Two Years And Counting! :0)

"I thought I'd have to wait until Heaven if I was ever going to enjoy another piece of chocolate..."

That’s what I wrote on my blog two years ago. I went on to say . . .

“Many of you know that I have had some pretty challenging health issues for over three years now. These health problems meant that my diet was very restricted and that I spent a lot of time in my kitchen preparing all the food I could eat from scratch. This also meant that anywhere I went I was toting along my cooler with my food in it (to church, track, in restaurants, etc.) as I could never just go pick up something to eat.

This last week my parents, my sister and I attended a seminar at a friend’s house. This seminar was amazing! It taught truths that I've heard from different places and put them together in an amazing way that really brought a tremendous amount of freedom. I dealt with some rejection issues, a bunch of bitterness, and a whole lot of fears, taking back the ground (or authority) I had given to Satan through those things. It was incredible! Then on Monday . . . God healed me!”

One year ago I wrote . . .

“St. Patrick's Day has become more special to me in the last year . . . it was one year ago today that God healed me. It was such an amazing experience, and I hope I never get over it. I learned so much through it . . .

• like how much our thoughts affect our health . . .
• how important it is to forgive . . .
• how to forgive . . .
• how to recognize the enemy's work in my life . . .
• and I'm still learning how to take every thought captive.

God is so good and so patient with me. His love is incredible!! . . . if only I could really get a grasp on how much He loves me and let it permeate my life . . . .”

I am so glad that I wrote these blogs! It has been really neat to see the journey that the Lord has brought me on, and the work He has been doing in my life. That first year, right after God healed me, I was SO excited, just completely rejoicing in and loving my Lord . . . but then the joy and love began to fade and I didn’t know what to do about it. Eventually I got to the point where I was discouraged. I was realizing that I just couldn’t keep negative thoughts out of my mind (The medical community has shown that just 1 minute of negative thought suppresses your immune system for 24 hours!) . . . no matter how hard I tried!

I am so grateful for the things the Lord has taught me since then! Now instead of trying not to think about things I shouldn’t, I am learning to fill my mind with thoughts of Jesus and learning to rest in Him.

A couple of days ago I came across these quotes by Hudson Taylor on the OMF website:

“When the heart submits, then Jesus reigns. When Jesus reigns, there is rest.”

“When you need it, rest in body; rest always in spirit.”

“Let us give up our work, our thoughts, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into His hand, and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to trouble about, or to make trouble about.”

God has been showing me, lately, how silly it really is for me to be concerned about the things that concern me. He has been demonstrating in some very clear ways how capable He is to go before me and work out all the details – better than I could expect!

So that’s where I am this year . . . falling more and more in love with Jesus – my Heavenly Prince – and the Word; learning to keep my heart submitted to Him, resting in Him. God is SO good!! 


PS ~ Seeing what He has done in my life these last two years makes me sort of curious what I’ll be blogging about on St. Patricks Day next year!  ;0)