Finding hope in our struggles

We all have struggles we deal with every day, financial, emotional, spiritual and physical, but no struggle is the same, and no struggle is ever to be taken lightly.

It has been 9 years since God changed the direction of our lives, it was July 2010 when my health declined rapidly, I had never been really sick before but a couple of weeks before our son was to be married, I woke up and could not walk, I had been having issues with neuropathy, swelling in my feet and hands, every time I ate I had stomach issues I had lost 80lbs in a couple of months, but now it all came to a stopping point, a couple of surgeries later and a couple of weeks in the hospital and a new perspective on life.

God in His infinite wisdom changed my game plan, put me on my back and asked me if I was ready to listen.

He had been working in me a long time, but now I was held captive and He had my full attention. I had to stop working in my field where I had been working since 1988, we had just come out of a major financial hardship, we had nothing left but God, each other and our Church family, which is way more than anyone could ask for.

When God changed my plan He revealed His perfect plan. We may have been down but through friends, through the Body of Christ, and His hands of provision, God has blessed our family and has made a way, when the world says there was none, He is faithful.

Our lives are far from perfection, we have struggles, Ronda and I both have health issues, there are days I cannot move still, but in those days God's grace, mercy, and peace fill our lives.

I thank God He is not done with us yet, and He is not done with you yet.

Whatever your struggle is, my family and I can testify that God's grace is sufficient, His hands of provision and care are sufficient, His love is sufficient to see you through. We are all the same in the eyes of God, His love does not waiver, it is not given more to one than another, and you can trust Him.

I can boast confidently in Christ, He is my healer, my strength, my confidence, and all of my hope is in Him alone.

These verses speak volumes of God's goodness and grace.

“After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the disabled — blind, lame, and paralyzed.One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.” “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.” He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.”John‬ ‭5:1-13‬ ‭CSB​

“For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh — although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was again to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.”Philippians‬ ‭3:3-21‬ ‭CSB‬‬