Every Christian needs encouragement from time to time when we flag and are not exactly feeling ‘aglow with the Spirit’. This post is I suppose a personal testimony of God’s care and faithfulness, written to those unbelievers who like to think that ‘God’ is a figment of our imagination and wishful thinking. Imagination and wishful thinking can never make something happen - but God can and does. Every true Christian knows through Scripture and their personal relationship with God that He accomplishes all things for us and works everything together for our good – including the bad things that happen.
After my husband died suddenly four years ago, one of the things I missed most [ and still do of course] was having that special someone to share things with – Christian things especially. We were very much alike in our tastes and interests as well as our temperaments and sense of humour and did most things together. So it was a huge loss and there was no other person, humanly speaking, who could fill that space. I know it’s the same for others and it results of course in feeling extremely lonely, no matter how kind and helpful family, friends and acquaintances try to be.
The reason I’m going into all this is that I was necessarily thrown into the position of sole reliance upon God’s grace in my hour of need and I can honestly say that He never failed me once. Every time I cried out to Him in my desperation and grief, He was always faithful to His Word to comfort those that mourn and He gave me the promised ‘peace that passes understanding’, plus the added strength that I needed for day to day living.
Another thing I miss is that when I’m feeling poorly or, as was the case very recently, in absolute agony with back pain [ a recurring problem], there is nobody with me now to sympathise and help me feel sorry for myself [only joking!]. That isn’t to say that family, friends and neighbours wouldn’t help me out – of course they would – but they’re not always there at 3 o’clock in the morning are they ?? Anyway – everyone has their own life to live with their own problems and anxieties to cope with – nobody is immune from life’s trials.
So, yet again I was totally reliant upon God to get me through. I’ve a tendency to cry out to the Lord for either healing and deliverance from pain or to ask Him at least to show me how to cope and help myself – and experience has taught me that to cry out to the Lord is for Him to hear and answer in His own way – and sure enough – He does.
When you’re in pain, all you want is relief from it and it’s so difficult to shift your mind set from thinking about the pain to focussing on God . But usually when I manage to do just that He gives me a scripture to meditate on. During this latest episode it was ‘ Rejoice evermore.Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’ [1Thess 5:16-18] And d’you know what ? It worked !
Not only that – as I was puzzling with myself over why I keep getting these back things [ complicated by the fact that I have a Hiatus Hernia too !] and what it really was – the words ‘muscle spasm’ came into my thoughts. So , in spite of still feeling very fragile, I did a Google search on my ipad and low and behold the info fitted me to a T …. including the fact that it’s probably the most severe pain you can suffer and that it can be the result of RSI through sitting at the computer too long ! I’d had a back muscle spasm many years previously, but that was caused by sneezing so I never associated the other episodes with it – although I knew it must be muscle-related. You may be wondering if I went to the Doctor ? Well, having been often in the past and not getting any particular diagnosis it becomes something you just live with [ plus pain-killers].
So, in spite of the fact that I probably bring these things upon myself through bad habits [ like Blogging] – the Lord is gracious and makes me more than a ‘conqueror’ again through Him who loves me … and all who will turn to Him.
