Consider it all joy?

There's a verse in James 1 that I've tended to skip over when we're talking about why God allows chronic illness and pain in our lives:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. - James 1:2

I guess none of us have quite liked that scripture, and I didn't know what to do with it. Then the other day, I was listening to the Janet Parshall's America. Janet was interviewing Dr Gary Smalley who said something that really caught my attention:

When I find myself facing a new trial, I find myself getting excited about what Jesus is going to do. [not an exact quote]

In our chat today, none of us could say we were glad we're ill! But we do know joy in our lives -- some examples:

• We have all experienced His Presence in a way we never knew before -- that is amazing and we are grateful for that!
• We can slow down and have long lunches with friends.
  
• Slowing down also means noticing more of God's world -- some of us take photographs.
• We have more time to read.
• Trials bring God's glory.
• We can serve others who are suffering because we know & understand what they're going thru; God gives us a heart for them.

Being ill requires a lot of adjustments and we (and our spouses!) miss our old selves. I worry about what I can't do for my son because of being ill. This verse comforts me:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. - 2 Corinthians 12:9

Though I don't always see Him working, our weaknesses do cause us to lean on Him which we often don't do until we get to the end of ourselves! Sometimes we are helped to see how God works by reading Christian fiction, especially when we know of people with similar experiences. Sometimes we see better that God is working when we look back. One chatter said:

God is changing my hopeless thoughts into a burden to share and help others living with illness locally as well. [...] That is my joy now, serving others and letting them know I am here and understand.

But it takes time; we take one step at a time. Sometimes, we get depressed and struggle with understanding why. Other times, we know God's precious Presence in such a way that it's easy to trust Him. And we know it's Him working in us cause when we're sick, we really know we couldn't do it without Him.

QuietSoul's Dad

QuietSoul's dad passed away this evening about 9:30 pm central time. They were home praying that he would pass peacefully at the time and her sister was with her dad and said that it was peaceful. They are feeling relieved that he is free now, but it is a difficult time, of course. Please pray for Quiet & her whole family. Thanks!

Yet Another Schedule Change

Sorry for so many changes in schedule here...

As many of you know, my father-in-law is now living in an assisted living facility near where I live. We're going over to visit him and the evenings and often do not get back until late enough that having my chat in the evenings is a problem. So, my chat time will be changing to 3pm eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

I am in the chat rooms most evenings for at least part of the evening, but I can't always be.

If you'd like to volunteer to host a chat, please let me know! Thanks.

The photo above is a daffodil from a neighbor's yard. Spring in northern Virginia is quite nice.

sorry folks

Due to circumstances beyond my control the Prayer chat will only be held Tuesday and Thursday until further notice. The week that my daughter comes to town I imagine I won't be able to do prayer chat as we will be in the city during that time and I will also need a few days afterwards to recover. At this time I don't yet know the exact date of her arrival but tentative plans at this point are for the end of the month or the beginning of May. I'll post the dates I will be away as soon as I know. Today's chat will only be for half an hour due to pain levels.

Romans 4:17-25 from the Message Bible

(17) We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. (18) When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" (19) Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. (20) He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, (21) sure that God would make good on what he had said. (22) That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." (23) But it's not just Abraham; (24) it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. (25) The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Pray for Alana -- preemie

Please pray for Alana who is a newborn preemie, whose parents are friends of Angie's. Alana is home from the hospital but stops breathing at times and her parents are afraid to sleep. She should be on a sleep apnea monitor, but her parents haven't been given one. She cannot lay on her back, either, because she has reflux problems. The baby was tested for three days in the hospital but the did not figure out what's going on with her.

Please pray that her parents get the monitor and answers, and that the baby doesn't stop breathing when her parents aren't able to help her.

Thanks!

Prayer request from Momof6 & her husband

Momof6 and her husband are struggling more in their marriage. Praise God that their daughter's wedding this past weekend was beautiful, but they are under a lot of stress now. Pray for Mom that she has wisdom about what she should do and that God would show her husband what he needs to do -- especially that he be willing to go with her to counseling.

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