Things Too Wonderful

I love the book of Habauk.  It’s only three chapters long, hidden away among the minor prophets, but it contains one of the greatest statements of faith in the whole Bible, and lessons you would pay a fortune for online!

Habakuk was around about the same time as Jeremiah.  Tough time in Israel’s history! It was probably at the end of Josiah’s reign or soon after.  Josiah had found the book of the law in the Temple, and for a while God’s people had turned back to Him and were living according to His instructions… but not for long!  They were back to their old ways: sin, degradation and a total disregard for God (sound familiar?) Continue Reading »

If you could ask God any question, what would you ask Him?

 I asked a lot of people that question last week, in preparation for a talk I was doing.  The vast majority of the adults I asked said they would have to think about it and get back to me.  They never did.

 The children, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate!  They had some great questions: Continue Reading »

I have to say that as weeks go, this one hasn’t been the best.

• Steve went to another healing meeting, and as he lined up with the others to be prayed for the guy next to him went flying over, hitting him in the temple with his elbow and nearly knocking him unconscious.  Steve had a blinding headache for the next three days! And no, there was no miraculous healing for him.

• We had to cancel our family holiday to the South Coast because of the leaky radiator on Steve’s car.

• In an attempt to make it up to the kids, we decided to drive to the water park in a nearby city (in my car).  The head gasket blew and we spent most of the afternoon sitting at the side of the duel carriageway waiting for the RAC to rescue us. Continue Reading »
  

Last time I blogged I told you about the meeting we went to where my husband, Steve, was picked out of the crowd and prayed for for healing.  We really believed that God had done something amazing in his life.  After all, it wasn’t like he had responded to a general word, he was picked out and told exactly what was wrong.

 I would love more than anything to be able to blog today and say that he is completely healed.  The reality is that he appears no better.  He has had a rough week, spent a lot of time in bed, is in just as much pain and feels just as exhausted.  Do I understand what is going on?  Not a clue.  Last week I really believed that God had done a miracle.  It hurts when hopes hit the ground - especially when they fell from such a height.  Of course we are desperately disappointed.  Who wouldn’t be?  I have spent the week (as it has become increasingly apparent that a miracle hasn’t occurred yet) working through my disappointment at the same time as answering all the excited friends and people who were at the meeting and want to hear the testimony, and instead I have had to explain that he is not healed yet.  By the end of the week I just stopped answering the phone. 

It’s been a tough week. Continue Reading »

God has really been challenging me recently through Isaiah 45:3 

“I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places”

Which I take to mean that there is treasure to be found when times are difficult and you feel like you’re going through dark places. 

There is something about suffering which makes us more receptive to God.  Maybe because we are crying out for answers and maybe because there is nowhere else to turn.  I know that on the days when Steve just can’t get out of bed and I’m feeling weighed down by the responsibility and difficulty of it all, that I am more open to hearing God.  Probably because I need His help so much on those days just to get through.  Continue Reading »

There was a time, when Steve was at his illest in hospital, when I wasn’t sure if he would live or die, and when the whole world just seemed black and cold.

I was angry with God - incredibly angry!  I felt abandoned and desperately disappointed: I was in the very worst of bad places. I didn’t even really know if I believed in Him any more - but if He did exist then part of me just didn’t want to know anyway.  To be honest, I hadn’t been in a great place in my relationship with Him before Steve got ill.  Now, it was a thousand times worse. Continue Reading »

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times this last couple of years: “You’re coping really well”.

I appreciate the encouragement but actually I’m fed up of ‘coping’. 

I want to live again, without this constant feeling of having to battle all the time with the consequences of ill health in the family, the financial difficulties that has brought, the pressures of trying to hold it all together and the many other things which just seem to come one after the other.  I know that there are lots of people reading this who feel exactly the same, although your actual situation might be different.  ‘When is all this going to come to an end? Continue Reading »

Don’t you absolutely hate it, when you are going through a really tough time and some well meaning christian has all the answers for you?!  Maybe that’s never happened to you.  Bless you! It happened to us - more than once.

When Steve had been struggling with ill health for over a year - one thing after another - and all the prayers and laying on of hands an anointing with oil seemed only to have led to disappointment (and I believe 100% in all those things - but I’m telling it like it is: for the longest time nothing seemed to happen) it was hard sometimes to keep trusting.  We had some amazing support, and the people who helped most were the ones who didn’t have all the right answers for us, but the ones who encouraged us to keep going regardless.

The problems came with the ones who thought they did have the answers for us: the ‘Job’s comforters’ as we called them, because he had some too.  These were the ones who knew exactly why Steve wasn’t being healed, and it was usually his fault: “You’re obviously not seeking God enough” , “There must be some sin in your life.”, “There is some sin in your life, Continue Reading »