How do we find peace?

As many of you know, we have talked about having peace in the midst of pain and illness in the room many times. These thoughts come out of those discussions -- they're not not all from me. It's amazing how God can work in a chat room!

It is, of course, a subject close to my heart... So many chronically ill Christians are hurting because they think if they believed better, they would be healed -- or if they prayed right or something. At least they keep hearing that from Christian friends. And whether or not they quite believe that, they may well feel like God's put them on a shelf. It's a really tough place to be, feeling God has rejected you on top of the pain and limitations of the illness itself.

So how do we find peace? The first thing that helped me was in the old chat room, when someone reminded me that God loves my son more than I do. He was not quite 13, and I was feeling that my illness had hurt him by preventing me from caring for him as I want to. The reminder helped me realize that while my illness might limit what I can do with him, God was looking out for him, too. I could trust God with him.

Then I started thinking about Philippians 4:6-7:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God wants us to talk to Him and tell Him everything we're worried about. We thank Him for the good things in our lives and cling to the things about God that we know are true, echoing Peter:

Lord, where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life. (paraphrasing John 6:68)

God moves and He gives us peace as we trust Him -- and His peace doesn't depend on us understanding why things happen or on us praying exactly the right way... God meets us more than half way!

The peace that Jesus gives is peace in our core that is there, even if chaos is swirling around us, it doesn't have to touch us. But we're human and when a new limitation or symptom appears or when some other trial comes along, we can become worried and fearful again. Like Peter walking on water, we get distracted by the chaos. Look back to Jesus, talk to the Him and to friends... Sometimes we need to see love "with skin on". Friends even in a chat room have been a real blessing, helping me so much by connecting with others who understand.

Do we always have peace? No... But God's grace is amazing.



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Happy Easter!!!!

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Prayer Chat time change again sorry guys

Due to Daylight Savings Time you all change your clocks but I change my time zones. Which is really hard for me. So in order to be able to go out during the day for mail,walks or whatever so I need to change the prayer time to a later hour so I can recuperate before prayer. The new time will be at 7 pm EST 5 pm Mst.

prayer request from rrdave

my oldest niece is real trouble health wise, she has the flu that has killed some in the states, and she has an inflamed spinal cord so they are talking about some serious treatment for her, and my cousin is about to get admitted in the hospital also, she hears voices and feels suicidal. please pray for them thank you.
Dave

Update on Kristen

I just got email from Dave (rrdave). Kristen was getting a spinal tap done when Dave sent me his email at 6:30 pm eastern. They don't have a diagnosis yet for her. She did pass a neurological exam; she has no paralysis. She will
have the following tests:

• the spinal tap
• mri
• nerve tests

They won't have the test results until tomorrow. Her blood work is normal. She is awake and feeling better. She's sitting up and eating grapes; she doesn't have a fever. Pray she gets in a room quickly!

Thanks!

Please pray for Apples family

There has been a major blizzard in Newfoundland and a lot of Apples family are on a ferry out in the ocean on their way to Newfoundland and can't land because of ice. Pray that there is an opening and that they can not only land and attend the funeral but also to leave again and go home safely after the funeral is over.

While your at it please pray for the whole east coast of Canada that is undergoing massive disasters because of the huge amount of snow they have been getting. There are roofs collapsing and people dying of heart attacks from shoveling. Some places have snow as high as 6 - 7 feet and more is possibly expected soon.

Pray for Dave's niece, Kristen

RRDave's niece fell this morning and is in the hospital, very weak. She has severe pain and is taking in fluids but not releasing them.

Dave and his mom are heading over to the hospital to visit her.

Please pray! Thanks.

Update on Apple's Aunt

Apple's Aunt Ivy died earlier this afternoon. This was sudden and Apple is very sad. Ivy was her mom's sister, and Apple's grandfather (Ivy's father) is 90. Ivy is the first child of his to die -- this is especially difficult for him, too.

Please pray for Apple and the rest of her family. Thanks!

SOS PRAYER REQUEST

AppleofHisEye messaged me with an emergency prayer request:

We just got a call a bit ago that my aunt went into a state of depression then took a stroke. She's bleeding in her brain and her brain is swollen one side. Doctors aren't expecting her to make it. Her name is Ivy. The doctor said if she does, she'll be a vegetable, but they're not expecting her to. They said she's living on minutes....not sure exactly of her age but in her late 60's early 70's somewhere in there.

Heavenly Father, be with Apple and her family right now and give them all that they need during this time. I especially ask that You lay Your healing hand on Ivy and stop the bleeding and help her to pull through this time. Let it be a grand testimony of prayer and Your Love and Mercy. And if she doesn't know you Lord let her have time to do so. Send Christians to her to pray for her and speak the Word over her. In Jesus' Precious name I pray, amen.

Having troubles getting into chat this might help

There has been an update and its effecting the flashplayer which is effecting the chat room and videos and a few other things. So if you go to http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ and update the flashplayer it just may fix your problem. I'm not saying it will but its helping a few of us PC owners. If all else fails download http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/ browser and it will help too. I gave up on explorer awhile back hehe.

Memorizing Bible verses

At a recent chat, we talked about how to memorize scripture; some suggestions were:

• Repeat them to yourself until you can say it without looking.
• Put them on a mirror, next to your computer, in the bathroom, on your refrigerator, or somewhere else you'll see them a lot.
• Work on just one a week or until you have it down well. Some of us have memory problems.
• Put Bible verses to music and sing them -- or buy cd's with Bible verses put to music.
• Work on a phrase at a time, learning the beginning part before working on the latter parts.
• Get easy ones that mean something to you, and put them on index cards and put them in your pocket.
• Meditate on a verse as you go to sleep.
• Don't feel pressured; many of us have memory problems -- God understands this.
  
• From after the chat: Remove one word at a time and repeat it, filling in the missing words.
  

Remember, God will help bring verses to mind when you need them.

God's grace is amazing!

update on craftingrama

Hi all sorry I haven't been around forgot to grab my laptop and bring it into the bedroom with me when I was grabbing pain meds, bread, PB&J, and water bottles.
I forgot the day after the accidents always the worst and I also found out that I had done a bit more damage then I realized because the pain in my ankle/leg kind of walked over the pain in the rest of the body. The next day I went to get out of bed and couldn't move due to the pain in my back and hips. When I finally managed to get out of bed I looked in the full length mirror and found I was black and blue from the waist down so that explained a few things LOL. So I grabbed a few things while I was up and stayed in bed for the last few days except for bathroom runs. I chose the bed mostly because it was closest to the bathroom then the couch is, and more able to set up for my ankle, which meant I couldn't be online but I had no choice and I'm afraid the chat room was the last thing on my mind. I'm still pretty sore but am up for a bit to be able to watch my church programs on tv and then I am heading back to the bed room. I'm not sure yet if I can bring my laptop to the bedroom or not as I am thinking I may not be able to bend down to get the plug for it to bring into the bedroom and its a lot of weight to carry for a couple of hours of online time. But will see how I am a bit later. Thanks for your prayers and I apologize for not being able to do prayer chat for a bit. I'll try to be back on as soon as possible.I miss you all and pray for you all when ever I can.
craftingrama

Pray for AppleofHisEye -- more flu!

Apple and others here have flu...Pray that their symptoms ease and that they heal quickly.

Please continue praying for Crafting, as well.

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Pray for Craftingrama

Craft fell down a couple days ago and got a bad sprain. She lives by herself, and this will make it harder for her to take care of herself and to get out to run errands. Pray that she heals quickly and that she gets help when she needs it.

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Pray for Momof6 & husband

Please pray for Momof6 and her husband as Mom's illness is causing stress in their marriage. Her husband is also working a lot of hours and one of her daughters is getting married. So, there is a lot going on, and it is difficult for Mom to keep up. Pray for her for wisdom on what to do, what not to do, and how to handle various situations.

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Please pray! Thanks.

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