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God spoke through me at a women's event a few days ago. And since then he hasn't STOPPED speaking!
There I shared my story, something I feel so passionate about! I know EVERYONE has a story and God has laid it on my heart to help people find it and be brave enough to share it. (future blog post)
Since that day four women from my mom groups have shared neat things God has done in their life as they stretched themselves past their comfort zones! God is so cool!
I just love how he has kept re-affirming the things I have said all week, and has also helped me step it up too.
I am a blogger, so when you transition from blogging to speaking it's so different. When I was going over my talk with my husband he actually commented how my notes read just like a blog post haha! Then helped me change it a bit to sound better spoken!
I also like blogging because I can see what I'm saying, take my time, look things up, delete and re-organize my thoughts before hitting the "publish" button.
After my talk I was completely thrown out of my comfort zone as women came up to me afterword with "me too" stories. Asking me HARD questions, mostly how did you find healing from your past and how can I move forward myself, or help a loved one who is struggling.
...And I stumbled around with my words. Which looking back is ok, because God doesn't call the qualified does he? He qualifies the called!
I answered best I could that night, and then prayed over everyone on the way home. This week through various ways God is leading me to answers.
My husband and I have been reading together (well let's be real not REALLY, together. We are following a reading plan and I email him the verses each day at work, then we talk about it later :) )
And this story was part of what we read this week.
John 5:5-9 New International Version (NIV)
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
I had read this story before, but read it with new eyes after the event! My own sin I struggled with for at least 20 years if not more, this guy had been ill for almost twice that long! If I could answer the ladies now, I would tell them this story.
When we have a loved one that is stuck deep in sin, locked up in it. We can bug them all we want to try to help them "get better" but bottom line is they have to WANT TO GET WELL.
My husband, extremely kindly, points out that I've gained a bit of weight since having our son. To be quite honest I'm at a point where I just don't care lol. So until I care he can bug me about it all he wants but I have to take the steps to actively choose to do something about it.
The invalid in this scripture gave all kinds of excuses as to why he couldn't get down into the water, I have no one to help me, someone is always in my way.
Jesus responds with dude get up, pick up your mat and walk.
The biggest thing my husband did for me when overcoming my past was to just be there. I love you even if you don't ever overcome this. And that's how Jesus is with us too. He meets us right where we're at and loves us.
He offers his healing to us, but we have to pick it up and take it! No one can do that for us, even the most well-meaning people can't do it for us. We have to decide ourselves if we want to get well.
Even therapy, counselors, reading the Bible even all the GOOD stuff that can and does help, if the person doesn't choose to LET those things help then they can't be healed. Do you want to get well?
I see this even with my almost 3 year old son. We use choices SO often with him, you can choose to eat your dinner and get a treat later, or you can choose not to and be hungry. You can choose to be respectful and listen or you can choose to go sit in time out.
I have found the more I push him to choose the right thing, or the thing I want him to do the more he pushes back, doesn't want to do it because he's being forced to do it not on his timing. When I step back, and give him the choice he generally takes a bit longer than I'd like to finish his dinner, but he does it on his time frame.
So my advise to help someone who is struggling? Just LOVE them! Love them right where they're at and stop forcing. The more you try to force someone to change, or heal before they're ready to the more push back you receive.
Pray for them, prayer moves mountains! It really does. Feeling love from friends and family through prayer helped me heal from my past. The person in the verses struggled for over 30 years! My step dad wasn't saved for as long as I've known him, I just turned 31. He just came to know Christ a couple years ago. On his timing, on his terms. It did my mom no good to try to beg him to go to church, but she took us faithfully on her own all while I grew up. She PRAYED for my step dad and SHOWED him her faith, as did many others around him. That's what saved him. Prayer, consistency in the small stuff. Loving him where he was at.
Also realize it is a DAILY choice to "get up". The things from my past haunt me every day, but I have to choose to give them to Jesus each day and get up and be healed. The longer I do that, the easier and more natural it becomes, but it's still a daily choice.
Give that hurting person to God, because you can't save them. Only God can. But you can most definetely love them.
What about you, Do you want to get well?