Why Me?

You can say that in a way like it is an honor, or you can say it in a way that it is like a curse.  Hopefully, you all know by now I said it early in my diagnosis like it is a honor.  An honor that maybe only I can understand, but an honor nonetheless.

Reflecting upon my three year journey, it has been an honor.  My faith has grown tremendously and I have been able to share that faith directly and indirectly with you all.  

My Resources

I have turned and relied upon many different resources during this growth period.  The obvious and most used are those that we all have access to - God via prayer and scripture.  

Prayer

I made a commitment to prayer daily.  While I have kept that, I have to confess it wasn't always because of the commitment.  Some days it just turned out that way.  I made a commitment to ask for prayer, which is where FaceBook came in handy. I prayed for not only myself but for anybody who asked for prayer.  I feel strongly that is part of our job duties as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Of course it requires the other party to be asking for prayer.  This is a topic I repeat a lot is the need to simply ask for prayer.  I still get the private messages requesting that I pray for a specific situation, which I am more than happy to.  But, if it is good enough for me to know about it then post it and let everyone know about it.  I believe the more the merrier when it comes to prayer, although I doubt that is really the case.   Two or more really makes a difference.  One praying makes a huge difference! 

Scripture

I also made a commitment to read more scripture.  I tend to find my self reading the same scripture over and over.  I am not sure this is a bad thing or not, but having structure to force me to read more scripture helps me. I have never read the entire Bible front to back.  Books in the Old Testament always slow me down. This is where iPad apps such as the Holy Bible app by LifeChurch.TV and accessible from the iPad Apple store comes in Handy.  Just search Holy Bible and you can find it (assuming you have an iPad).

There are also great references out there to a variety of great devotionals.  A few of my favorites include:

- Jesus Calling, a great devotional and book that there is an iPad app for

- In Touch Ministries from In Touch Ministries is another great devotional.  The iPad app is awesome because it is integrated with Bible Gateway.  Easy to flip from devotional to scripture and back.

Devotionals are good if you find yourself reading the same scripture over and over, like I tend to do.  

Speaking of other Resources, or Weapons for Battle

Books that I have relied upon during my journey also include

- A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald

- Spiritual Leadership by Blackabee

- Streams in the Desert, a very old devotional that is also very good

There are even certain internet sites I rely upon, primarily for reference and posting

- www.biblegateway.com

- www.FaceBook.com

- www.blogger.com - home of my blog site (google) 

The Ultimate Resource

The ultimate resource we have is God himself.  His Grace.  His everlasting life, His promise of something better beyond this earth.  After all of the scripture reading, after all the prayer, and using all of the resources at our disposal so that we can attempt to understand something we will never understand, it still comes down to God's will.   We have to totally surrender to His will. As my devotional in In Touch said a few days back

"If you want to experience victory in the conflict and tough decisions facing you, consider what Jesus did.  Before He got to the cross, the Lord fought a crucial, pivotal battle in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He wrestled with what lay ahead.... He went out to a peaceful and quiet place of prayer, where He got alone before the Father and cried out to Him.   When Jesus walked out of the garden, He walked out a winner."