I'll start with the big news. Last month you were praying for me as I awaited the decision from the Judge about my disability case. A couple of weeks ago I found out that the Judge gave me a fully favorable decision and that she back dated the start of disability to January 2008. This is huge people and let me tell you why. When you are granted disability there are waiting periods before you get assistance with health insurance. Long waiting periods. Because my case was reopened to 2008 I have already met all of those waiting periods so my insurance can begin immediately. I can't even begin to tell you what a huge blessing this is. So thank you, thank you, thank you for praying! God answered and He answered big.
There's another way that God has been providing for me. Some of you know that for the past several years I've been driving a big red jacked up Jeep. I love the Jeep, it's so much fun and I've never been stuck in it! The sad news is, the last couple of months it has been getting more and more difficult to get in and out of the Jeep. It's too tall, and my muscles and joints are too painful. So, last week we traded the Jeep in on a beautiful Dodge Avenger R/T. It's a car, and it's been a long time since I've had a car. However, this one is amazing. It's a beautiful blue, it has a lot of power and it's so much fun to drive! I never thought I would have such a nice car and I'm feeling quite spoiled and very blessed. I forgot how nice it is to drive a vehicle you don't have to work hard to drive! I don't know if you're one of those people who names their vehicles, but I am. I have named my new car Elroy. This may sound like a silly name for a car, but there's a great story behind it! You see, El Roi (el ro-ee) is Hebrew for God Who Sees Me. You find this word in Genesis 16:13. Hagar is fleeing from Sarai and an angel of the Lord appears to her and speaks with her. "She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." God has provided so much for me and now every time I drive Elroy, I am reminded of God, who sees me and provides for me!
God has been teaching me about giving Him glory in all situations and all circumstances. It's been a rough couple of months with lots of ups and downs with my health, but through it all, God is faithful. He is good and He is worthy of all praise and honor and glory. I'm back on all of my medication and I'm doing a prednisone experiment on top of the regular drugs. Right now I'm on 15mg of prednisone a day, tomorrow I drop down to 10mg for a week. I started at a week of 20mg. I'll continue on down to 5mg, unless I notice a big change before then. I think the experiment is going well. I'll see my rheumatologist in a couple of weeks to go over the results. We'll also discuss changing some of my medications, which would be quite the process. Please pray for her the next couple of weeks as she researches different medications and tries to get in touch with my other doctor in Rochester. Pray for wisdom for both of them as they decide what medications could work better for me and have less side affects. It has been good timing though because once the initial couple days of insomnia passed, the prednisone has given me more energy. This has been really helpful as it's been a busy couple of weeks. The prednisone has also been helping me to gain some of the weight back that I have lost, which is a good thing.
Soon we will celebrate Easter. I've been thinking about Good Friday and Easter, reflecting on what God did for us. Easter, like everything else is all about glorifying God. Jesus sacrificed His life not only to save ours, but His sacrifice was an act of obedience to God. Through Jesus' death, God was glorified. We have been going through the book of John as a church and a couple of weeks ago we talked about John 13:31.
As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, 'The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will soon give glory to the Son.' (NLT)Jesus suffered more than I ever will and He was obedient to God, even to the point of giving up His very life. This has been a challenge to me. I often ask God to make me more like Jesus, to make me a reflection of Him. I think that many times we seek to be like Jesus, but we forget about all of the pain and suffering that He went through. We want the good things, but not the hard things. God never promised that our lives would be easy if we follow Him. In fact, He has told us that we will face many trials and that we should rejoice in them. Yes, I said rejoice!
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:2-5, NIV)So yes, I rejoice in my sufferings because through them God is answering my prayer to become more like Christ. I am learning to glorify God in all circumstances. He is turning my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. For that, I am incredibly grateful. I have to laugh when I wrote that because although it is true, I am on prednisone right now and it makes me grouchy and my heart a little bit harder (see The Devil's Tic Tacs). I'm trying, and God's working in me. He's working in you as well. I want to encourage you that if you are suffering or going through a hard time that God sees you. He knows what you are going through and He loves you. Reach out to Him, ask for wisdom and the peace which surpasses all understanding. Go with God this month and enjoy the ride!
