the screaming two year old and the stomping five year old. Or the sulking teen. Yep. We can do it. Makes us sound like a three year old, doesn't it? 
But when we just let go. Let go and ask for help....that battle becomes so much easier. It may even go away right then. Or it will lessen over 50 years like Joni's accident, or 10 years like my anxiety.
Trials do help us to remember other people. Or if not remember other people, it allows us to help them if they have a similar battle. Similar, not the same. We forget that part. 
I am sure God is not done showing me stuff with this pain and whole RA business....and with a little better pain control, I am finding reading His Word so fascinating. I can't quite describe it. It's just so alive compared to any other book. 

Today I drove to the library again. I was up to much, so I am aching now and paying for it. Oops. Discovered ROM exercises to do, and how to progress....which is not at all until more inflammation is gone. But hey, it is something to keep joints in semi good condition.