LOVED AND AFFLICTED

[Whendancer]

When I was a toddler, I suffered a trauma from a fall that would result in my being in and out of the hospital for years. It ended when my right leg was amputated when I was five years old. I am 63 years old, now. Before then, my mother would take me to various prayer lines to get prayer oil and special prayers prayed over me for my healing. Then, just before we were scheduled to go into an experimental/groundbreaking surgery together ( bone would be taken from my mother's hip and grafted onto my broken bone)-my mother had a vision. Her pastor, who had passed away, came to her in a dream and told her that "the operation would not be a success, but that I would be okay." And, just as he told her in that dream, that is, what happened. The surgery failed, but my life has been one that would be rife with one testimony after another of God's grace and faithfulness. Everything, the good and the bad, led to my accepting Jesus Christ not only as my Saviour but I love Him...really love Him as my Lord. I am, constantly, in awe at the gift of my salvation. Has my walk been a perfect one? No. But, my Loving, Faithful Father knows my heart and the "afflictions"that He has allowed...the chastisements of love...have brought me back time and time again. There have been times that I would have given up on me, but He has not. His faithfulness has taught me a lot about what being in Covenant with King Jesus is all about. It has more to do with what is NOT seen than what is. We cannot grasp that elusive element of "eternity" because we live in a world that is limited by space and time. But, the Holy Spirit that is living within the Redeemed is guiding us into the Truth that it does not matter what is lost "physically" the soul will always be intact. So, we can courageously do the works that were prepared for us to do before we born - KNOWING that we will suffer no real loss or permanent damage.
Paul's "thorn in the flesh"(2nd Corinthians 12:6-7) reminds us of that. Amen?
2nd Corinthians 4: 16 - 18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
STAY ENCOURAGED AND HOPE IN GOD'S UNFAILING LOVE FOR YOU DURING ANY AND ALL AFFLICTIONS. AMEN?

 

[Waggles]

But, the Holy Spirit that is living within the Redeemed is guiding us into the Truth that it does not matter what is lost "physically" the soul will always be intact.

Hallelujah - well said