We are definitely in the age of forwards, memes and videos. If we could be paid £1k for each forward, meme, or video clip we receive!!! No one would be struggling in these expensive economic times. On that note yesterday when I went to the supermarket, if I could be paid £1k for each time I said "WHAT!" when I looked at the price of the item I was picking, I would be on a first-class trip to a luxury beach destination for a week and could easily take a few friends with me. Lord hear my prayer (and the friends who would want me to take them say…). Surely 6 small, not even big, small apples were £2.50 from 0.89p! Then now you find yourself debating whether you really need to buy apples yawa! The devil truly wants us to be unhealthy, then sick so we can feel bad, blame God then cancel God. A Lie!
Speaking of illness, this week I don't know why; I have struggled with my ongoing health challenges. I say I don't know why because I don't feel I have done anything different, but I certainly feel different. The latter part of the week was a struggle. Added to that during the last part of the week I had an experience that really disturbed my spirit to the core. I have come to realise any emotional issue that weighs on me has a direct effect on my physical health. Naturally, I did what I know, I did what I do. I prayed about it.
I usually walk 2 hours a day and on Wednesday I knew I couldn't do this. Thursday I was like surely, I can't not go a second day, so I went. When I started the walk, even though it was cold, I just started to feel good, not necessarily better in the symptoms, but I did feel good. I have come to really love walking and I do it most days except Saturday. But even on Saturday by the time I've gone to Church and come back, I've still done more than half of the steps I aim to do each day. If I don’t walk it means I’m in the gym, which is usually twice a week. These exercises serve many purposes but the main one is they’re helping me with my recovery.
As I continued walking, I realised I wouldn't be able to do my usual 12k steps. I turned back and went home. I felt good that at least I had done 6k. I know my old self may have been disgruntled that I didn’t do my 12k, but I celebrated the fact that I could even do 6k. Surely, God gives us Grace when we fall short or in other areas, so I think we need to do the same and be gentle on ourselves.
I usually listen to a sermon when I’m walking but, on that day, I was listening to a zoom session for a class I was taking. By the time I reached home I was in a rough way. I hadn’t felt rough like this for a year. I’ve been making good progress and I didn’t understand what was going on. Again, I prayed. Today I heard a sermon that said “prayer connects you to the SOURCE of life and unlocks the mighty resources of Heaven” that will then “push away the darkness” in your life (Dr Ruth Finlay). No wonder I love praying.
I continued with my zoom session in my “recovery position”. I have a certain position that really helps me when I don’t feel well. If I prone (lie on my stomach flat) myself, ah! It gives me relief. The first time I discovered it! Sweet relief it was! As the evening continued, I was able to carry on but decided not to go for my walk on Friday and certainly not go to the gym as I had previously scheduled. Friday evening, I was better than Thursday but still not my usual baseline. I continued with my activities and before I said my end of the night prayer, I thought to myself, what would that day look like when this health challenge is gone. I intended to pray about it.
All I know is I woke up the next day and when I was watching one of my online services, as they prayed for those who were ill, I remembered I was to pray the night before for my health, with the vision of how it would be if I was 100% healed. This happens to me many times. I intend to pray for something, I forget, then the next day I remember and pray about it. Humans! Thank God He knows our prayers in advance and is a K.P.M.G kind of God (see K.P.M.G post).
I know God has heard my prayers, and I really believe that the health challenge may be my “thorn” for now in that it is for a reason. God always has plans for Good and not evil and can use the negatives in our lives and turn them for our good. I don’t know the purpose of the challenge, but it is certainly not in vain. I do pray it will be a temporary thorn though, yawa Jesus. But then again as Jesus taught us in the garden of Gethsemane, when he wanted the cup to pass from him, he ended the prayer with “not as I will, but as thou wilt” and since then Jesus has been winning and will be glorified for eternity. Hallelujah!
Last year at some point I had committed to praying at 9pm every evening specifically for my health. I would still pray about it in other prayers but this time was solely for that prayer. I would assume my prayer position (kneeling with my head to the ground) and pray for total healing. Not just for this specific condition but for the other conditions which now seemed very minor compared to the main one. I was praying for every part of me to be 100% healed. I’ve now realised I stopped my 9pm prayer time. I’ve realised I stopped when I lost my cousin Sept 2021. This took a toll on my health, and I was signed off sick. So, where I had a daily routine when I was working and did my 9pm prayer, when I didn’t go to work, my daily routine went out the window.
When the online service ended today, I assumed my praying position and talked to my Best Friend, who lives in heaven. The one who created me and my mitochondria, alveoli, and bronchioles. The one who sees and knows not only the future but sees deeper and clearer than an X-ray, MRI, and bronchoscopy can, even if they were combined somehow. The one who knows whether it is a cytokine storm or micro-clots going on or not because He is the only Living True God who knows the precise and exact pathology of what is really going on in my body. The God who unlike the medics who are dumbfounded and defeated, asks, “Is anything too hard for the Lord”. Omera! Let me pray to this God! If that is Who He is and How He is, then just knowing that allows me to believe He is Well Able! to do something great for me.
But now here’s the thing. I’ve prayed for healing so many times. May be that’s also why I never came back to my 9pm prayer once I was in a better place with my grief. What can I say that I haven’t said before? How do I pray a prayer that is THE prayer that will be answered? What should I say? So, after sort of recapping for God (not that He needs it) why I’m in this prayer position, how and why I used to do it those days at 9pm, I reached a point where I was like God, I don’t even know what to say or ask for, but I just want to be healed.
I asked the Holy Spirit to intercede for me with His groans because I felt there’s a certain prayer, I should pray to get the healing I desire but I didn’t know what that prayer “looked like”. It was a very emotional prayer as I thought of what it would mean to receive 100% healing. I will one day share the many (and I mean many) testimonies of the journey with this illness. For now, I can summarise it with the story of my all-time favourite heroes, S.M.A, commonly known as Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. They were in a fiery furnace that was heated up 7 times but the fire “had not had any power over their bodies, the hair of their heads was not singed, their mantles were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them”! God is Good!
Friday evening my cousin Eva sent me a video. I saw it was 1:32 minutes and said to myself “ei!, that’s long. I’m tired, I’ll watch it later”. That went on to be the next day. I think I was just tired because I usually watch 1-minute videos. If I receive 8min or 14min videos on Whatsapp, my reaction is “eh! I’m not watching that” (Dear God help my patience). If it was a YouTube video I would certainly watch. I don’t know why the platform has such an impact. (PS: when my phone memory is full, I do watch some of them before I delete them, so don’t be discouraged to send).
On Saturday after I prayed, I was looking at my phone and realised I hadn’t seen Eva’s video. To be fair any video I usually receive is always relevant to me in some way, but the human in me, I always go through the cycle of “ai! Its long, I’ll watch it later” and come to find it was actually good. I decided to watch the video and learnt for the Nth time, God knows who to send to you and give you what you need.
It was perfect for exactly where I was. It is also no “coincidence” that I looked at it on Saturday after prayer and not Friday. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I don’t believe in luck. I also don’t believe in coincidence. God has a divine plan and knows how to execute “Lego pieces” in our daily lives that ultimately add up to be this Great Unbelievable Masterpiece! As the pieces are coming together you don’t even see the blueprint, shadow, or silhouette of what is being built. I believe this is another reason we are asked to walk by Faith and not by sight. With our human eyes it is impossible to see what God is doing. It’s just impossible to see! The great hope we have is that though it is impossible for us to see what He is planning and or executing, with Him ALL things are possible!
The video reminded me I don’t have to pray a marathon prayer or pray like the pharisee who was saying many words and actually saying nothing! All we need to do sometimes is remember what God has victoriously done in our lives and just use that in a prayer. Remember how many times God has come through for you at work, on the road, in all your relationships with the people around you, in your personal struggles, heck last week, yesterday or even within the last hour! If you were to count how many times He has come through for you in one area alone or in one week of the many weeks you have lived on this rotating earth, just like the patient in the video, I know you will find God has come through at least six times for you. So next time I’m stuck in finding the words to say, to pray for something I have asked for many times before, I need not say anything other than “Lord, do it one more time”.
The video link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFU7VH85/
May The Good Lord Bless you and Keep you.
Related verses:
Galatians 6:9, Colossians 3:23, Hebrews 4:16, Matthew 26:39, Exodus 15:26, Isaiah 53:4-5, Matthew 8:17 , 1 Peter 2:24, Daniel 3:27, 2 Thessalonians 1:2-12, Romans 8:28, Luke 1:37, Genesis 18:14, Genesis 1:26-28, Matthew 19:26, Luke 18:27, Jeremiah 32:17, Mark 10:27, Jeremiah 32:27, Philippians 4:13, Romans 8:26-27 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Mark 5:36, Matthew 6:6-14, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 .
#LordDoItAgain #Nosmell #NotSinged #7times #FieryFurnace #SMA #ShadrackMeshackAbednego #SourceOfLife #UnlockedPrayers #Thorn
#SimplePrayers #TheGodOfCountlessBlessings #CountYourBlessings #InSicknessAndInHealthGodIsGood #EmptyPrayers #NthTime #JesusWins #KPMG #BFF #Darkness #apples
#Forwards #Memes #Videos #Inflation #FirstClassTrips #FriendsWithHolidays #Pharisee #convalescence #MRI #Xray #Bronchoscopy #Mitochondria #Alveoli #Bronchioles #Recovery
Next post: 13/11/2022
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Prayer is the master key!