365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 252

I am sorry I missed yesterday. I have been suffering from allergy conjunctivitis and while it got better with the drops from the doctor for a week; it returned. I have been researching natural remedies as I have to stop taking all allergy medication for a week before my appointment with the allergy doctor. If you would say a little prayer for healing, I would be ever so grateful.

I am reading through 1Peter now in my devotional time and was intrigued by the word “inheritance”. I have gotten little sums of money after my grandparents went on to heaven but I was thinking life on earth with our hope of heaven is more like knowing in advance we are going to inherit eternal life in heaven but on earth we have been given a trust fund called Jesus Christ. A trust fund is designed to be a holding place for your inheritance where a trustee is in charge of doling out what you need allowing you to grow in maturity before you are given your full inheritance. Our trustee is the Holy Spirit. When we are in need, which is pretty much every minute of every day, we should be asking the Holy Spirit to give us what we need. Because of the pain and discomfort in my eyes, I have been tempted by food to be my comfort but instead I have to ask the Holy Spirit for self-control and look to my Lord as my comfort. Do you have a need that has come into focus lately? Stop now and ask your trustee for a little help.

1Peter 3-5 In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 88

It was ten years ago today that I went into labor at 20 weeks with my daughter. It was one of the scariest days of my life but with God’s help my fear was covered over with his peace. The minutes it took us to drop my son off at a friend’s house and get to the hospital were beyond anxious. I was shaking with the fear inside of me of what was happening. I will never forget the look of the nurse who checked me and yanked her hand away so quick. In the next few minutes they came and adjusted my bed I was on back degrees and told us the amniotic sac was protruding out of the womb. They got me to a room and the doctor came and took a look and gave us two choices: a surgical procedure to put a stitch in the cervix to keep it from opening more or take labor stopping drugs. The doctor had no idea what started first the cervix opening triggering the labor or the labor starting which opens the cervix. She told us the two choices and said I will give you five minutes and walked out of the room. The pressure of this decision was so intense. I asked my hubbie his thoughts and he was leaning towards the surgery and said it was my decision to make. I knew that I couldn’t make this decision alone and prayed at that moment for help. My prayer was heard immediately as I was filled with a complete sense of peace. My fear and anxiety were gone and I believed in my heart my baby girl would  live and be healthy. I made the decision to go with the less risky drugs and the labor stopped. Both nurses who worked with me through that first 24 hours came to me later and told me they literally felt God in the room. All I could do is tear up and nod my head with an “I know” in my heart. Seeing the peace that came over me and making the decision, my hubbie said you can name her whatever you want and I, without hesitation, said her name is Faith. The next day as I started my 4 ½ week journey lying in that bed angled back at 10 degrees, I read this verse in the bible and just cried with joy.

Mark 9:23 “If you can?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 88

Have you ever felt like a person was an angel? Of course you have. We have all experienced at one time or another a person who is in our life at the right time, right moment and gives you exactly what you needed. I encountered an angel the other night when I went shopping for a specific kind of shoe my foot doctor recommended. This angel was previously in the medical profession and could tell me the name of my foot problem which I could not remember. He was perplexed at why the doctor would recommend this particular shoe and showed me how it worked and how it would not be good for my foot issue which is called Morton's Neroma. It's a swelling at the nerve between the 3rd and 4th toes and is caused by consistently putting too much weight onto the ball of your foot or in other words, high heels. It can also be caused and aggravated by shoes that are too narrow in the area around the toes. This particular shoe the doctor recommended actually rocks forward onto the ball of your foot. "You don't want to do that", the angel told me. He showed me more of what kind of shoe I should get and recommended I be my own best doctor. So, I went home without buying anything and did some research. Sure enough, all the sites I have visited about this say you just need some comfortable shoes with a wide-box toe. So, I am thankful for this angel who helped me avoid buying something that wasn't going to work and guiding me. God was definitely working through this kind man. We can be that angel to someone everyday if we look beyond ourselves and focus on serving others. Who can you be an angel to today?
2Peter 1:7 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perservereance; and to perserverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 63

It's funny how my praise come back to the same thing again and again. People. This time I am praising God for those people in our lives that are there to help us like our dentist and doctors. These are people that do care about keeping you health or getting you back to being healthy. I felt that yesterday at the dentist. It's like your mom or dad is there but you don't take the advise as nagging like you did with mom. So, while I am not ready to go out and buy an expensive electric toothbrush as suggested, I do think I can beef up my toothbrushing skills and time. So thank you God for those people that you put into our lives that provide the right kind of advise at the right moment that will get you motivated to change something for the better and bring the healing that you may need.
Proverbs 12:18 Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 23

It's times like these when I am in a lot of pain that my praying comes from the words of songs. The song that is playing over and over in my mind now is by Jeremy Camp. I think it's called "There Will Be a Day" but I will have to check on that. The words go like this: "there will be a day, with no more tears, no more pain and no more fears... The pain in my shoulder was the worst ever last night to the point of having a beer to take the pain away for a while. I don't drink much so that says a lot. 800mg of IB profin didn't do anything. I am staying home from work today just to let my shoulder have total and complete rest and will be icing off and on all day hoping to calm down the swelling. I got an appointment set up with Orthopedic doctor for January 3rd. It's not soon enough but in the end I am probably going to need surgery. So, I am off now to go ice it... I am thankful for my job but today I need a day of rest.
Jer 6:16 Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.