God will give you the desires of your heart

This verse is often misinterpreted and then people are discouraged and think God doesn’t keep His word.

It’s not saying God is a genie and will grant all your wishes, whatever they are, we know that not everything we lust after in this life is in alignment with God’s will or even part of the path He would like us to be on. I know my own desires were far from godly before I gave my life to Christ and our flesh will always crave things that aren’t good for us. That’s part of the human nature since our separation from God through disobedience in the Garden of Eden… it’s in our DNA now, we all have a hard time fighting our own nature.

That is the beauty of salvation through Christ, lives changed, character changed, desires changed – by Him, not by our own might.Continue reading

Keeping an eternal perspective

I absolutely believe that we are safer with God in any storm than we would be anywhere else without Him.

It’s hard when you focus on the pain and suffering in this world or even your own personal trials to remember that this is just a fraction of eternity. This will eventually pass, it is only a temporary part of your life.

Keeping the eternal perspective allows you to see how small and temporary every trial is in the larger picture.

That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt or doesn’t scare you or make you feel helpless at times. It just means that you will never lose hope because you know that this too shall pass.

There have been a few occasions since the onset of my ME/CFS that I have broken down from frustration and utter physical weakness. I’ve even had a few panic attacks, and every time I have a breakdown or meltdown, I remember the first one because it was incredible.Continue reading

Isolation: where did all my friends go?

Sometimes it’s hard to accept that when you’re living with a chronic illness, people fall away, but it is something that commonly happens after a period of time, and it might even be beneficial.

Initially, once people are made aware of your struggles, you might have an outpouring of support and practical help from many around you, but over time, when you don’t improve, most people will inevitably drift away as they are unable to make taking care of you a permanent fixture in their lives. They have their own lives to navigate.

When you’re no longer in the same circles, no longer going out, no longer socialising, you’re no longer in their life unless an effort is consciously made on both sides to stay in touch and make things happen. I have seen this happen over and over again with so many people who fall ill. That’s why I don’t believe you should take it personally, it’s just a fact of life – only a precious few will remain, if you’re lucky.Continue reading

When you’re feeling useless

Friends, don’t compare your resources or abilities to anybody else’s, they are yours and they are enough.

I know that many people with chronic illness feel like they are no longer useful, that they have lost all purpose and can no longer contribute to society, but that is just not true!Continue reading

The freedom of Letting go

Sometimes you don’t notice the weight you’re carrying until you let it go.

This is often such a hard truth to accept, but letting go of that control we try so hard to hold onto can actually be very liberating!

There are many areas in our lives where we crave order and control, but in reality it isn’t up to us and we can save ourselves a lot of pain and suffering if we can learn to let go of our need to control things or have things go the way we had planned.

This is true in our relationships, with our health, our finances and our jobs. We don’t have control over any of it and things will go wrong sometimes, no matter how much you prepare or plan ahead. That is just a fact – life happens. But God is always with us and He makes a way when there seems to be no way. I trust that promise completely.Continue reading