DNGILB: Trust me, I'm a doctor.

I've often heard Christians quote the Bible... err.. MISquote the Bible. They say, "Then I just remind myself that God says He won't give me more than I can handle." I think one of the tactics of our enemy is to take God's truth, and spin it. Just enough of a twist so that the true meaning is perverted into something harmful and misleading. The truth is: 1 Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful he will not let you be TEMPTED beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." Note how different that is! People think God won't give them situations and trials to face that THEY ALONE cannot handle. We too often try to handle these trials WITHOUT God. Note my friend's statement in the opening paragraph, "more than I can handle." They use "I"... "I" does not include God's unlimited power. This st

Periodically, I feel convinced God wants me to spend time with him in the morning... before I start my day. I get excited and I focused. I last about 4 days, then revert back to the "whenever I can squeeze it in," mentality. Earlier in life, before life was substantially more difficult, I could not tell any added benefit from the early morning "God time." More recently, I can. When I read God's word and pray at night, I'm usually licking my wounds by the end of the day. Picking up the pieces... asking God to "put humpty dumpty back together again." In contrast, when I spend my mornings with God... the trouble still comes, but I seemed emotionally and spiritually prepared for it. I navigated my day with more grace. By nightfall, there were no major wounds to lick. No pieces to put back together. Just minor scrapes and bruises. Small enough as to not cause any troublesome pain. I'm starting to see each day as a spiritual battle. If I wait till ni

Things have been on the upswing. My emotional state. My hope. My faith. Everything was improving. Things were getting better for my wife, too. Her health seemed to be making progress, her outlook on life. Her faith. Her hope... Increasing. It felt like the attacks by our enemy, Satan, were diminishing. Or possibly he was just changing strategy. His current strategy, was to worsen my wife’s health on the day of our appointments for Christian counseling. (Don’t worry, no marital problems, just trying to deal with life in a better way.) But the counseling had been rough for her because of this. Yet, I saw the Holy Spirit at work within my wife! I had been a serious prayer warrior. There was a large health obstacle for her to get passed to make it to each session. Once arrived, she was focused, and would really get after it. Engaged with the work God was doing in her... in us.