Have you ever felt like you have gone ten rounds in a boxing match, like Rocky Balboa? Not literally, but figuratively. By that, I mean going through a battle (valley) so intense that it drained everything from within you and all you felt was bloody, bruised, broken and hardly able to stand up anymore. I was at that point throughout all of 2013.
I faced things that I had never faced before in my entire
life and to be honest, there were times I was very scared! Although God was
gracious and kind enough to prepare me for an entire year beforehand, it was
still the most difficult year of my life. I literally would never have made it
through the entire year of 2013 without His preparation. I wrote everything
down that the Lord had spoken to me during 2012 in preparation for the upcoming
battle, so that I would remember everything and be able to refer to my notes
when the time came. Although I already knew these things, God reminded me
beforehand that my hope is in Him (alone), to praise Him in the midst of the
storms, not to fear the unknown, that He still heals today, that it is okay to
rest and that He will never let go, even when I find it hard to hang on.
When I faced a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis as well as
several moderate to severe spinal problems in 2013 (which cause a lot of pain
some days), along with a short period of depression and some big financial
challenges among many other things, I had my weapons ready, so to speak. God
never promises us that we will have it easy, but He does promise to be with us
and He will prepare us for the battles in our lives. Not only that, He will
fight with us and for us! For these reasons, we have hope that everything will
turn out right when all is said and done.
Our job through these storms and valleys is to trust God,
praise Him and believe and claim that He is there for us and with us! He will
take care of the details and He will make something good out of everything bad
that happens in our lives when we love and trust Him.
There were two times when I was at the brink of giving
up in 2013. Along with physical, emotional and financial battles, I was facing
the fiercest spiritual battles of my life. We all know that when we are already
down that Satan takes every opportunity to finish the job by trying to get us
to believe that things are too hard and that things will never get better. It
is easy to forget in the midst of our lowest times that we have the victory
because the Lord is on our side! I recalled this verse several times during
2013: “You …are from God and have
overcome…because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the
world.” (I John 4:4)
PRAISE GOD that He is with us, even “through the
valley of the shadow of death.” I am
very thankful that God is stronger than any battle, illness or loss that I
face! And, because we (His children) have the victory and He is in control of
everything that happens in our lives (and turns what was meant to harm us into
something good), we do not have to fear anything that comes against us! As the
matter of fact, the Bible says the words, “Fear not” or “Do not fear” 365
times, one for every day of the year!
Take heart and be encouraged that
God is for you, He is your strength in weakness and with God’s help, there is
nothing you cannot overcome!
Excerpts taken from Chapters 12 & 13, “Struck
Down, But Not Destroyed.”
To order book: www.storenvy.com/products/8041482-struck-down-but-not-destroyed-book
No comments:
Post a Comment