Thursday, January 15, 2009

Stranded...

...On a life boat... in a river of fear. I've been there... Your mind is captivated by thoughts that completely capture what should be normal control of your body. You can't think straight, you hyper- ventilate... you are grasping... for even a twig of hope.

I felt this last night while talking to my brother on the phone. He was in the hospital several thousand miles away. "I don't know what I'm going to do, Sis... about my wife, about the dogs, (he has 4 of them), I can't walk." The hospital was trying to teach him how to give himself a shot in the stomach to dissolve a blood clot in his leg. He had gone in for a regular chemo treatment when the doctor realized the severity of his condition and sent him for more tests that determined the blood clot. His wife had a nervous breakdown over the weekend and she was in another hospital. I had been talking to both of them regularly and knew his wife was in a fragile condition. My brother has lung cancer... and his body is deteriorating every day... his wife who has medical conditions of her own... can't face the next day without him. It makes your heart race doesn't it... when you grab hold of that fear and hold on to it as though it were your own.

My brothers have been taking him for his chemo treatments... I talk with him almost daily and send money to help... I pray with him on the phone. Soon, I will be able to visit him and encourage him in person. He is looking forward to that visit and so am I. In the meantime, I have to release him to God. It is times like this, when we are fearful, for others and even ourselves that we have to lay everything at the feet of Jesus. God is in control... though everything is chaos around us, He is here, He is there...

Sometimes, we are in a situation where all we can do is pray. Yet, I know that the prayers of many people have encouraged and lifted up the broken-hearted, the hopeless, the grieving, the helpless, the dying...

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7

God is so faithful... Though sometimes, we do not even know what to pray... the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for, but
the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words
cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows
the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the
saints in accordance with God's will.
Romans 8:26-27

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