"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. " Psalm 103:1-5, NIV. The past few weeks I've found out that a couple of my Christian sisters now have breast cancer. On top of that, I've met some online sisters in Christ who are battling ongoing illness and are recovering from recent setbacks with their illnesses. Illness is just once facet of the adversity we face and suffer here on earth. It isn't because God doesn't love us either and desires to see us suffer. Rather, our God is a God of healing and love. Our fallen state (sin) is the reason we suffer. Let me clarify before you think I am suggesting that my sisters in Christ are ill due to their sin. No, that isn't what I'm saying because we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I'm saying that due to the fall of man into our sin nature, this world will not be the beautiful, perfect, healthy, complete place God designed for us to have. He does allow different forms of hardship and adversity in our lives to grow us up in Him for His purpose and His glory. I find it interesting that He has all these different women in my life right now and my business is in the holistic care and healing of pets. I use the same approach with my own health which is why it transfers easily over to pet care. I chose pet care because I know it is the vocation God has gifted me with and desires for me for His purpose and glory. You see, I'm not the healer. I bring the "ingredients" to heal, but the healing comes entirely from God. Not me. God even gives me my passion to share and my desire to learn more about natural healing. So, I'm going to connect the dots here so you'll see where I'm going with this. God has given me a passion to share healing and wellness with others and their pets. I have a natural affinity with animals which God gifted me with. I ignored that gift for a long time and I always felt like I was lacking, incomplete and it showed in frustration. Through some trials and hardships I ended up back in the pet care industry and with a passion that has been ignited to a roaring fire! Okay so I'm in the holistic pet care industry which almost always gives folks the idea that I'm into the new age movement and all that goes with that -until I let them know I'm a Christian of course. Prior to becoming a Christian I bought into some of the new age ways. As God continued to give me a passion to seek out alternative, natural ways to bring healing and wellness to others, to show people how to be proactive in their own wellness and using the same principles to apply to their pet care, I've been surrounded by people and pets who are sick. On top of that, many of them are very much into the new age movement. I can kind of sit here and laugh at that because I believe I went through some of my spiritual and physical struggles just so that when I finally got around to obeying God and His purpose for my life, I'd be able to relate to those who are still into that form of "spirituality" not realizing they are in fact against God. So I could be salt and light. So that God could then use His healing Hands on these lost and hurting souls. By obeying His will for my life and sharing my passion with others and their pets, God is bringing so many different people into my life to share His healing hands with. While they may think it is my compassion or kindness (that I attribute only to God because I was always a selfish and hard person prior to Jesus coming into my life) I'm just the conduit of His love and healing coming through to all He brings in contact with my life. That also means hurting and ill Christians. That He may touch them with His healing hands and take them deeper into the knowledge, joy and wonder of Him!! So that when they are healed -we know that some will be healed and others will not and only God knows the reasoning behind that - they too will be able to bring comfort and share with others His healing hands. Our entire life, when we surrender to God's will, becomes a vessel to serve others to God's everlasting glory! |
