A
I wake up every day feeling like I moved a whole house worth of furniture myself the day before. A nerve in my back was pinched when they moved me off the operating table after removing my gall bladder. I woke up from that operation with such a sore back that I barely noticed the pain from the operation, but the surgeon and then many doctors couldn't figure out the cause, until the damage was done and the window for suing for malpractice had been over for years. (I know this because my primary had no idea what was causing the pain in my front waistline when I first told her about it, but then insurance changes made me change doctors for 15 years. When she allowed for my insurance, I went back, told her the same location of the pain and what it felt like, and she instantly diagnosed it.) Because they didn't diagnose it sooner and because it was just the right kind of pain that stopped me from leaning over too long, the rest of my back has become/is becoming worse and worse.
I have asked God to remove the pain often enough to know it is his will the pain remains. BUT for the first two hours of my day, no matter when it starts, I wait for the soothing masking of my pain through my pain pills.
Most days, I'm okay. Some days I grumble. Today was a grumbling day, and when I opened my e_Sword, Spurgeon's devotional told me what my problem really is.
“And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.”
- Mar_15:23
A golden truth is couched in the fact that the Saviour put the myrrhed wine-cup from his lips. On the heights of heaven the Son of God stood of old, and as he looked down upon our globe he measured the long descent to the utmost depths of human misery; he cast up the sum total of all the agonies which expiation would require, and abated not a jot. He solemnly determined that to offer a sufficient atoning sacrifice he must go the whole way, from the highest to the lowest, from the throne of highest glory to the cross of deepest woe. This myrrhed cup, with its soporific influence, would have stayed him within a little of the utmost limit of misery, therefore he refused it. He would not stop short of all he had undertaken to suffer for his people. Ah, how many of us have pined after reliefs to our grief which would have been injurious to us! Reader, did you never pray for a discharge from hard service or suffering with a petulant and wilful eagerness? Providence has taken from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke. Say, Christian, if it had been said, “If you so desire it, that loved one of yours shall live, but God will be dishonoured,” could you have put away the temptation, and said, “Thy will be done”? Oh, it is sweet to be able to say, “My Lord, if for other reasons I need not suffer, yet if I can honour thee more by suffering, and if the loss of my earthly all will bring thee glory, then so let it be. I refuse the comfort, if it comes in the way of thine honour.” O that we thus walked more in the footsteps of our Lord, cheerfully enduring trial for his sake, promptly and willingly putting away the thought of self and comfort when it would interfere with our finishing the work which he has given us to do. Great grace is needed, but great grace is provided.
I've seen the prayer requests on here often. And I pray for the ones God leads me to pray for. I thought it would be helpful for others, and for the prayer warriors, to remember the difference. Sometimes we go through grief to honor God. Sometimes it is left at accepting the grief and remember who gives us comfort in it. We taste but a little of what he gave his all for.
I thought this might be helpful for more than me and my whole-house-worth-of-furniture-moving bad back.
I have asked God to remove the pain often enough to know it is his will the pain remains. BUT for the first two hours of my day, no matter when it starts, I wait for the soothing masking of my pain through my pain pills.
Most days, I'm okay. Some days I grumble. Today was a grumbling day, and when I opened my e_Sword, Spurgeon's devotional told me what my problem really is.
“And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.”
- Mar_15:23
A golden truth is couched in the fact that the Saviour put the myrrhed wine-cup from his lips. On the heights of heaven the Son of God stood of old, and as he looked down upon our globe he measured the long descent to the utmost depths of human misery; he cast up the sum total of all the agonies which expiation would require, and abated not a jot. He solemnly determined that to offer a sufficient atoning sacrifice he must go the whole way, from the highest to the lowest, from the throne of highest glory to the cross of deepest woe. This myrrhed cup, with its soporific influence, would have stayed him within a little of the utmost limit of misery, therefore he refused it. He would not stop short of all he had undertaken to suffer for his people. Ah, how many of us have pined after reliefs to our grief which would have been injurious to us! Reader, did you never pray for a discharge from hard service or suffering with a petulant and wilful eagerness? Providence has taken from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke. Say, Christian, if it had been said, “If you so desire it, that loved one of yours shall live, but God will be dishonoured,” could you have put away the temptation, and said, “Thy will be done”? Oh, it is sweet to be able to say, “My Lord, if for other reasons I need not suffer, yet if I can honour thee more by suffering, and if the loss of my earthly all will bring thee glory, then so let it be. I refuse the comfort, if it comes in the way of thine honour.” O that we thus walked more in the footsteps of our Lord, cheerfully enduring trial for his sake, promptly and willingly putting away the thought of self and comfort when it would interfere with our finishing the work which he has given us to do. Great grace is needed, but great grace is provided.
I've seen the prayer requests on here often. And I pray for the ones God leads me to pray for. I thought it would be helpful for others, and for the prayer warriors, to remember the difference. Sometimes we go through grief to honor God. Sometimes it is left at accepting the grief and remember who gives us comfort in it. We taste but a little of what he gave his all for.
I thought this might be helpful for more than me and my whole-house-worth-of-furniture-moving bad back.