Tranquility

From the Spirit Filled Life.    C. Stanley.

The Vine is Christ, I am the branch. The Holy Spirit is the Sap that runs from the Vine into the branch. The branch lives, grows, bears fruit not by struggles and effort, but by simply abiding...     There has been a peace, a tranquility, a serenity about my life that outweighs anything I have ever known.

My days with RA vary. I may have two weeks of really good days, or I may have two weeks of really bad. I am extremely grateful for the movement I have.

I can say that, as I have before, I too had great tranquility. I still do, but since my good days are often spent not laying and doing Bible studies, my conversations with God have been shallower. This makes the days, when the RA hits me that I do not have the life I had, harder because I do not have as deep of a relationship as I did. It is so easy to be distracted by things of the world...even just watering plants in a greenhouse.  Our relationship with God is a thing we must work on...time spent getting to know God; more importantly WANTING to know God. The time spent is useless if the whole heart and spirit is not in it.

Now, after saying that, working on Bible studies or prayer or whatever works for you will often spur on the desire to know God more.

The Holy Spirit is something that tells us so much of God's love. After all, for generations of people, there generally was not a Spirit filled life, from all I have read. What a blessing we are given! God with us 24/7. And the Spirit is with us, not living in the Temple about the Jewish synagogue. We get so much help through the Spirit.

I think God knows (being that He is omnipotent) that we struggle. We struggle with being angry and upset, and sometimes half at Him for not saving the person.Think of all the stories: The father with the sick child asking Jesus to help him with his unbelief---right after stating he did believe. Even those of us who believe need help believing, especially when things are scary.

Another thought: Mary and Martha both said to Jesus that if He had only been there sooner, Lazarus might not have died. We say that as well; if God had answered our prayer, Uncle Jo might not have died...baby Elizabeth might have lived.

Jesus waited to heal Lazarus, yes. But He wept. And He did raise Him from the dead that the glory of God would be known.  I think that allowing the suffering we have, then, does grieve God. But, as with the raising of Lazarus...there are times our trials are turned to the glory of God. 

If a person faces many horrible things, or even one, and faces it with the idea of honoring God regardless, determinedly keeping our Faith, people see it. People who are not of the faith. And it can make them start to look into faith, see why someone who should be nearly paralyzed with grief is mostly fine. 

Another last thought: keeping the Faith deep in your heart....keeps His love in you, and makes harder things easier because He is there in the dark hours of the night when tears flow from illness, loss or just a bad day. He is always there, and will never abandon us, even if we are asked to face hard things.