Exhale
Prior to leaving for Texas to be with my sister, I found myself spiritually “holding my breath” in fear of the possibility that God might ask me to “let go” of the passionate grip I had on her life here with me on earth. I was silently angry and confused by the fact that CANCER had struck my family for the second time. I had to daily capture thoughts of despair and replace them with scripture.
I read these words from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young July 9:
Stop worrying long enough to hear My Voice. I speak softly to you, in the depths of your being. Your mind shuttles back and forth, hither and yon,weaving webs of anxious confusion. As My thoughts rise up within you, they become entangled in those sticky webs of worry. Thus My voice is muffled, and you hear only “white noise.“ Ask My Spirit to quiet your mind so that you can think My thoughts. This ability is an awesome benefit for being My child, patterned after my own image. Do not be deafened by the noise of the world or that of your own thinking. Instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Sit quietly in My Presence, letting My thoughts reprogram your thinking.
So I did as the devotional suggested and prayed the following prayer as I walked the labyrinth for the remaining days before July 17 when I left for Texas:
Abba, please allow Jesus to rebuke my raging doubts about Your goodness and to
command my mind to be still in Your presence. May the grace of Your unfailing love
delivered to me through the power and compassion of the Holy Spirit daily sweep away the worry webs in my mind that I have woven in the dark night of my soul. My deepest desire is for Your thoughts to rise up unencumbered in my spirit and all the “white noise” be bound up and sent to the foot of the cross for Jesus to deal with as He will. On the authority of Jesus’ name I pray, Amen
I did “exhale” as soon as I could hug my sister! She was thin, but that was due to the required diet of mostly fruits and vegetables. I walked with her the next five days on daily walks for exercise and sunshine, through treatment, shopping every other day for organic produce and preparing the food for consumption three times a day, drinking 4 ounces of asparagus mush twice a day to help maintain a PH of 7.5, and cleaning up after each preparation. It was an intense schedule that left room for little else. I ate and drank exactly what she did so there would not be extra steps added to her daily routine. We would begin the day around 7:00 AM and collapse around 10:00 PM. My sister’s stamina was amazing! The GREAT NEWS is that after three weeks of treatment: the tumors in her neck have shrunk……concrete evidence the treatment protocol is working! Praise God!
I came home rejoicing that my sister would be well enough to enjoy her first grandchild, a baby girl, born July 31, 2015.
I started reading Oswald Chambers again. His devotionals are deep and require quiet pondering. August 2 devotional title is “The Discipline of Difficulty.” It is based on John 16:33 and I quote:
In the world you will have tribulations: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
The following are excerpts from the devotional:
An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. IT IS DELIVERANCE IN TROUBLE, which is very different.
God does not give us overcoming life: HE GIVES US LIFE AS WE OVERCOME. The strain is the strengh. IF THERE IS NO STRAIN, THERE IS NO STRENGTH.
Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot, unless you will accept the strain.
Overcome your own timidity and take the step, and God will give you to eat of the tree of life and you will get nourishment. If you spend yourself physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength.
God never gives strengh for tomorrow or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute.
In closing, here are a few more powerful thoughts from “The Word For You Today” devotional for August 1:
We say things like, “I’m doing okay under the circumstances.” Well what are you doing UNDER them? Someone has said that circumstances are like a mattress; if you are on top you rest easy, but if you are underneath you suffocate! What’s the answer? Take your focus off your problems and put it on God’s promises!
Romans 8: 37 & 38 NO, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. To be a conqueror means to fight a battle and win. To be “more than a conqueror” means to win a battle without having to fight. Jesus fights on our behalf; He does it in you and through you and that makes you “more than a conqueror.”