January 26 2016

January 26 2016 Greetings My Friend I hear it and I can not believe such mindsets. “if you believe then God will heal you...completely.” This is said to someone who is more than likely never heal all the way. I hear this thought process with finances too. “If you believe you will be rich.” God can heal completely, allow people to be financially secure. The Apostle Paul teaches us “to be content in all things.” He teaches that he has been poor and he has had wealth and regardless of his circumstances he has learned to be comfortable where he was in life. I even see passages where Paul is in prison and he and another believer with him are singing. He is singing praises to God. The apostle Paul was stoned, whipped and beaten for his belief in Jesus. The Bible teaches that believers will see adversity because the world hates believers. Even Jesus did not escape tremendous abuse. He even died for His belief. My faith journey shows me that many times a full body healing may not take place but a spiritual healing will grow within me and in this I learn to live with my disabilities. The learning to live within my limitations has taught me that I have a strength I would never have known otherwise. I learn to rely on God and to go back to God to keep helping me to handle my struggles. The more I rely on God the more I see myself accepting my limitations. I am running into another thought process lately as well. I have an invisible illness, in fact I have a few. When others see me I generally don’t look like anything is wrong with me. Right now I am struggling with a person who won’t take my “no” I am not committing to a group due to the unpredictability of my illness’. When I did a review of the past year I noticed that I was showing up less than half the time. I will not volunteer to do things because I was not sure I would be able to be there. I decided at this point I will not attend anymore. I told her upfront I thought and she is not taking my reasoning. She reminds me she has chronic fatigue too. She has a major hip problem so I thought she would understand. At this point I think she is a person who will push herself extremely hard. The thing is I am pushing myself and I know if I continue I will decline quicker so I choose to slow down instead. I am hearing of people with these invisible illness dealing with family members who believe they are making up their illness and decide to walk out on them. At a time when they need more support they find themselves more alone. I think again about how God is presented as a complete healer and these people don’t see themselves getting healed. I see these people believing that God is uncaring. It hurts me because the witness presented to them is off the mark and a chance to give the good news of Jesus is not received. For me I see that Jesus went to the undesirable people of His days on earth. The people who were well are not in need of healing. At times I think the church today is not much different than the Jewish religion on the Bible. The leaders put such burdens on the people making it difficult. With the thoughts people have of believe and you will automatically be healed is much the same. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet