Hope For Today

Dear Friends, Back in the summer I was really struggling with my frozen shoulder.  The pain had got so bad that it wasn't just  certain movements which caused me pain.  The pain was pretty constant, whether I was doing something or sitting still.  The physical pain was also affecting me emotionally, mentally and spiritually.   I really did not feel like worshipping God.  In fact, to be honest, it was the last thing I felt like doing. Worship is fine when things are going well with us.   We come along to church on a Sunday and join in with the praise and worship – we feel like worshipping God.   During the week we worship God in our hearts and attitude easily because we feel like it.   It comes more naturally. We are called to worship God.  Paul writes in Romans 12:1 " And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice...

Dear Friends, My sister and I regularly chat on the phone. She was sharing with me one morning about what was going on in her life. She had several decisions to make, responsibilities to order and things which were concerning her.  She was finding it hard and said that the picture she had was of a tangled ball of strings, all knotted and muddled up, yet as much as she tried she couldn't untangle them. But what is too hard for us is not too difficult for God! "Ah, Lord God ! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you." Jeremiah 32:17 (ESV) She took her concerns and worries to God, but as she did so she was still trying to find the solution herself. She suggested several answers to God.  For example, she would say to him, if such and such could happen then things can work out, or if you would do a, b or c, then this would be good.  After a while, she ...

Dear Friends, When I was first diagnosed with M.E (M yalgic Encephalomyelitis)  in the late 1990s I really struggled to come to terms with it. I can remember in the early years and when it was at its worst saying that God was taking everything away from me. This was truly how I felt, and the hurt and the pain from what I was losing was intense. It's a pain which actually cannot fully be put into words. Not only had I lost my health and strength, I had to give up work and I wasn't able to do the things I'd been doing at church, such as leading Sunday School and running a youth group with my husband. Jason and I had married in the Summer of 1995 and the illness meant I wasn't able to do all I wanted to do in the home or to be the kind of wife I wanted to be for Jason and I wasn't able to socialise (for me that meant not going to church and mixing with church friends). It really felt like God was taking everything away from me and like I said, it was extremely pa...

Dear Friends, This week follows on from last week so you may  find it helpful to read or re-read last week's post.  I wrote how we can know, even during our trials, that God loves us, cares about us and is with us in our pain.  You may remember that I shared about Jess' experience at the dentist, that it was painful to endure it, but that it was in her best interests that she did so. God, our loving heavenly Father, allows us to sometimes go through difficult and painful circumstances because they are ultimately for our good.  He uses these times to grow our faith in him, to deepen our trust, and to take us on in our Christian journey. For example, James says to his readers   " Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfec...

Dear Friends, We recently had our bi-annual family outing to the dentist.  I don't mind having a check up at the dentist; to tell you the truth, I'd rather have a dentist appointment than an appointment with the doctor.  Jess, on the other hand, does not like visiting the dentist.  At this particular appointment the dentist wanted to clean her teeth as there was a build up of plaque.  If she was tense before that comment, she was even more tense now, especially as he told her to just lift her hand if it got too painful.  As I sat watching the proceedings I could tell she was anxious, scared and in pain at times.  Now, the casual observer would not have picked up on it, but, as her mother, and  knowing her so well, I knew exactly how she was feeling.  I found it very hard to sit and watch my little girl suffering (at 12 years old she doesn't like me calling her that, but that's what she is to me!) and my natural in...

Dear Friends, Ever had one of those days, weeks, seasons which has been frustrating and difficult, when you're frustrated by your limitations, when you want to do so much more than you are doing, when you're not able to do the things you want to do, let alone the things you need to do? I know I have.  I live with the long term illness, M.E (Myalgia Encephalitis), some days are worse than others, some are bad, some are not too good either.  I've been in the middle of one of those bad times and to be honest with you, I was feeling really frustrated!  When the M.E. is worse, everything is so much harder, even simple things such as walking up my stairs and preparing a meal, become almost impossible tasks as I have limited strength and energy.  Because we are so much more than just physical beings, my whole self is affected - emotionally and spiritually.  I am so frustrated by my limitations, there's so much more I long to do but I'm just not ...

Dear Friends, Have you ever read a passage from the bible, when a verse jumps out at you, God grabs your attention and speaks to you through it?   You’ve read the passage before but had never noticed that verse there, perhaps because on previous readings it wasn’t what you needed that particular day, or perhaps you hadn’t tuned yourself to hear God’s voice, but this time it’s different because today it ’s what you really need to hear from God. I experienced this as I was reading Hosea Chapter 2.   God is speaking about his people, the Israelites, who have been unfaithful to him.   Despite their unfaithfulness, God is faithful in his love for them.   He says to his prophet, Hosea: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.   I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up fr...