Category Archives: God’s Plan

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May 20, 2015

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Faith & Hope, God's Grace & Love, God's Plan, Knowing Him, Miracles

THE GREAT PHYSICIAN

I am the Lord who heals you. [Exodus 15:26b (NLT)]

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. [Psalm 139:14 (NLT)]

5-20-15jasmine (star)- naples442-1webShort of seeing his incision, steri-strips and a small bandage on his back, one would be hard put to know that my husband had surgery less than a week ago! When commenting on his quick recovery, a neighbor said, “You must have had a good doctor!” Of course he did; we wouldn’t have deliberately chosen a bad one. Better yet, my husband has a Great Physician! God made our bodies wonderfully complex and, in the process, gave them the ability to heal! Wounds can close, broken bones can mend, and weak hearts can get stronger. We have an immune system to fight infection and platelets and plasma to help blood clot. Cancer cells can be defeated and, in my husband’s case, peripheral nerves can regenerate and repair themselves.

From a quick Internet search, it seems that we humans have anywhere from 15 to 70 trillion cells in our bodies. Like all living things, however, those cells don’t last forever. Muscle cells may function as long as 25 years, liver cells might last 18 months, and red blood cells can live up to four months; the cells in our gut, however, survive only four or five days! I read that an adult male loses roughly 96 million cells per minute (and not just from his rapidly balding head). Yet God, in his infinite wisdom created a body that can replace those same cells in that very same minute! Literally, out with the old and in with the new.

God did an outstanding job when he put us together. Granted, He allowed parts to break, wear out, deteriorate and fail, but he also gave our bodies the amazing ability to heal! Moreover, he gave us the art of medicine along with healers and researchers who are constantly finding ways to keep these bodies of ours working a bit better and longer.

Even though our bodies have an incredible ability to heal, not everything that goes wrong with them can be fixed. Not all pain can be alleviated, not every poison has an antidote, not every disease can be cured, and not every medical condition has a remedy. Our bodies will eventually be broken beyond repair and God will take us home.

Jesus was a healer and, while He healed the physical ailments of many, He wasn’t in the medical business. His business was that of the soul and, no matter what happens to our mortal bodies, His presence in our lives keeps our spirits healed and whole. While we may not be restored to physical health, he renews our spirit, eases our fears, turns our weakness into strength, our sorrow into joy, and our pain into peace. Thank you, Father, for the gift of healing, both of body and soul.

Prayer for Health of Body and Soul: May God the Father bless you, God the Son heal you, God the Holy Spirit give you strength. May God the holy and undivided Trinity guard your body, save your soul, and bring you safely to his heavenly country; where he lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. [Book of Common Prayer]

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. [Psalm 73:26 (NLT)]

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May 8, 2015

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Attitudes & Behavior, Family, Friends & Fellowship, God's Plan, Sorrow, Grief & Regrets, Today: Make it Count

SEIZE THE DAY

And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. [James 4:13-14 (MSG)]

My wife was dead. All those things we were going to do together were now impossible. We had spent a lifetime working toward that distant goal, making promises to ourselves that now we would never fulfill. Sure, it’s important to plan for the future, but think about this: You’ve had the gift of yesterday, and you are living today with its choices and opportunities, but who knows if you will have tomorrow? You’ve heard it time and time again, but I will tell you – and I know it’s true, because the painful lesson is etched into my yesterday – no one has a guarantee of tomorrow. That’s why it is so important today to tell our spouses and loved ones what they mean to us. [From “Hiking Through” by Paul Stutzman]

5-8-15seizewebThe day I started reading Paul Stutzman’s book Hiking Through, about his journey on the Appalachian Trail, was the same day I learned that a friend’s wife has conceded defeat in her war against cancer. Having recently received the last rites, her remaining time is measured in just days and hours. What struck me is the similarity between both men’s situations. Like my friend’s wife, after a long and painful struggle, Stutzman’s spouse lost her battle with cancer. Both couples had persisted through their difficult yesterdays: the financial and professional struggles of the early years and the stress of raising children. They were approaching what I think of as the “wonder” years: those blessed years when careers are secure, the children are capable young adults, money is no longer scarce, health is still good, and there are time and funds enough for travel. Those highly anticipated carefree and joy-filled tomorrows will never happen for either couple.

Having lost my parents in their prime (my mother was only forty-seven and my father just fifty-six), I’ve always had an awareness of life’s brevity. That doesn’t mean I don’t waste precious moments of every today by reliving my yesterdays or anticipating my hoped for tomorrows. May these men’s experiences remind us all that we must take delight in every precious today granted to us. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon makes the point that there is a right time for each activity in life. It is, however, always the right time to praise God for the blessings of the day. Moreover, there is never a wrong time to tell those we love how much we care for them and how precious they are to us.

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace. [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (MSG)]

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April 27, 2015

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God's Plan, Holy Spirit, Obedience, Prayer, Wisdom & Guidance

DO YOU NEED A HEARING AID?

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Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! [Hebrews 12:25 (NLT)]

As we’ve aged, many of us have increasing difficulty with hearing, especially in a noisy room. Some of us, no matter how good our hearing, have a problem with listening. More of us, however, even when we hear clearly and listen carefully, have difficulty understanding and heeding what has been said. Since we expect God to listen to us, perhaps it would be a wise idea to do a better job of listening to Him.

Lord, quiet our lives so we hear your voice, focus our thoughts so that we listen to your words, let your Holy Spirit guide us so that we understand and heed your message.

Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left. [Isaiah 30:21 (NLT)]

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April 23, 2015

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Attitudes & Behavior, Family, Friends & Fellowship, God's Plan, Love & Works

GOING TO WORK

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. [Romans 12:1 (MSG)]

When people asked me what I did, I’d often reply, “I’m just a homemaker.” But we’re never just a housewife or only a bus driver or merely a waiter. Do we ever demean the work God has given us simply because it lacks a large paycheck or status? Even those of us who are retired or unemployed have been given valuable work to do; we’re just no longer paid to do it. The work we do never defines us; how we do that work, however, does!

3-16-15-cropRWEBAll work is honorable, whether we’re saving lives as EMTs or wiping children’s bottoms and noses, designing skyscrapers or laying tile, teaching the ABC’s or preaching the gospel. There’s as much dignity in packing groceries as in managing the grocery store, in bussing tables as in being a gourmet chef, and in sweeping an auditorium as in conducting a symphony orchestra. Our work has importance whether we oversee the finances of a multi-million dollar corporation or manage to feed a family of five on a tight budget, whether we appease irate customers or calm a toddler in the midst of a melt-down, and if we teach calculus or help fifth graders understand fractions. To God, the pilot of a 747 is no more important than the driver of a mini-van doing car-pool duty. The song offered by a diva in a concert hall is no more beautiful to Him than the humming of a maid as she mops floors. Our work is not who we are; it is simply what we do. Work does more than bring a paycheck; our work is an offering to God. As His servants, we want to give Him our best. After all, He offers the greatest benefit package known to man!

Bless the work of our hands, O Lord. Guide us so that we are useful and industrious and give us joyful hearts as we labor.

And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do! [Psalm 90:17 (MSG)]

(Don’t worry! The photo is from a simulated rescue at a Swiss street fair.)

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April 8, 2015

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Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, God's Plan, Peace of God, Trusting God

IT’S MORE THAN JUST CROSSING YOUR FINGERS

Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. [Psalm 25:5 (NLT)]3-9-15monarch - NBG9981rWEB

We hope: the house will sell, we’ll “ace” the test, the stock market will rise, the biopsy will be benign, the relationship will improve, it won’t rain on the picnic, the plane will be on time, the raise will come, the lottery ticket will pay off, or the cure will be found. Is that hope or simply wishful thinking?

Christian hope is neither hope in specific circumstances nor mindless optimism; it is hope in God. It is the confidence that no matter how those other situations turn out, God will get us through them all. Christian hope means we trust what God has promised; it is a confidence in His word. His word, however, has nothing to do with travel schedules, good weather, winning lotto numbers, or even pathology reports.

Hope in God means that we’ll have the strength to stand strong, the ability to keep going in the face of adversity, the capability to forgive, and the capacity to return good for evil and love for hate. Hope in God allows us to be joyful in all circumstances. It reassures us that God is in charge and He will do what is right. We don’t just dream of good in the future, we expect it to happen; it’s just that the rosy future may be further away than tomorrow and will last for eternity.

How do we build our hope in God? Hope is a portion or part of faith. Faith and hope, in my mind, are overlapping realities: hope is faith in the future tense. So most of faith is hope. [John Piper]

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. [Romans 15:13 (NLT)]

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April 2, 2015

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Bible Stories, Fear & Doubt, God's Plan, Prayer, Trusting God

IT’S A REQUEST – Maundy Thursday

He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” … Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” … So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again. [Matthew 26:39,42,44 (NLT)]

He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. [Luke 22:44 (NLT)]

A request allows a variety of responses such as “yes,” “no,” “perhaps,” “maybe,” or “later.” A command, on the other hand, expects the response of “yes!” In our relationship with God, it’s important to remember that He’s the only one who gets to command. We, on the other hand, can only make requests. If God’s response to our prayers is a resounding “No!” does that mean we didn’t pray hard enough or that we were unworthy or unloved?

Jesus was intense in his prayer that last night; he prayed so fervently his sweat dropped like blood to the ground. He certainly was persistent; he prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane. Without a doubt, being without sin, He was worthy. Moreover, Jesus surely was loved; after all, He was the son of God. Yet, God did not take away the cup of suffering that lay ahead of him. If God could deny His only son, we must accept the fact that He can deny our prayers, too. God denied Jesus because He had other better plans for Him; when God denies our prayers, it’s because He has other, better, plans for us, as well. Let His will be done!

May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. [Matthew 6:10b (NLT)]