{"id":35441,"date":"2023-06-09T03:30:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T10:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=35441"},"modified":"2023-06-05T16:10:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T23:10:28","slug":"june-9-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2023\/06\/09\/june-9-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"June 9, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Faith-Building<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Truly God has listened; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.”\u00a0Psalm 66:19<\/em><\/p>\n

A book I read said that one of the ways to increase our faith as we pray is to thank the Lord for past answers to prayer. This led to a special time of reflection for me in doing just that. My list is long, but here are a few highlights from recent years that I’m grateful for:<\/p>\n

During the same time that Floyd was sick and hospitalized, I was battling cancer with surgeries and chemo treatments.\u00a0Meanwhile, I was overseeing and organizing all his care.\u00a0Looking back, I honestly don’t know how I managed all that!\u00a0There is no explanation except that God carried me and sustained me. He must have had angels working overtime to help me.<\/p>\n

I was reading back over some of my notes from the early months of Floyd’s care. After his initial six weeks in ICU and a further three weeks in the hospital ward, I needed to find a longer-term facility to move him to.\u00a0A friend helped me with researching options.\u00a0It was overwhelming.\u00a0There was a long list of criteria for his care, and almost none could provide all of them.\u00a0It was a HUGE answer to prayer when we found the hospital where he eventually ended up.<\/p>\n

When we moved Floyd there, I didn’t understand that they had a time limit for how long he could stay (only six weeks).\u00a0I appealed to them to allow him to stay longer.\u00a0The end result was that they not only allowed him to stay, but they changed their mission statement to include patients like Floyd who needed long term care.\u00a0I always said that Floyd would love the fact that even in his illness he was “pioneering” something new!<\/p>\n

The hospital couldn’t have been more perfect.\u00a0The nurses lovingly cared for him\u2014singing to him, praying for him, and even sometimes competing for who would be on the schedule to care for him. It brought such peace to my heart to know he was well cared for.<\/p>\n

There were gaps of time when I couldn’t go to Floyd because of the treatment I was undergoing. I am so, so grateful for the “Care Team” who faithfully went to spend time with him.<\/p>\n

I am so thankful for all the intercessors who prayed for Floyd and for me. Some of you reading this now would be included in that.\u00a0I don’t think we would have made it without you lifting “our weary arms.” If it was only a matter of prayer, Floyd would have certainly been healed.\u00a0One friend commented that he didn’t think any one person had ever been prayed for so much.<\/p>\n

I’m grateful that all of Floyd’s (and my) medical bills were paid.\u00a0When the insurance dropped Floyd’s care, I was tempted to panic.\u00a0I didn’t know how in the world I would be able to cover all the bills.\u00a0I remember crying out to the Lord one day, and hearing Him tenderly<\/em>\u00a0speak to my heart that Floyd had served him all his life and He wasn’t going to abandon him in this season of life.\u00a0Thank you to everyone who gave so lovingly and generously towards Floyd’s care.\u00a0You lifted a heavy weight from my shoulders.<\/p>\n

I can’t help but thank the Lord for the peace that enveloped Floyd in his hospital room.\u00a0It’s hard to even imagine what it was like for Floyd to be trapped in his condition. But there was a peace and sense of God’s presence with him that was almost tangible.\u00a0Even the hospital staff commented on it.<\/p>\n

There were several occasions when I almost didn’t make it through all the treatment I was going through.\u00a0I remember one time in particular,\u00a0I was so weak that I could hardly speak to pray.\u00a0This was another time when God so\u00a0tenderly <\/em>spoke to me. He reminded me that I was in His hands…my “time” was in His hands. I could relax and trust Him. It brought such peace and assurance to my heart.<\/p>\n

While this was all taking place, quite a few of our extended family were going through severe trials.\u00a0I didn’t share these because they weren’t my story to tell, but there were times when it felt like our whole family was under assault. Thankfully, God graciously brought us all through these times.<\/p>\n

I am fairly frequently asked if I understand what happened to Floyd\u2014why he got sick, why didn’t God heal him, why did he suffer for so long. I don’t have the answers to those questions. I’ve had a few “inklings” about some of it, but I don’t even know if those are right.\u00a0We’ll have to wait until heaven to fully understand. But I do have to say that God gave me special grace to not worry about those questions.\u00a0I was able to trust Him, and put Floyd into His loving care. I know that was an answer to prayer because I’m usually one who wants to understand things!!<\/p>\n

Lord, thank You for Your merciful answer to prayers for all of us.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-9dD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35442,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35441\/revisions\/35442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}