(I began this train of thought a week or two ago and thought that I should bring it to a conclusion.)
I know certain things to be true: God is sovereign. God is love. God is good all the time. His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. God rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
I sought the Lord, His kingdom and His righteousness (and continue to do so), and the Lord healed me and my children and has been providing for us and has been teaching us. I have noticed that there is a direct correlation between sin and sickness in my life. I have also noticed that when I begin to get bold and share on my blogs and with those around me, Satan attacks. I might be tempted to come to the conclusion that all sickness and trouble are the result of sin. Indeed, when things begin to fall apart, I look to see if there are any idols that have crept back into my life. Usually there are, and I repent and get rid of them as fast as is humanly possible.
But...I was reminded of Job. His friends suggested all kinds of reasons for his suffering, but the ultimate answer was that God is sovereign and we do not have the right to question Him and His ways. He can do as He pleases with any of us. Job had not sinned. God allowed Satan to test Job. Job passed the test!
From this, I learn that not all bad things that happen to me are a result of my sin. Sometimes things will come my way. My job is not to find out what I may have done to deserve it, but to act in faith, love and righteousness through the storm.
So, I find these things to be true. Sometimes bad things come our way as a result of our own sin. Sometimes bad things come our way because we are advancing the kingdom and the enemy is defending his territory. Sometimes bad things come our way for no apparent reason. In all of this, God works all things together for good. Our faith is strengthened. God's word is always true.
So true! So often, we wonder why the trial is happening and instinctively we wonder what WE have done. But the Lord never told Job why he suffered - He just allowed it for a purpose He never revealed. And Job was content with that in the end.
ReplyDeleteFor the past two weeks, my son has had severe rash all over his body for no reason. No matter how much I applied cream it didn't go away. I prayed, I struggled, i asked God why why why. But in the end, like everything else, we must keep the faith and trust Him that ...God causes ALL things to work together for good, to those who love God (Romans 8:28). Another thing I had to let go and allow God to have His way.
Tina Kim,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. It is nice to have a dialogue with someone about these things. I would write even if no one reads any of it, because it helps me to be able to think these kinds of things through, but it is nice to share these thoughts with others, too.
I feel for your son as he suffers with such severe skin issues. My children suffered only mildly compared to some, but it is very consuming and difficult to deal with. Praise God that he healed my son from all of the eczema on his backside, On his hands and arms, and on his face. My girls still suffer from a tiny bit of eczema, but I have not prayed for them in the same way that I prayed for my son, probably because it is not as severe and I got frustrated with having to keep praying for it. However, the Lord does tell us to be patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.
Regardless of the reason for the eczema, I will pray for your son and for my girls whenever I see their eczema or see them itching. I will pray with thanksgiving, praising God for who He is and thanking Him for their healing, even if I see no results, because He is faithful and I believe he will heal my girls and your son, even as he healed my son. It is wonderful to stroke my son's face at night when I tuck him in and to give God the praise and the glory for having healed him. We treated him with nothing. We only prayed for his healing.
I am not recommending that you do nothing to provide comfort and relief for your son. I am just saying that it was clear that God healed my son because we did nothing but pray. We even made his diet more conventional and less GAPS, so it was clear who healed him.
I hope this gives hope for seeing healing and relief. Be blessed, my friend!
Thanks so much for your prayers! And rest assured, I read your blog faithfully and I'm sure others do as well and have been blessed by it.
ReplyDeleteMy son's rash is getting better and the itching has stopped, praise God. I actually ran out of cream and have nothing now, so I'm just waiting upon the Lord to answer. The reason for the rash is still elusive, but I don't need answers. I'm slowly but surely learning to allow God to have His way. There is so much I want for my son and I worry about him a lot, but I have to remember that he is in good hands with the Lord. I can only do my best and pray.
But it means so much to me to have your prayers. I haven't asked anyone for prayers because I don't want to burden them with such things when there are more severe needs around them. But i will take any prayers I can get with much gratitude. Please let me know how I can pray for you too.
Tina Kim,
ReplyDeleteI am rejoicing with you that your son's rash is getting better and that the itching has stopped. I will continue to pray every time I see either of my daughters itch, although I have to tell you that I haven't noticed them itching as much these last few days. Maybe when I put my son to bed and give thanks to God for his smooth cheeks, I will remember to lift up your son, as well.
Interesting that you mentioned waiting upon the Lord to answer. I recently learned something new (new to me) about waiting on the Lord. I always thought it meant that we should let go and be patient. The word translated "to wait" actually means to wait as a hunter would wait in ambush with the hopeful expectation that he is not going to miss it when it happens.
In other words, we are not waiting patiently to see IF God is going to answer our prayer, but we wait in hopeful expectation that God WILL answer our prayer and we do not want to miss it WHEN it happens. Just because we do not see evidence of healing right away does not mean that the answer was "no". So we watch and we wait to see it when it does happen.
That is how I prayed for my son's rash. I believed that he would be healed, and every time I saw his rash, instead of feeling frustrated and defeated, I praised God and thanked Him for healing my son's skin. Even though the rash remained, I praised God for everything that I could think of that He had already done for us, and I reasoned that God would heal the rash, too. We watched and waited for his skin to heal with the full expectation that we would see it happen.
Did I have moments of doubt? Yes. That may be why it took so long. I had to remind myself constantly of what God had already done and of what God says in His word.
God says that if we remain in Him and if His word remains in us, then we can ask for anything in His Name and it will be given to us. (John 15:7) I had to find out what it means to remain in Him.
God says that if our hearts do not condemn us, we receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. (1 John 3:21-22) I had to ask what are His commands and what pleases Him.
God says that the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. (James 5:16) I had to confirm that by the blood of Jesus, I am indeed righteous, because I confessed my sins to Him and He cleansed me of all unrighteousness.
God's word says that nothing is impossible for God! (Luke 1:37, Matthew 19:26) This is just the truth. God is sovereign and everything in heaven and on earth is under His authority. Nothing is impossible with God!
Wow! Super long comment. I got a bit carried away. Guess I will call it quits for now. There's more, of course, but I could go on forever, so I will just stop. Be blessed!
Thank you for continuing to blog in spite of the lack of comments. As Tina Kim mentioned, I'm sure there are others, like myself, who are lurking without comments. :-)
ReplyDeleteNo time now to give details, but I happened across your blog when I was struggling with GAPS, even though we saw improvement during it. I will perhaps share more another time, but I just wanted to encourage you to please continue blogging. Your sentiments echo what God has been showing me. Thank you! You are a blessing for reminding us to keep our eyes and faith on Him alone.
--GC
Dear GC,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the encouragement. It is a wonderful gift to me to know that my journey of faith is a blessing to others. I do hope you will share sometime. I would love to hear your story. May God bless you and all of your loved ones.