EDIT: The reason I share my experiences is to show the Goodness of God. I am not writing with victim mentality and not writing to get sympathy. I really want to show you how God is Good, God is Great and God is the Best.
For the longest time, I have always wanted to go to the Holy Land. My fear was security but I soon learnt from several people I know who have gone, that it is safe to go. When our new pastor mentioned last year, that he organised such trips, I jumped in without hesitation. Before the trip I thought maybe when I go, just being in the place where Jesus did so many miracles, will give me the miracle I have been asking for, for the last 3 years. Then I thought maybe I will be like Naaman, once I come out of the river Jordan, that is when my Long Covid will go. Well, I came back sick and on the 3rd day, tested positive for Covid for the 3rd time! Lord have mercy.
It seems this virus has taken some kind of vow to be with me or put a spike on me till I don’t know when and I rebuke it fully in the name of Jesus the Healer of all Healers. My testimony yet again, even when it seems my prayer has not gone through, is that God is Good, God is Great, God is the Best. The fact that I can continue with my blog, continue with my daily routine as if I am not ill, is a miracle that only God is fully able to do.
2 days before I got ill, I was fighting with a sore throat. As a pharmacist, I always have my stash of meds even when I travel so I was fully covered. I continued to enjoy the sights and scenes and continue to marvel at the distance Jesus used to walk. He wasn’t walking miles; He was walking tour bus miles. While we took a coach to take us from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, Jericho, Nazareth or Jericho, which sometimes was hours on the bus, Jesus would have simply walked with his disciples. I can tell you no one had any weight issues in that group, and they were strong in every way. If they had any issues, they were walking with Jesus innit!
After visiting Galilee, I noticed I was losing the battle with the sore throat. God is Good and I didn’t feel it as much as my usual sore throats which prevent me from talking. I continued to enjoy the boat trip on the sea the disciples thought they would die, only for Jesus to say, “peace be still” and the wind obeyed. The next morning, we went to the Church of Annunciation and there was a Palm Sunday parade and again I was able to enjoy the tour before we left for the airport to head back home. I was ok.
At some point in the flight, I was not ok. I was shivering and was so cold. I took medicine from my stash and soon after the shivers went. What I didn’t carry this time in my stash is my oximeter and my thermometer. I have been carrying them on every trip since the pandemic but for this one I didn’t carry them. The first time, I got sick in 2020, thermometers were out of stock everywhere and since I found one, I may unconsciously have vowed to always have it with me, to avoid a repeat of 2020. Interesting the little things that can happen to “scar” you. On the way home I was ok but cold. If there is one thing I hate, its cold and feeling cold. When I arrived home, I thought I would warm up by getting into bed immediately.
Turns out it wasn’t just the environment temperature I was feeling. I was really cold then I would be really hot, and I just didn’t know what to do with the covers, because the outside temperature was also not helping the situation. By this time I was not in a good way. The sore throat was now my typical painful, and especially on one side, sore throat. I was miserable. I couldn’t believe I was sick. "Jesus heal me please". I hate being sick. But these days I look at being sick in a new way.
When I got sick with Long Covid in 2020, I never got sick with anything else for a long time, thank you Jesus. In 2022 is when I got sick and I thought may be the "tide is turning". Since then anytime I get sick I think to myself with gleam and hope “ this is it”, this may be the reset. So even on this occasion I thought the same thing. Meanwhile my friends are worried and praying it doesn't make the Long Covid worse. I never thought that till they said it. Glory to God for sheltering my view and perception so that I am seeing the positive not the negative. Another testimony for me because this is not my first nature.
On the 3rd day, I was feeling better than the previous 2 days and thought this cold is getting better in record time for me, because even before Long Covid, my colds would affect my asthma and I would only recover fully 3 weeks later. In the travelling group a few of us were not feeling well but none of us were in dire straits so no one thought anything sinister was going on. A group member did say she wouldn’t be surprised if someone had covid. I agreed but still didn’t think anything of it.
On the 3rd day of my illness, having come back from Israel, a group member messaged me to say she had tested positive. I told her I would do a test. When I told her that, I still didn’t think anything of it and here is the testimony in that. I was not afraid to test. I have really taken care of myself to do all that is in my reach to prevent getting sick. When I take public transport, I still wear my mask.
As I’ve said in my other posts, I am not playing with Covid because I am still trying to recover from the 2020 infection! I don’t have time to go backwards especially for a condition where there is still no cure or treatment. To take the test and not be afraid tells me for sure God’s strength and courage was with me, because my usual reaction would be one of worry, fear, disappointment, frustration and possibly anger, big one not little one. I did the test and it came out positive.
I was calm and I was laughing at how I thought I would step into the Holy land or river Jordan and come out healed. Turns out, I came back with more of the virus with spikes on its raggedy head. I didn’t laugh then cry as sometimes one would when you see the ridiculousness of the situation. I was ok. I really feel God had prepared me by looking at it as a cold, and by noticing how this cold was quickly resolvin, so that when I tested positive, I took it with the stride that is not usual for me. Anything not usual for me that is positive, I know is Gods’ hand in motion and using the negative for something good and also showing me, he has been doing a work in me. Amen!
What good is God doing? I have no idea, but I can tell you this. After testing positive, the number of funny things I have seen, that have given me a 6 pac, when I have been bed bound, has been laughter that I usually don’t see. In this period I have been able to continue with my course, assignments, coaching sessions because what God always has done for me, is give me strength to go on in a healthy way such that I don’t look like what I am going through.
Even with my Long Covid, unless I have told someone, no one knows I am battling an illness. The other testimony is that during the trip to Holy Land, I walked with the group, long distances like I had nothing going on and I know that is again the hand of God taking me where on my own, it would be impossible! This is why my motto is God is Good, God is Great, God is the Best.
Going for that trip was something I would have struggled with if I had not started walking 2 hrs a day (again the hand of God set that in motion) as is now my usual routine. What I am saying is God has a way of handling things for me that make me thrive when I know I shouldn’t thrive. I smile when I know I shouldn’t smile. Off course I asked "like truly Jesus how can I pray for healing then end up with more of the very thing I am asking you to get rid of ?" (we talk like that because Jesus is cool like that).
I should be so angry and pouting like a child right now, but Glory to God for those things/blessings/special favour he gives us that I don’t even know what to call, that help us through the challenging times when you see your prayer has not been answered…YET! amen and Glory to God!
I do believe God is up to something. I don’t know what and you know what, all these thirty-nine years of walking on this earth, especially the last 3 have taught me, I don’t even need to know what he is doing. Why? Because everything always works out. Everything is in order. Every single thing happening is happening as it should and is happening for a reason, it is never in vain, Not on God's watch!
God being the Great Saving God that he is, will allow things to happen because he knows they can propel us to the blessings he has for us, the life he has for us, the one we’ve asked for and the one we haven’t asked, thought or imagined, but the one he sees we are so worthy of, even when we suffer imposter syndrome or feel unworthy or feel too scared to embrace.
Everything is in order, even that little annoying house fly that whizzes in and out of the window, has a purpose. There is a reason I have got Covid for the 3rd time. How I take it, is that God is showing me that I can be infected all these times but so long as he is there, which he fully is, hallelujah amen, that weapon will not prosper. Not on his watch!
So knowing that I don’t have to be afraid of testing or continuing with my future trips. So long as he is on the throne, so long as he is on my side, which he has constantly shown he is, I have nothing to fear, what can a virus with matuta (plaits) on its head do to me! The God of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego has been with me before I was formed in my mother’s womb, and he is not going to stop now. I am now negative; convalescing and can’t wait to see what he does for me.
But all I know is he is a faithful God, forever faithful, forever graceful, forever merciful, forever a rock, forever a hiding place, forever making a way where there seems to be no way and forever making me smile.
God is Good, God is Great, God is Sovereignly the Best
Related verses
Isaiah 41:10
Jeremiah 1:5
2 Corinthians 9:8
John 15:4-11
Mark 4:39
Luke 18:38-41
Proverbs 16:4
Next post: 09/4/2023
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.May God's grace be forever sufficient for you.
You have favour in God's eyes, keep embracing it.
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