Saturday, December 6, 2014

Bad day.

With chronic illness and chronic pain there are good days, and there are bad days. And today is a bad day.

It was expected, as I had spent a very long time in the car yesterday. However, despite my naïve thinking, even if it's expected – it still hurts just as bad.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going through a devotional for those of us dealing with chronic illness, and how to go through a deeper than physical healing. And today's devotion was aptly timed, as it spoke of choosing to have positive thoughts on bad days. 

The key verses were 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Below is the message version. 

"Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 MSG)

Paul is a very biblical example that not all are granted physical healing while on earth. And while I am definitely not to the point of being overly thankful for my illness, I am focusing on these verses today. I definitely do not know the purpose of me being sick, or the purpose of being in so much pain every day that I just want to sit in a corner and cry. But I must decrease in order for Christ to increase. And His strength is made more known as my weakness increases.

Today is a bad day. But Christ's strength and power is more evident in these days, because I have no choice but to lean on him. My ability to get through this day, and every day, is directly dependent on his grace. I may be struggling to fully live it out, but I know that his strength and grace will get me through this period.