Keep Your Eyes On Him!

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

Lately at church it seems like so many are being afflicted with cancer or some type of illness. Our church has recently started a cancer support and it's like God saw the need coming and placed it there at just the right time. We, ourselves, have struggled with my cancer. It hits hard on every front and it can be really hard not to get really down. My husband and I have struggled with emotions which come out in all kinds of unexpected ways. It's been stressful. The hardest thing to do is to keep looking up to Him and keep praising him through it all. Yet, through Him we have been receiving extraordinary blessings. Yes, I am still fighting cancer but I hae not been sick like some and my outlook looks pretty good. I just need to keep my eyes on Him.

Love and Marriage

Recently I was privy to a conversation I would have rather not had. An older wife asked me to help her fill out an Advanced Directive for her husband. She was quite adamant about not wanting to give him any type of medical help and stated that she preferred he just go. I looked at her in shock and pity thinking, "What has happened in this Christian marriage that she hates him so much?" I asked her son about their past and he shared about an unstable, extremely rocky childhood. His father sounded mentally unstable and it made for an unstable unhealthy marriage. I, myself had often heard hurtful remarks directed at this woman from this man's mouth but it just saddened me to hear these words from her lips and hurt for her unhappiness. It just makes the hurdles that my own husband and I have overcome together all the more the miracle. It says in Colossians 3:18-19 "Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. " God tells women to respect their husbands and for husbands to give love to their wives. It's easy for each to do the opposite but that is why God gives such a command. It is needed to keep them on the marriage merry-go-round. If someone does not get what he/she needs, then they can't give what the other needs. If you have difficulty giving what God commanded then ask God to work on your heart so that you can.

Hope

Hope But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. Psalm 71:14

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:11-12

These verses seem to speak to me lately.....about having hope. Sometimes when you are going through a tough time, it's hard to have hope. In fact sometimes I feel like Mulan when, in order to get over the mountain, they had to travel this treacherous pass full of murderers and climate hazards. Once they got through the pass the view of "the city" was simply beautiful but they had to travel the dangerous pass to get there. It's been tough lately to have this hope as I am fighting a terrible disease, but God wants us to keep believing and serving him in all faith, being patient through my illness and to keep up the ongoing discussions with Him.

Ricky Bolden once played for the Cleveland Browns and he had a saying about faith: Faith is acting like it is, even though it's not, in hopes that it might be.