Photo by Sydney Zentz on Unsplash

Over the past two weeks, I've gone through some pretty big things.  I went to the hospital 3 times, was admitted and spent the night, saw my primary care  4 times and spent several days and nights in excruciating pain.  After several attempts to get some relief from the pain, I was finally sent for a CT Scan only to discover that my spine is pressing on the nerves in my spinal cord. Suddenly the thing that the rude ER nurse told me I should manage at home was a legitimate issue.  Suddenly I had a reason for screaming out in pain in the ER.  Suddenly I was a patient and not a burden....

Suddenly I went from being healthy to taking 6 different meds and being in a medicated stupor just to manage the pain.   Suddenly I had high blood pressure and high blood sugar.. the things I've worked so hard to avoid.  Suddenly, I was unable to drive or perform most of my normal functions with my left arm.  I had to depend on my mom for much of everything.  Suddenly I was having to figure out what to move around to pay for medications and how I was going to function when my mom went back home. Suddenly I knew how my grandmother felt dealing with nerve damage and constant pain.

So many things can change in a "suddenly" moment, but one thing remains the same... the word of God!  In the midst of all the big words and diagnoses, negative reports and uncertainty the word in my heart was the same.  With His stripes I am healed! I refused to accept the doctor's report as my final destination.  I choose to believe the report of the Lord. His report says that I'm already healed, that it was already taken care of on that journey to Calvary.  At one point I remember telling my mom I felt like Job. 

It was in those moments that I remembered that nothing happened to Job without the Lord's approval.  He ALLOWED IT ALL!  Every sickness, loss, persecution, and defeat that Job experienced was because God allowed it to happen.  Sometimes in the midst of our trials and suddenly moments, we forget it's because God allows it.  The things that he endured set him up for the greatest blessing of his life.  If you're in this season of testing and trials and feel like Job, just know that your promotion is on the way.  Your blessing is on the way!  There's something great in the next season that the enemy is trying to discourage you from getting to.  Hold tight and keep your faith focused on God. 

At the end of the test, Job was blessed with double of everything he lost.  Children, wealth, cattle, land, everything!

 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.  He had also seven sons and three daughters.  And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.  And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.  After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days.   Job 42:12-17

As my girl Beverly Crawford says...