A Time for Healing... and a Place called Peace...

...grab a blanket and your cup of coffee (or diet coke, in my case ;-)) and settle in on a comfy couch. This might take a little while.

It usually does when God begins to stir some deep thoughts in my soul...

Recently, a person that I see almost every day, excluding the weekends, mentioned to me she thought that "this time" in my life has been one that was necessary for healing. Of course, "this time" that she was referring to is a very long story that can best be summed up by the statement: "You just had to be there." I do agree with her, though, on this front and many others. I mean, we all have our baggage, don't we? We all need healing in some area of our lives, don't we?

I know, I do! MS. Infertility. Personal struggles that affect me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Praise God that HE is the ultimate healer and that HE has been in the healing business since Adam & Eve first messed things up. Truly, folks, that's where it all started. Work. Pain. Sickness. Sorrow. Suffering. Sadness.

But, it doesn't. have. to. be. that. way! And one day, ALL will be restored when we meet our Savior in heaven.

For now, though, we have to make our way through the circumstances we face in this sin-sick world. Whether self-imposed or otherwise, we must make our way to the lover of our souls.

By the way, I LOVE that song. Have you ever heard it? If you haven't (and even if you have :-)), feel free to scroll down to my playlist. It is the first one on there now. This song is taken directly from the Psalmist's words in Scripture:

Psalms 40:1-5
I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction,
out of the miry clay.
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the LORD.
How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust,
And has not turned to the proud,
nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders which You have done.
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count.

AMAZING, isn't He!

He's been speaking to me. And not only about me. He's confirmed some things about YOU and the role you have in my life, too. :-)

I've been reading in my ONE YEAR Bible, The Living Bible (LOVE that version), and the other day... well, actually the 16th, I read the story in Mark 2 about the paralyzed man who was lowered by his friends through the roof so they could get him to Jesus to be healed. I've heard the story many times in my Christian school educated, church attending life, but somehow, the Holy Spirit gave me a different focus this time. Specifically in verse 5 where it says, "When Jesus saw how strongly they believed that he would help, Jesus said to the sick man, 'Son your sins are forgiven!'"

Did you catch that?

It doesn't say that the paralyzed man believed. It says that his friends believed.

What an amazing way to invest in the lives of friends with both faith and action!

I feel that way about all of you. Whether you are next door, in the next state, on the other side of the country or the other side of the world, so many of you have invested in my life through your faith and prayers on my behalf.

You have helped me to grow my faith!

Thank you for that. I am definitely not the person I used to be, which can only be attributed to two things: One ~ First and foremost, the grace of God. There is no other explanation for it because it is certainly not anything I have done. And Two ~ the faith, intercession, and vulnerability of you, the body of Christ.

Yes, I said vulnerability...

vulnerability to share your lives and your battles. Sometimes, when I am struggling, it has helped me to put my life into perspective to see that others are struggling too and that maybe, just maybe, my problems aren't as bad as I thought. I know, kind of backwards, but it has helped.

In a real way. It has helped me to adjust and conform to the molding of my heavenly Father as He fine tunes me to be what He created in the first place. It has helped me to stop fighting and to stop trying to shove my square plan into His perfect circle. Yep. I've tried that, and it just doesn't fit.

Now, I know that none of this means my journey will magically end or that happily ever after will start with this weekend... or next, but I do know that I am in a good place right now. A place that I haven't been in quite a long time. A place called peace.

And it feels good.

Living in His JOY, HOPE, and PEACE...



***Don't forget to pray for someone today!