I am not being metaphoric. I am experiencing a physical pain that seems to be getting worse. All the doctors want to do is give me pain killers. I wish they could track down the source of the pain and do something to stop it. I know that doctors don't have all the answers, that they are simply human, and most of the time they are simply guessing as to how to treat people for different conditions- okay, they are educated guesses, but I think a lot of the time the doctors would do better by listening to their patients. When I know what is wrong, I tell my doctors what to do for me to save them the trouble of guessing. Problem is, this time I don't know what is wrong. My neck, shoulders, and upper back hurt the worst at the moment, but other times it may be my lower back, my legs, or my feet- even my arms. It seems to travel without rhyme or reason. It's hard to think, or do anything else when you are in pain.
My prayers keep getting longer and longer, which is a good thing, because it is good to spend time in prayer, cultivating a perosnal connection to the Creator, and because my prayers are becoming less egocentric as I ask Him to help other people, but I get so busy asking Jehovah to help people that I forget to tell him how thankful I am for the things he has given; the day I started this blog was the last time I had to call 911 because of my husband and son fighting. Dispite not having any money, we have somehow gotten through this month, and we have not gone hungry or went without anything we really needed. Jehovah has provided everything we needed as we needed it, and I am very thankful.
I saw part of a television program today that was showing the conditions in Haiti. It is so hard to take in. Most of us will never have to experience that sort of devastation, Lord willing. It showed bodies just lying alongside the roads. People covered them up, but they had no place to take them, and no way to get them anywhere if they did. There was a toddler who had to have her leg amputated because she had been trapped in the rubble of what had been her home. There was another infant with a head injury. It just makes me want to cry thinking about it. I wish I could do more than just pray for the people. Some people blame God for natural disasters like this. They even refer to them as "acts of God," but God does not inflict indiscriminate punishment on people via earthquakes or huricanes or any other act of nature. These things just happen. God does not cause them.
When I hear an Amber Alert, I pray for that child to be found, but I always put the condition in my prayer "if it is not already too late," because I know that God will not ressurrect a child that has already been killed in order to answer my prayer. He does answer those prayers though, because the abducted children I have prayed for, the ones I have been able to follow up on, have all been found and returned to their parents. I bring this up because I think we have to be reasonable in our requests to God. As another example, if someone prayed to God to be able to float at will, God will not answer that prayer because He will not defy the laws of physics for someone. God created the laws of physics, and he created them for a good reason, so it is unreasonable for us to expect him to make exceptions for individuals. So then, we have to take responsibility for our actions. If we are going to do something dangerous such as mountain climb, sky dive, bungy jump, etc... and something goes wrong, we can't expect God to stop us from falling. We need to have strong faith in God, but strong faith is not an excuse for reclessness. If we choose to do risky activities, such as mountain climbing, it is our responsibility to take the reasonable precautions to insure our own protection. If you remember right, when the son of God was being tempted by the devil, not even Jesus would throw himself off the temple and expect God to save him. (Matthew 4: 1-11) We must not use our prayers in order to test God.
I guess that got a little preachy, didn't it? I don't want this blog to be preachy. I think God loves us whether we believe in him or not, and I want this blog to be an encouraging place, not a place that lays on guilt or fear.
My friend Tiffany is an atheist, and she is one of the most beautiful people I have ever known. I am adding her to my prayers because she is going to have a baby on February 2, via c-section, and I know how frightening it is to be cut open like that. I prayed fervently before both of my c-sections. I can't imagine going into an operating room without having God to trust in. So, please, Jehovah God, be with Tiffany when she goes in to deliver baby Charlotte, keep them both safe through the operation.
My prayers keep getting longer and longer, which is a good thing, because it is good to spend time in prayer, cultivating a perosnal connection to the Creator, and because my prayers are becoming less egocentric as I ask Him to help other people, but I get so busy asking Jehovah to help people that I forget to tell him how thankful I am for the things he has given; the day I started this blog was the last time I had to call 911 because of my husband and son fighting. Dispite not having any money, we have somehow gotten through this month, and we have not gone hungry or went without anything we really needed. Jehovah has provided everything we needed as we needed it, and I am very thankful.
I saw part of a television program today that was showing the conditions in Haiti. It is so hard to take in. Most of us will never have to experience that sort of devastation, Lord willing. It showed bodies just lying alongside the roads. People covered them up, but they had no place to take them, and no way to get them anywhere if they did. There was a toddler who had to have her leg amputated because she had been trapped in the rubble of what had been her home. There was another infant with a head injury. It just makes me want to cry thinking about it. I wish I could do more than just pray for the people. Some people blame God for natural disasters like this. They even refer to them as "acts of God," but God does not inflict indiscriminate punishment on people via earthquakes or huricanes or any other act of nature. These things just happen. God does not cause them.
When I hear an Amber Alert, I pray for that child to be found, but I always put the condition in my prayer "if it is not already too late," because I know that God will not ressurrect a child that has already been killed in order to answer my prayer. He does answer those prayers though, because the abducted children I have prayed for, the ones I have been able to follow up on, have all been found and returned to their parents. I bring this up because I think we have to be reasonable in our requests to God. As another example, if someone prayed to God to be able to float at will, God will not answer that prayer because He will not defy the laws of physics for someone. God created the laws of physics, and he created them for a good reason, so it is unreasonable for us to expect him to make exceptions for individuals. So then, we have to take responsibility for our actions. If we are going to do something dangerous such as mountain climb, sky dive, bungy jump, etc... and something goes wrong, we can't expect God to stop us from falling. We need to have strong faith in God, but strong faith is not an excuse for reclessness. If we choose to do risky activities, such as mountain climbing, it is our responsibility to take the reasonable precautions to insure our own protection. If you remember right, when the son of God was being tempted by the devil, not even Jesus would throw himself off the temple and expect God to save him. (Matthew 4: 1-11) We must not use our prayers in order to test God.
I guess that got a little preachy, didn't it? I don't want this blog to be preachy. I think God loves us whether we believe in him or not, and I want this blog to be an encouraging place, not a place that lays on guilt or fear.
My friend Tiffany is an atheist, and she is one of the most beautiful people I have ever known. I am adding her to my prayers because she is going to have a baby on February 2, via c-section, and I know how frightening it is to be cut open like that. I prayed fervently before both of my c-sections. I can't imagine going into an operating room without having God to trust in. So, please, Jehovah God, be with Tiffany when she goes in to deliver baby Charlotte, keep them both safe through the operation.
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