I believe God
gives each of us only what we can bear, He will never allow it to become too
much and if we turn to Him He will be there to comfort and strengthen us. We
make a conscious choice of going it alone, or asking for God’s help.
Turning to God for
strength is not just “the way we are” – a believer or not – but is an
acknowledgement that we are weak and in need of strength that we don’t have
within ourselves.
The most part of these
past 12 years have been a real struggle for me and I wouldn’t want to have to
re-live them. However, I am grateful for having been diagnosed with my brain
tumor (in 1994), and then later (in 2000) with chronic pain. I am aware that
this may sound very strange but I am grateful for what going through the
physical and emotional hardship has given me – an appreciation of the gift that
every day is. Having the awareness that from the moment I wake up I am in need
of God’s strength is another great blessing.
In modern society
weakness isn’t seen as being a positive thing, but I think the opposite. We
have shouting at us through the media that being strong, being fit, not being
in need of anything or anyone is what we should aspire to. So it isn’t
surprising that physical and emotional weakness is perceived as a negative
thing.
It has only been in experiencing extreme weakness over
these past 12 years that I have learnt that I can’t do it on my own. I know
that I am dependent on God’s strength to get me through every hour of each day
and this is the reason that He is the first ‘person’ I turn to each day. I get
through each day by turning, time and time again, to God for strength. In the
fourth chapter of Philippians in the Bible Paul says “I
can do all this through him who gives me strength” and
this is something that I have personally found to be true.
Jesus said in the book of
Matthew in the Bible, “Come to me, all you who are
weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn from me, for I
am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is
easy and my burden is light.” When
I have turned to God with my pain I have found Him. I have then asked Him for
the strength to keep going through the hardship, have experienced a lifting of
my burden and have found the strength within myself to keep moving forwards.
Sure,
God hasn’t actually taken my pain away, but He has given me the strength to
cope with it. This is how I have
found strength amidst pain.
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