Love and Encouragement

I have said in previous posts how thankful I am for the love and support of my friends and family during my illness and also they have been great since diagnosis of MS as well. But its not only friends and family who have got me through - its my relationship and belief in God that has helped me carry on day by day.

Throughout the time between taking ill and my diagnosis I kept a diary of how I felt and wrote little things in it which  helped me on down times look back and feel. One of the things people did was send me bible verses and during one week I got the same bible verse four times from different people and it helped me. The verse was Jeremiah 29 v 11:

"For I know the plans I have for you, "declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" 

Even though I did not know what was going to happen, I was able to take heart in the knowledge that God knows the plans he has for me. Whether I like MS or not, I have it and I believe that God will help me through living with it and hopefully use me to help others and maybe even use my MS to help others as well. 

Here are some others that were sent tome - I will leave you to look them up yourself, if you don't know them off by heart that is!! 

• Proverbs 3 v 5
• Joshua 1 v 5
• Joshua 1 v 9
• Deuteronomy 31 v 8
• Psalm 31 v 3-4

I got lovely messages as well from people and one which meant a lot to me came from two blessed friends in Peru on 1st January. 

"We will be praying for you and the best is that God is in control of your life. Only God knows our body and will take care of your. We love you and we will be in a strong embrace with you"

During my times of feeling low I had friends to pick me up and help me feel surrounded by God's love.  In one day (6th Jan) three people rang the house to see how I was and make sure I was ok and I had three people come and visit me as well. These little surprises were good and shows that if you just sit back and relax good things do happen and life not always about planning. Is God teaching me to be spontaneous? 

The trick I had to learn throughout this time of waiting for diagnosis and even after diagnosis is being content - being content in the situation I am in - you cannot change health situations so worrying about it does not help, only brings on stress - the best thing to do is surrender all to Jesus.