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I’ve been up since 2:30 am with symptoms of paresthesia. Paresthesia, by definition, is an abnormal sensation, typically tingling or prickling (“pins and needles”) caused chiefly by pressure on or damage to peripheral nerves.
This has been going on for about a month and yes, I am seeing a doctor for it.
As I was laying in bed and couldn’t go back to sleep I thought, since I can’t sleep, maybe I can write a post on what to do when we go through trials and maybe it will help others who are also going through something right now.
So here’s some encouragement for you!
When you’re going through a trial here are some things I recommend.
1.) Remember that God loves you and that He didn’t give you the trial to teach you a lesson
I know there are many different schools of thought on this issue and I’m not here to argue with anyone, but if your reading my blog, you’re never going to hear me say that God gives us trials or even permits them in our lives. My belief is that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. See what Jesus Himself said here is John 10:10 .
I sincerely feel what we believe about God and His nature is critical to our lives. If you would like to hear a really good message on this subject click here to listen to a teaching by our pastor, Jeff Perry: Does God Cause Or Permit Bad Things In Our Lives.
2.) Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus
This past month Jesus has reminded me over and over again to keep my eyes fixed on Him.
Matthew 14:24-33 says,
24 Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. 25 About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. 26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”
27 But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” He said. “Take courage. I am here!”
28 Then Peter called to Him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”
29 “Yes, come,” Jesus said.
So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
31 Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
32 When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. 33 Then the disciples worshiped Him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed. (NLT)
This Biblical story is so amazing as it so clearly proves the difference Peter experienced when He was keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Jesus as opposed to when he started focusing on the wind and the waves in life – the storm going on around him.
I’m so glad this is in the Bible for us to look back at over and over again to remind us what to do when we’re in a storm…like for me, right now. The paresthesia symptoms have lessened a little over the past couple of weeks, but not at any kind of lightening speed as I would like. But a few weeks ago the tingling was so bad that it was literally going all over my body. Crazy. I called and texted a few people for prayer and I knew I had a decision to make right then and there. Was I going to focus on the storm of my circumstance or was I going to trust Jesus by keeping my eyes fixed on Him and His finished work on the cross? I knew from experience that one would result in me having to fight fear and the other would result in me being able to stay in peace right in the middle of the storm – symptoms and all.
It’s not about trying to work up more faith. It’s simply about us choosing to trust in Jesus and trust that He will see us through. I’ve said this before in a previous post, but I love what my pastor, Jeff Perry, said one time about faith at Friday night church. He said, “Faith is just reliance on how good God is.” This helped me so much because it simplified it and made it more practical for me.
Hebrews 12:1-3 says,
12 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (NASB)
I LOVE what the Amplified translation says here in the first part of verse 2:
[looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity] Hebrews 12:2a (AMP)
3.) Refuse to be moved by what you feel, see or hear. Instead, be moved by the promises in God’s Word.
I certainly had to put this into action the day I had that severe paresthesia all over my body and I still do right this very minute as symptoms are happening while I type.
I’ve had to ask myself a number of times: Are these symptoms going to dictate to me my outcome or is God’s Word going to dictate my outcome. It’s almost like I’ve had to get obstinate against what I’m feeling and purposely hold my head up high and fight the good fight of faith by continuing to rest in the finished work of the cross. To me that’s what not being moved by what I feel means.
Then, when I heard several doctors say to me in the beginning of this, If you keep having the tingling you need to get back in here. That’s not something you want to mess with,” I had to choose to not be moved by what I was hearing. This doesn’t mean I have ignored what the doctors have said. In fact, I am going in and getting treatments. But to me, not being moved by what I hear simply means I don’t let the doctor’s report unnerve me and send me into a panic. How can I do this? By keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus and the truth that He already paid the price for my healing on the cross.
I really can’t be looking around in anxiety thinking, Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do. I have to do something to make these symptoms stop. No. What I have to do is keep believing that God’s got this no matter what I feel, see or hear…because He actually does!
So many times people (and I’ve done this many times before) launch forward in their own efforts in a situation like this and instead of trusting God and being perceptive to the leading of the Spirit, they are led by their own mind, will and emotions. But self effort is never going to produce the same result that resting in Jesus and His finished work and following the leadership of the Holy Spirit will produce.
4.) Recall past victories
When we are in pain or discomfort it’s easier to say we should be in faith than to actually do it. I have been in the hospital on numerous occasions with high fevers and infections and was in such a delirious state that I didn’t even feel I had strength to pray for myself. All I could get out of my mouth through my delirium was, Dear God, please help me, but guess what…that was enough! In fact, this is now my favorite prayer to pray. I pray this every day, all throughout the day when I need God’s help…which very is often!
This past month I have felt somewhat discouraged at times. I believe this is partially because of the pain I’ve been fighting. I’m sure you would agree that pain has a wearing affect on us. One of the things I have done to combat this discouragement is to purposely recall past victories over unpleasant circumstances that God has delivered me from in the past.
For instance, from 2009-2011 I went through what I refer to as a 2.5 year health nightmare, but guess what? – God brought me through it. Here’s that story if you would like to read about it or listen to it via audio post: The Value of Trials.
Just like David looked back and recounted the victories God had given him with the lion and the bear to prepare him to conquer the giant, we also need to purposely recount all the things God has helped us through in the past to help us have the strength to fight against discouragement during a trial.
The McCollom family has what we call our book of remembrance. In it, we record the things God does for us, the prayers that have been answered in our lives and our friends’ lives and the trials God has brought us through. We haven’t recorded anything in our book of remembrance for a while, but not because God hasn’t done anything. We have just gotten busy and not taken the time to record anything lately. Let me go on record by saying this bugs me.
I told my husband the other day, just imagine if we recorded every single thing the Lord did for us, how big our book of remembrance would be and how encouraging it would be for us to look back on in years to come!
Here are just a few recent blessings that come to mind.
I am inspired after writing these few, very recent, breakthroughs, to open up my book of remembrance this weekend and catch up on recording all the things I can remember since the last time I’ve recorded in it. I seriously DO NOT want to forget all the awesome things that God does in my life, the lives of my family members and my friends’ lives!
5.) Remember Romans 8:28
Don’t forget what Romans 8:28 says:
And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. (Romans 8:28 – AMP)
I believe this Biblical truth with all my heart. This is why I am able to say to myself, when going through a trial, God is gonna work this whole thing together for the good… for sure. This blog post is one example. No, I don’t believe God gave me paresthesia. What I do believe is, the devil hates me and wants to stop me from helping others. But look at how God is helping me have the stamina to write this post and causing all things to work together for good! In fact, I just noticed that the symptoms I had when I started typing are gone! Thank You Jesus!
So I really encourage you to hold onto Romans 8:28 as a promise.
6.) Receive Communion to honor Jesus for His sacrifice for you
Well this may be the last piece of encouragement I’m giving, but it certainly is not the least. I really enjoy receiving communion on a regular basis as a way to honor Jesus for the sacrifice He made for me through His finished work on the cross. It’s a great way for us to receive afresh everything Jesus provided for us through His death and resurrection. In fact, I tell Jesus every time I receive communion that I am going to receive every single solitary thing that He died to provide for me, leaving no stone unturned… and guess what, sometimes I say this while experiencing negative symptoms at the same time. Again, we CANNOT be moved by what we see, feel or hear. We have to decide that , by God’s grace, we are going to hold our heads up high, even when the devil is trying to beat us down, and only be moved by the truth of God’s Word.
I have posted about the privilege of honoring Jesus through receiving communion before and have had quite a few comments from people saying, Oh wow, I didn’t know I could do this on a regular basis.
If you would like to read a wonderful mini-book on the power of communion, I recommend Pastor Joseph Prince’s book titled Health And Wholeness Through The Holy Communion. This is such a good book that I’ve given away numerous times when visiting and praying for people in the hospital and I believe it dispels some common misconceptions about communion that will help you!
Well, 2,435 words and 6 hours later… I pray this blog post brought you encouragement.
Special note of thanks to my daughter Angel, who made me a great breakfast of her own free will so I could finish this post. Also, Angel said Starr made Angel’s breakfast so Angel could make mine – haha. Thank you Starr!
If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!
Sandra McCollom
DUDLEY HALL -- The visitor saw an old sombrero on the rack in my house. "Boy!" he said, "I have always wanted one of those, but never been to Mexico to get one. Would you be willing to sell it?
"Why don't you try it on?" I said.
He did and it was pretty close to a fit. (Being rather short and slightly built, he looked like a thumbtack under the big sombrero.)
"What would you take for it?"
"You can have it. I have never used it. It's a souvenir from long ago. I'll be happy for you to enjoy it."
"Oh no. I couldn't just take it. Just give me a price."
"There is no price. It’s a gift."
"I just can't do that." He said sadly. "I really like it and will give you whatever you ask."
I stopped and looked him in the eye making sure I had his attention. "If you are ever going to have this sombrero you will have to receive it as a gift."
He turned sideways and reached back and took it and said, "Ok. But I would rather pay for it."
I can totally identify with him. Grace causes me discomfort. I like to make deals where I get the better of it, but it’s deception to think we can negotiate with God for blessings. He is ultimately gracious. To reject grace is to reject him. We can't use either our goodness or our badness as currency with him.
Before his conversion Paul (Saul) thought his moral achievements gave him some advantage with God. He looked with contempt at others whose lives were characterized by lawless deeds. Later, though, he considered all his badges of merit as manure compared to the privilege of knowing the God of grace. (Philippians 3:7-8)
Others have been convinced that God wants us to grovel, and the more we do, the better qualified we are for His blessings. This too is wrong. The very nature of grace means there is nothing in the recipient, neither goodness nor badness, that affects the exchange. It starts with God's love and concludes with His love. If we're ever to get what He offers, it will be simply by trusting Him as being fully gracious. This doesn't just apply to our initial conversion. It's for every blessing we get along the journey.
If you're longing to know this God of grace, it's because He has come all the way from heaven to stir your heart. Your desire to know God is a sure sign that He is here for you with His grace.
Don't turn away. Don't assume you don't qualify. You don't have to. He has done everything necessary to satisfy eternal justice so that He could come to you and offer what you have always needed.
You can't pay for grace. There is no human currency accepted in his kingdom. You can receive grace, though, not as some "thing" that's given, but as the very person of God revealed in Jesus Christ for you. To know Him is to live in grace.
Charlotte Elliot's old hymn says it well.
Just as I am without one plea But that thy blood was shed for me And Thou bidd'st me come to Thee O Lamb of God, I come.
Just as I am Thou wilt receive Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve Because Thy promise I believe O Lamb of God I come.
All of us have gone through hard times, suffered loss and tragedy, and at times even made some really costly mistakes. Many times we think that we have hit the end of the road. We wonder how things can be salvaged out of the mess that has been created.
What’s really frustrating, to me anyway, is when the mess I am in was created by someone else. It’s one thing to suffer at the hands of my own stupid decisions and choices. It’s another thing, and much more aggravating, to suffer due to someone else’s poor decisions and choices.
But, I serve a God that is able to make all things new, turn whatever mess I am in into a message of redemption and take every test and trial and turn them into a testimony of victory. I don’t know how He does it but He does.
With God, nothing is wasted. No trial, mess, tear, stupid decision or consequence is wasted with God. He can take everything good and bad in your life and use it for your benefit, the benefit of others and ultimately, His glory.
Right now, I am in a transitional season in my life. I have been going down a path that I did not choose for myself. Based on the decisions of others, I find myself in a place that I don’t really want to be. I have often wondered, “is this the best that it’s going to get?”
Have you ever been there? It’s so frustrating. Deep down I know that God is preparing me for something greater (or at least, most days, I am hoping so). Deep down I know that He is faithful and will not neglect me nor has He ever forgotten me. Deep down, I know these things to be true.
Unfortunately, there are days that I don’t live deep down! There are some days when I live in the shallow pit of my emotions. There are some days that I allow my thoughts to get carried away and I lose sight of the fact that NOTHING IS WASTED WITH GOD!
Everything that I have been through, God will use to grow me and to help me understand what others are going through. You cannot understand someone’s story unless you have a similar one. I will never know what it’s like to be addicted to drugs because I have never been addicted to drugs. For those that have, and have been delivered, God will use that to help someone else. It’s not been wasted.
Even though I don’t know what it’s like to be addicted, I have my own stories. I have my own issues. I have my own messes. On the days that I find myself swimming in the shallow end of self-pity and bad moods, I have to remind myself that nothing is wasted with God. Everything I am experiencing right now will be used for a greater purpose.
When I think about all the different characters in the Bible, I realize that 1) God can and will use anybody, and 2) our mistakes and messes don’t thwart Him a bit. Just reading the genealogy of Jesus shows us that God can and will use anyone. God’s not afraid of our messes or mistakes.
God uses the situations in our lives to mold us into better human beings that have greater empathy for those around us. That’s why I love Hebrews 4:15-16 so much.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Because Jesus knows the weaknesses and frailties of humanity, He gives us grace and mercy. He understands the messes that we get ourselves into. He gives us grace and mercy to get out of those messes with a message of hope, love and forgiveness.
He takes all of our issues, problems, mistakes, messes, tragedies, disappointments, and failures, runs them through His grace and somehow, some way, something amazingly beautiful comes out of it all. The scripture is true that declares, “He gives beauty for ashes.” (Isaiah 61:3)
I have a dear friend that has just started blogging. Her blog is about her life’s story. In her blog, she shares about a lot of the messes that she has found herself in. And yet, God, her loving Father, is taking every single one of those messes and is turning them into an amazing tapestry that others will look at and see as beautiful. My friend is just one shining example of how nothing is wasted with God.
What about you? Have you ever felt that some decisions you made in life were wasted? Have you ever felt insignificant? Have you ever felt that things were too bad for God to redeem? I know that I have had my fair share of seemingly hopeless issues. I have to always remind myself that, with God, nothing is wasted.
I was singing the song Jesus Loves Me by Anna B. Warner the other day. As I was singing in first person, this one line really stood out to me: We Are Weak, But He Is Strong. I’ve been singing this all week long and loving it!
Recently, after watching one of my TV interviews, a Christian woman asked me why I get to live in peace and wanted to know where her peace was. I love being asked these types of questions because it forces me to think through my answers and I learn a lot in the process. Questions from other people about my grace journey have actually been a major help to me.
Here is a portion of my answer to her question:
I believe God created each person with a free will because He loved us so much that He didn’t want to have robots that served Him and loved Him because they were forced to. With free choice came the option to choose good or evil. Even though I was a Christian, I chose the wrong path for many, many years by choosing to rely on myself and my own effort and by trying to solve my problems without God’s help. This approach to life left me very anxious and frustrated – almost constantly. I believe the reason I now live in the peace that passes understanding that the Bible talks about is because I chose to give up on my own self effort and I told God that I was done trying to live this life in my own strength. When I made the choice to receive His Great Grace and came to the understanding that only through Him was I going to be able to successfully live the Christian life, His peace came over me and it has never left. Just like me, the way you’ll know if you’re trusting in God instead of trying to figure things out on your own and working everything out in your own strength is that you will have peace, even when all of your circumstances are not lining up correctly. You’ll have peace in the midst of the storm. You’ll find yourself relying on God’s ability instead of your own to solve your problems. Now, this doesn’t mean there will be nothing for you to do in regards to your specific circumstances and situations, but whatever actions you take, they need to be Spirit-led actions and not self-led actions.
I’m happy to say that my reply to her question encouraged her. Thank God!
I’ve posted it here with the hope that it will encourage many others as well.
Let me make one clarification to my response: Of course, what I said to her doesn’t mean I’m living in perfect peace 100% of the time because there are still times when I choose to trust in myself and my own ability to solve my problems instead of trusting in God and receiving His grace for the situation at hand. But life has become pretty simple now for my family and I because when things begin to get chaotic, we simply stop and ask ourselves several questions:
1.) In what area are we not trusting God that is causing this anxiety and frustration?
2.) In what area are we doing our own thing instead of following the leadership of the Holy Spirit?
We’re convinced that the Holy Spirit would never lead us into chaos so if our lives begin to get chaotic, that’s a sign to us that we haven’t taken the time needed to hear God’s heart in one area or another.
There’s an extreme amount of safety in remembering:
WE ARE WEAK…BUT HE IS STRONG
There’s also an extreme amount of danger in us putting confidence in our own flesh.
I love these scriptures that remind me of this truth.
In Philippians 3:3-4 Paul says,
3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! (NLT)
Have you ever heard someone say “Jesus is just a crutch?”
Ha! No way: Jesus isn’t just my crutch. For me, He’s the entire hospital AND everything in between!
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says,
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” (MSG)
So let’s sing it out my friend. Let’s sing it loud and clear:
We Are Weak, But He Is Strong!
If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!
Sandra McCollom
