Illness
"My hat's in the ring! The fight is on and I am stripped to the buff!" Theodore Roosevelt
"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, Strengthen your brothers." Luke 22:31&32
I had a sifting experience, it was a testing of my faith and I would like to share with you some lessons from my heart and soul, so that you may be strengthen.
On August third, 2002 I had ridden my trusty old Honda Gold Wing to a Saturday morning wedding rehearsal. It was a beautiful clear day, the kind every biker dreams about. After the rehearsal I drove home with the pleasant thought of spending the day with Kim, my bride of eighteen years, and then returning to officiate the wedding. Life has a way of changing plans.
A young girl ran a stop sign in front of my motorcycle and I had no chance to avoid the collision. Without even braking I T-boned a little Ford and was thrown from my bike onto the moving car. I bounced off the hood and roof of the automobile and landed about thirty feet from the road in a broken and bleeding mess. I had two broken wrists, a leg broken in two places, a broken pelvis in three spots, a ruptured bladder, broken shoulder blade, broken sternum, injured lungs and many other injuries, cuts and bruises. Thus began new chapter in my life called recovery.
I went by helicopter to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, Michigan. From ER, I went into surgery. From surgery I went to ICU and then a regular hospital bed. The hospital sent me home after two weeks to be cared for by the staff of Munson home care. The home care nurses, aides and physical therapists were the lifeline of survival for me for the next two and a half months. Then I was released to able hands of Munson outpatient therapy. Where I spent the next months healing under there care. This booklet is a collection of meditations and thoughts about rehab and the role of the heart and soul in recovery.
1. Never Let Anger or Frustration Rule your Thoughts
The Bible reading is Matthew 18:21-35.
"I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him." Booker T. Washington
"So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it." Colossians 3- The MESSAGE
It was very easy to think about all the pain the young girl caused my family. If only she had stopped at the stop sign! If only she would come and apologize for her careless driving! It is easy to find reasons to be angry and frustrated during recovery. The list is endless. We could be mad at the doctors, nursing staff, insurance company and many other things. As I got better I struggled with angry. I became healthy enough to feel my losses. Little things troubled me, such as not being able to open a jar or watching my wife put the on kayaks on the Jeep.
I soon learned that I could not afford the cost of angry. I needed to let go of my frustrated thoughts for the sake of healing. Anger only kills, it never heals. In a tearful night I gave my frustrations to God. I asked God to help me to I not fight for my rights and to give me the strength to choose forgiveness, hope and healing. As the anonymous proverb states, "Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."
A young lady came to me for counsel. She was filled with rage because she had been diagnosed with cancer. She was anger with God, herself and any other person that happened to cross her path. I had been in the recovery for nine months and I could barely control myself as anger and self-pity gushed from her. Finally, my tolerance level failed and I declared, "Stop it! If you keep stuffing yourself with all this anger you are going to die!"
There was a moment of shocked silence and then a tiny voice said, "You're right." Then came the tears, prayers and healing. My painful recovery gave me the right to confront the deadly disease of anger.
2. Worry and Fear are Deadly Bed Mates
The Bible reading is Psalm 46.
"People who do not know how to fight worry, die young." Alexis Carroll
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6
Everyone in recovery will be tempted to worry. There is lots to be anxious about! I had many fearful thoughts in my mind. However, this was the time in which I could not allow myself to fall into the mire of anxiousness. Worry was merely a red eyed demon trying to pull my soul and my body into the depths of death.
Franklin D. Roosevelt summed the powerful danger of fear in his inaugural address in 1933, "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." Has fear or rather nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror paralyzed your recovery?
The big question is what do you do with fear and anxiety? You can not hide it. You can not stuff or deny it. You can not out run fear or out smart it. There is only one way to rid yourself of the dangerous cancer called fear. Give them to the only one capable of handling those fears-GOD. "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 Remember when you cast those fears on God do not be a fisherman. Fisherman cast and then reel it back to themselves. You must cast like one who is throwing junk off a bottomless cliff. The distasteful object can never be retrieved.
The opposite of fear is stillness and calm. When fear is running around in your mind, there is no place for peace. "BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD."
3. Faith is a Powerful Medicine
"Faith is: dead to doubts, dumb to discouragements, blind to impossibilities." Anonymous
Hebrews 11:1 "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living." The MESSAGE
I worked as an associate chaplain for a few years. As I observed tragedy after tragedy in the hospital, I would often think: How do people make it without a faith in God? As I faced my own deep waters, I am so thankful for the deep faith that I had in God before I began to climb this mountain of Rehab. As a child I placed my faith in Christ as my Lord. From the days of childhood I have had a divine traveling partner. On that warm Saturday in August, God was there as I drove my Gold-Wing into the side of a young girl's car. He wept with me in ICU. God's warm hands were my only strength in a time of complete weakness. Martin Luther expresses what faith meant to my recovery, "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times." I staked my life, my recovery and my healing on God and He was faithful.
4. Listen to Doctor Hope
The Bible reading is Psalm 33.
"It has been said that man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, and about eight minutes without air-but only one second without HOPE." Anonymous
"Life is like a bicycle. You don't fall off until you stop pedaling." Claude Pepper
"Be strong and take heart,
All you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24 NIV
Immediately after the accident, I laid on the ground as shock, pain and breathlessness overtook me. I had just enough sense to cry out to God to care for my family as I died. To my surprise, I gained consciousness in X-ray and was alive. In a cat-scan machine, while in overwhelming pain, I heard the voice of God whisper hope to my broken body. I felt God's voice declare, "Calm down, Tim I am not done with you yet!" The message was clear, I was going to live. I believe that this divinely given hope was the reason that I lived. Without that message of hope, I would have been doomed. The pain would have took my life without the shield of faith giving me hope.
As I laid in my hospital bed in a position of compete helplessness, it was very easy to give into the voices of despair. They cried that my situation was helpless. They wanted me to believe that I had no future and that all was lost. Many people had a role in my recovery. Doctors, nurses, hospital aides, physical therapist, x-ray techs, and many others. They all had their jobs. My job became to fight hopelessness and despair with every weapon that I could get my mind onto. Romans 12:12 taught me, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." NIV. I fought this battle of the spirit with praise, hopeful people, prayer and the words of encouragement of my family and friends.
Dutch Sheets wonderful book Tell Your Heart to Beat Again was a weapon against the enemy of hopelessness. He describes despair as hope deferred. He describes the beast of despair, "No one makes it through life without suffering hope deferred to one degree or another. It's the common cold of the soul, except that this virus can kill. The symptoms appear to varying degrees and in different forms, ranging from discouragement to depression, doubt to cynicism, and grief to suicidal tendencies. Hope deferred produces resignation, fear, unbelief, loss of passion, retreat from life and a host of other heart-disease maladies. It imprisons the soul."
Study this enemy called despair and fight for your life. Remember these words of Solomon from Ecclesiastes 9:4 "Anyone who is among the living has hope-even a live dog is better off than a dead lion." NIV
There may be many wonderful doctors in your life and their skill maybe unequaled. Yet, every thing they do will not help unless you listen to the voice of Doctor Hope. Doc. Hope gives out prescriptions of peace, joy and lots of love.
5. Get Everyone to Pray
The Bible reading is Ephesians 6:18.
"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Pray continually..." 1 Thessalonians 5:17
"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many." 2 Corinthians 1:1
As news of my accident spread people began to gather at the hospital to pray. I had story after story of pray chains, churches and individual that prayed for me. The children of Traverse Bay Christian School prayed for me on a constant basis and they were able to watch God's healing in my life. Each time someone came to visit, I would raise my broken arms to them and ask them to pray. This act of hope and faith of the very blood of life that kept me alive and lead to my healing. I wept with joy as a second grade class put their arms around me and prayed a prayer of thanks to God, because He had answered their prayer and I was walking.
I never understood the role that brokenness played in prayer till I was completely helpless. From a position of weakness I called out to God to be my everything. Hopeless to resolve my problems in my own strength, I turned to the source of all hope. E.M.Bounds wrote the book, Power Through Prayer, in this wonderful book he described praying saints in this way, "Prayer was to these saints what it was to Paul, striving with earnest effort of soul { Romans 15:30 }. Like Jacob, they wrestled and prevailed { Genesis 32:24-28}; like Christ, they gave themselves over to "strong crying and tears." They prayed "always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching with all perseverance" { Ephesians 6;18 }. "Effectual fervent prayer" { James 5:16 } has always been the mightiest weapon of God's most valiant soldiers." Get God's saints to pray at all times and in every challenge. Powerful waves of healing and hope flow from the prayers of his prayer warriors.
6. Rejoice in Every Little Victory
The Bible reading is Psalm 13.
"Be joyful always..." 1 Thessalonians 5:16
Focus on the little picture and leave the big picture to God. Your not able to see the end of the your treatment so do not waste your time and energy on hopeless thinking. My darkest days were when I was in my hospital bed in my living room, I was unable to care for myself in any way. Often I thought of the future in fearful ways. Negative thoughts came crashing on my mind. I wondered how I was going to provide for my family; If I would ever walk again; would I be able to play with my children. On and on the negative thoughts would pound my thinking. They left me sleepless, fearful and drowning in hopeless fear of the future.
I found hope in the small things. Some of my big accomplishments included rolling over in bed, holding a covered glass for the first time and taking a drink, crawling up the steps, taking a shower with the aid of my wife, going to doctor appointment and many thousands of other small victories. Each small victory was added to another small victory and soon I had some major breakthrough like walking.
I pray that I my never lose the joy of walking again! May this simple pleasure of putting one foot in front of the other, be a constant reason to smile. I walked into an ice cream place and told the people at the counter, "Look at me! I'm walking!" They replied with a polite, "That's nice." They did not see the miracle in front of them. But I know that walking is a gift from the hand of God.
7. Be a Selective Listener
The Bible reading is Proverbs 27:9,10,17.
"You can't hold a man down without staying down with him." Booker T. Washington
"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24
Don't listen to hopeless people! Gather around yourself individuals that speak hope and belief over you. There were a few doom and gloom people in my life. These folks could find problems in the face of victory. So my injuries and challenges were easy targets for their words of hopelessness. I had to learn to turn off these negative voices. You can not afford to listen to the people of despair. Their words will eat away at your hope, like rust on a car.
I have a few ideas about how to stop the mouths of negative talkers. They include hanging up the phone, telling them to shut-up and turning down your hearing aid. However, there may be some polite methods to shut the mouths of doomers. Warn your love ones about these individuals and ask them to keep them from you. You can also politely listen for a moment and then move on. For the brave and bold, it can be very empowering to confront the despairing individual and explain the need for hope in your life. Then ask them to speak words of blessing or do not speak at all.
Remember, "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit," Pr. 15:4. My bones had already been crushed by a Ford, so I could not afford to have words crush my spirit. As Jean-Paul Sartre states, "Words are loaded pistols." So stay out of the danger zone and keep all people that say stupid and thoughtless things at a very long distance.
Another important thing to avoid is negative media. It is the time in your life to stay away from all television, movies or books that have a negative impact on your spirit. Look for positive messages that lift your spirit and aid in your healing.
8. Speak Blessings over Yourself.
The Bible reading is Proverbs 18:14.
"God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty." Peter Marshall
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Words have power. Often, we speak negative words about are problems. These dangerous words break our own spirit. We must not call ourselves useless, hopeless or a loser. We must learn to describe ourselves in the ways that God describes us.
Neil Anderson has a list of ways that defined followers of Christ. This list has often been the key to how I learned to value myself. Just a few things that we are in Christ include being a child of God, a saint, Christ's friend and many other blessings. Never define yourself by your failures, struggles and problems.
Define yourself by God's blessings and promises. Your language must be filled with the fruits of truth. Hope and belief need to flow from your lips.
9. Speak Blessings Over Others
The Bible reading is Romans 12:14.
"Never allow your own sorrow to absorb you, but seek out another to console, and you find consolation." J.C.Macaulay
"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others." Philippians 2:4
As I struggled it was easy to focus energy on myself. The whole world becomes narrowed down to just your problems. I had a elderly man recovering from a stroke come to me on my first day in outpatient therapy and encourage me. He told me in words that were difficult to form because of the stroke, that I was going to make it and that we would keep fighting together. That was a powerful message to my spirit.
Always be on the lookout for ways to encourage others. Pass out words of hope to everyone you meet. Comfort others. "Rejoice with those who rejoice: mourn with those who mourn." Romans 12:15. Do not just seek to be comforted and encouraged, seek to comfort and encourage others. In ICU it was a privilege to pray with the family of the man in the next room to me.
Listen to the powerful truth in this anonymous quote, "When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own." Often, the only hope for healing is to reach out to others and be part of their healing. A miracle occurs, everyone is healed! This healing also gives us a new calling- to be comforters. As J. Henry Jowett instructs, "God does not comfort us to make us comfortable but to make us comforters."
10. Always Thank Everyone for Everything
The Bible reading for today is Luke 17:11-19.
"The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank." Dante Gabriel Rossetti
"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:55 NIV
If you are overwhelmed with anger, frustration and self-pity, you will not be able to thank anyone for anything. All your thoughts will be self-centered and you will not be able to utter a thank you, even in the face of the most gracious act of kindness. Fight the thoughts of self-pity by thanking everyone for anything. Thank your doctors, aides, nurses, family, visitors and anyone else that crosses your. Thank God for every breath! Hope and thankfulness are beautiful twin sisters.
In the gospel of Luke, chapter 17, the story was told of ten lepers who were healed of leprosy, yet only one came back to Jesus and fell at his feet praising him for his healing. May we be the one leper who came back to thank Jesus. I had broken bones, bruises and many other painful injuries, yet I was responsible to obey 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." In a hospital bed it is easy to know what God's will is for you in that place, it is to express thankfulness with every breath of your being.
11. Never Make your Accident/Injuries your Identity
The Bible reading is Ephesians 1:3-14.
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 1 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
Never become your injuries or issues! It is a huge temptation to become one's problems. If one has cancer, their identity becomes one who has cancer. All they do and think about is their cancer. You can not get them to talk or think about any thing else. If you has a broken pelvis, you become a guy who has a broken pelvis but you are not just a broken pelvis. You had a identity before this accident and you will have a identity after you heal. These injuries are just something that happened to you, these injuries are not what define you. Your accident or that wheelchair do not give or take anything valuable from you.
I have meet some people in Rehab that have replaced their soul with their problems. Their issues dictate there feelings, conversation and purpose in life. They have no time to think about others or reach out to any one else because they have become totally self-absorbed. They have become grumpy and filled with self-pity.
Be interested in others and reach out to any one you can help. Spend a little time writing down your true identity and ask God to help you to live in Christ. It helped me to talk out loud to myself and tell me that "I am not a broken, hopeless mess but rather I am a child of God, who has been blessed with hope, purpose and God's loving hand."
This applies to every one who has a issue, challenge or addiction of any kind. You are not a drug addict! You are not a man with a troubled business! You are not just a divorcee! Do not label yourself by your past, failures or struggles or you will helplessly return to them. You must rule your challenges never let your injuries rule you. If your problems are your identity then you are a big problem. If your problems are merely something that is happening at this moment and by the strength of God will some day be a thing in your past, then you have the perspective that heals.
What if I have a problem that will not go away? My hands will never be the same. I may need the assistance of others the rest of my life. However they are not me! My broken hands do not make up my dreams, values and convictions .They do not define my future! My future is in the hands of God, who wants to bless me and give me a hope that is sure. Therefore, I can fearlessly live, love and care for others because God has got me covered!
12. Work like Your Life Depended on It
The Bible reading is Philippians 1:3-6.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men," Colossians 3:23 NIV
"Work as if everything depended upon your work, and pray as if everything depended upon your praye. " General William Booth
In April before my accident, I had traveled to West Virginia to go with water rafting with my son and some close friends. As we received the pre-trip instructions, there was a new instruction about how to return to the raft if you fell overboard. In the past the white water guides had told us to put our feet downstream and float with our feet up till we came to a safe spot. However, some rafters had floated into very dangerous spots and some had drowned, just by floating into a danger after there had fallen into the rapids. So the new instruction was to roll onto your stomach and swim to the nearest safe spot as quickly as possible. The guide explained, "Swim as if your life depended on it."
It is so easy to give up and not try in physical or occupational therapy. However your recovery depends on the effort you put into it. It may hurt or be uncomfortable. You may be embarrassed or frustrated, but you must keep on trying with every bit of energy and strength that you can that you can find in the depths of your heart. Work at your recovery as if your life depended on it because it does. So you can join Winston Churchill and say "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." Yet if you offer this mix of tears, blood, effort and sweat to God, the reward is joy as you toil with hope as your faithful partner in recovery.
13. Never Let Setbacks or Frustrations Rule Your Thoughts
The Bible reading for today is Philippians 3:12-14.
"We are not at our best perched at the summit: we are climbers, at our best when the way is steep." John W. Gardner
"...But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal.." Philippians 3:13&14
You will have your good days and your bad days. Some days will be so painful that you will feel like surrendering to hopelessness. If you get on the roller coaster of "good days and bad days", you will be in a constant state of changing emotions. Each bad turn will swirl you deeper and deeper into despair. Your hope is not based in what is happening at the moment. It is not your job to be worrying about the big picture, your job is to keep hopeful in the small picture. The small picture is what is happening at this very moment. God's job is the big picture, your job is the small picture. As Henry Ford said," Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."
I was afraid that I would never walk again, because I could not just get up and walk. My therapists broke it into small goals. First I learned to walk ten feet with a walker and then twenty feet, until nine months later I was walking. As I progressed in my recovery, their where painful days that I could barely do a fraction of what I had done before in therapy. Yet these days where not hopeless setbacks but rather disappointing days that I had to forget and move on from.
14. Listen To Your Care Givers
The Bible reading is James 1:19.
"It takes a great man to give sound advice tactfully, but a greater to accept it graciously." J.C.Macaulay
"...let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance." Proverbs 1:5
Here is a very short but important devotional thought-LISTEN!!!! As a rather normal man, I am the type of man that struggles with stopping for directions. I would think of it as a great personal failure to need to read the directions. As well I often think I have a better idea. In a time of recovery one must humbly except and follow all instructions given by your doctors and therapists. To overcome your brokenness in this time, you must brake your prideful do it your way spirit.
15. Weep
The Bible reading is Psalm 126
"Sorrow is like a precious treasure, Shown only to friends. " African Proverb
"Jesus wept." John 11:35
I have never been a good crier. I have been embarrassed to cry and felt that it was not a manly thing to do. The accident solved that issue. Tears are my precious friends. Often, only tears can express the sorrows of the soul. Never be embarrassed to weep and do not every worry about making others uncomfortable with your tears. Tears can be considered an investment in your recovery. Each tears cleanses the pain and grief and prepares yourself for further healing. As Psalm 126:5&6 declares, "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him."
As I recovered, I often would weep. One day on the way to therapy I began to cry. My wife was helpless to stop the tears. I wanted to stop crying but I could not begin to comfort myself. I just kept on crying. As I wept in therapy, a very caring therapist told me that on some days the best thing one can is cry. I am so thankful for the people in my life that were not embarrassed by my tears and excepted the cry of my broken body as part of my healing. If Jesus could weep so can I.
16. Laugh
The Bible reading is Ecclesiastes 3:4.
"The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient, while nature cures the disease." Voltaire
"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." Job 8:21
I love to laugh. Yet after my accident I had trouble laughing. I am so thankful for the doctors, nurses, physical therapies, friends and family that could see past my injuries and laugh and tease me. When I came home from the hospital, I had a pelvic fixator on my hips. It made it very difficult to laugh without pain. I was watching a book reading by Garrison Keeler on T.V. It was a painful mistake. Garrison was very funny and I began to laugh and laugh. It was the deep belly laugh and caused some serious pain. It was worth every painful second.
17. There is Great Power in Weakness
The Bible reading is 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.
"When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself." Oswald Chambers
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Romans 12:9 NIV
I have always believed that I am a man of faith and prayer. Yet, I have always had a back-up plan if God fails. There was always something that I could do. My power, abilities and ideas were always part of the equation. I became totality helpless and without the ability to do anything for myself. The redemptive moment came as a confessed my complete weakness to my Sovereign Lord. God is able and I was not capable. I had no other choice but to lean into the faithful arms of my Lord.
18. Praise Cures
The Bible reading is Psalm 150.
"Shout for joy, O heavens;
rejoice, O earth;
burst into song, O mountains!
For the LORD comforts his people
and will have compassion on his
afflicted ones. " Isaiah 49: 13 NIV
Often, I could not sleep as I laid in my hospital bed. Troubled thoughts swirled about in my mind. Fears and doubts would seek to attack my soul. The weapon that would comfort me and transport my heart to a peaceful place was praise music. Praise caused me to enter God's presence and leave my earthly woes at the doorsteps of heaven. As I joined into the praise, I had a choice to either be filled with anger, fear and sorrow or enter the presence of God and leave these issues in the capable hands of the King of Kings. One can be filled with praise or one can be filled with fear but they can not be filled with both opposing spirits. Second Timothy states, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." NIV
Not only can praise cause fear to flee, it can cause hope and healing to fill your life. Go on-pick out your favorite praise CD-Play it loud!! Sing LOUDER!! Lift your hands to God and praise Him!!
My Lips Will Praise You
by Twila Paris
My lips will praise You
For You are holy
My voice will ever
Rise before Your throne
My heart will love You
For You are lovely
And You have called me
To become Your own
PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
Reader Count & Comments
Date
I haven't quite completed your article as yet. I have reached section 13. I must take the opportunity just in case I don't (but I know I must) come back to it to tell you what an awe-inspiring entry this is. To share this experience is a most wonderful way of getting both Christians and non-Christians to see the Word of God in action. Your biblical quotes just confirm what you experience and being a well-read person as I can see from your quotes you have given your reader more positive thoughts (outside the Bible) to ponder on. Thanks so much for sharing this piece of dynamic writing. I shall try to finish it at the earliest opportunity.
I promised myself I would come back and finish this powerful message that I hope many people will find time to read. This reading encompasses so many thoughts and feelings about your experience of healing that I find I want to share it with others. May God continue to richly bless you and your family.
The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com. This is especially true with articles that
deal with personal healthcare and prophecy. We encourage the reader to make their own decision in consultation with God, His Word, and others as needed.
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