As with most of us, this has been a crazy and eventful year for me: going from unemployment to getting 2 jobs, five months apart, working with preschoolers and school-age kids (a nice balance), getting into a car acccident resulting in neck and back injuries (and a new-to-me car), and then, best of all, going to hear Mario Murillo on Nov. 9 with my new boss at the after-school program at Leschi Elem. and BOTH of us getting healed, me of my neck and back injuries from the accident and also from long-standing back trouble!
I know I tend to be a pessimist, and don't like my negative attitudes - it's something God is CONSTANTLY working on with me. But my healing reminds me (maybe that's WHY God did it!) to praise Him. Not just because He has healed me, though that's certainly the big picture, and reason enough but moreso because healing, especially the miraculous kind that happened to me, is spiritual warfare. As much as we want to focus on the good at this time of year (and always), we also have to realize the truth that we are ALWAYS involved in warfare, and rarely moreso than after such a healing miracle! For one thing, healing boosts our faith, which Satan obviously doesn't want to allow! So, one of his tactics after such an event is to throw out what I call "phantom pains" - he wants us to doubt our healing and figures that if we feel a twinge of that "old pain," we'll give it up and doubt God - both His ability (did He really do it? Could he?) and His goodness (Maybe it was just wishful thinking or the power of suggestion? Would He really have healed ME?).
So, what I've learned in this matter, which carries over to the rest of my life (when I think about it and practice it!) is to battle the doubts with words of praise and trust! When I start to feel those "old pains," I've learned to point to Jesus and thank Him for what I KNOW He's done for me. And guess what happens EVERY time: the "pain" disappears! And, to boot, my faith is once more boosted!!! Now, to get that message across to myself in all other aspects of my life - not that they'll all change instantly, but that with that attitude of praise rather than complaining, I will change into a more grateful person.
Today at church one of the points my pastor made was from a verse from Philippians 3:16, "Only let us live up to what we have already attained." A good place to start!
No comments:
Post a Comment