My aunt Marge just had surgery a few days ago to remove cancer in her jaw. She had part of her jaw removed, as well as some teeth, and has a prosthesis in place now. She is praising God at how fast her recovery is going. :)Some thoughts Aunt Marge had took me back to my brain surgery 3+ years ago. She said she can FEEL the prayers of God's people for her. And that she is unworthy of everyone's love & care, but that this is how God meant for the body of Christ to be. These are two very distinct things that I experienced during our brain tumor adventure in 2004. I got tears in my eyes the other day, reading the update on my aunt and remembering the intensity of how it felt to get a tiny glimpse of how big God is and how much He loves me. It was a *very* good reminder of God's love & care for me! :)
Our friend Morgan has received her second stem cell transplant of the year and is praying that her body won't reject the donor cells. As I quoted in a previous post, she has a 33% chance of coming out of this totally fine, a 33% chance of having very serious problems, and a 33% chance of dying. Yet she still trusts that God is going to heal her body. And her mom has a whole barrage of prayer warriors asking God to heal her, too. :)
Yesterday in church, our pastor preached on No Fear this Year. As I listened, it struck me as strange how easily I put my faith in God when we had a baby daughter die, and when I had a brain tumor, but how I keep worrying about things like finances. When you put it all into perspective, it seems pretty silly, doesn't it? Our pastor said that fear and faith are opposites. It does seem to be true, at least in my life, that when I put my faith in God, the fear goes away. But at the same time, the faith isn't really from me, it's something God enables me to have. Not something I can "muster up" on my own. I am *so* glad that I trusted Jesus as my Savior and that because of this, I am God's child! Can't imagine "doing" life any other way...
Well, that's about it for today. Just some things God has been putting into my mind & heart lately. I hope your New Year's Eve is a good one, reflecting on 2007 and looking ahead to what God has in store for you in 2008. Drop us a note if you get a chance!! :)
2 comments:
Happy New Year! You said that so nicely...about faith and fear. And it made me stop to think. I too worry about finances---sometimes it keeps me up at night. But time and time again God has shown His grace and mercy to us. I know I need to trust in Him more and less in myself.
Thanks for sharing. Enjoying your blog.
Judy
http://myadventuresinhomeschooling.blogspot.com/
Judy,
Thanks for your comment... I appreciate it. Finances have often kept me awake, too, since we moved to Arizona last June. :(
As I was sitting here thinking about it, it seems rather odd. When we lived in Marquette, Matt was on staff with Youth for Christ. We lived on people's financial support. Sometimes, we didn't know if we were going to get paid or not.
I don't remember staying up at night worrying about money then... and Matt's current job is very regular on paychecks!
God is certainly able to take care of us, isn't He? There has never been a time when we were without food or clothing, or a safe place to live. I'm so glad God doesn't wait until we have lots of faith to provide for us! :)
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