For those of you who don't know, I have diabetes, and all of the health issues that come with that.  I generally don't advertise this as I don't like to make a big deal of it.  Even so, it's caused me all kinds of health issues, the latest being my eyes, and their deteriorating quality.  Anywho, because of these health issues I've been praying regularly for healing, but God hasn't answered yet.  I mean, it's not like He's totally said no to all my requests for healing, as He's healed a bunch of things.  But my eyes, the diabetes, and the health problems that come with it, are one that He's held off answering.

The details of "why", I won't get into.  Those aren't important.  In fact, a lot of that is just between me and Him, so I'll leave it at that. :)  Anyhow, to get you up to speed, recently my diabetes kinda blew up, sugar counts went up, and the "status quo" that I'd been riding on kinda took a flying leap out the window.  As such, because of this, I pretty much got banned from everything and anything that has sugar in it, or becomes sugar upon eating.  Namely bread, pastries, sugar itself, certain fruits, potatoes (this was crushing as I LOVE potatoes), etc, etc, etc.

So anyhow, being that I'm on vacation this week, and have the ability to spend extra time with the Lord, I spent part of today praying fervently to Him, praying for healing, and doing my best to drive out any doubt that might get in the way of that healing (ref: Mark 9:20-24).  However, as I was praying, God did something interesting.  To back up a little, and give some more background on this, yesterday I finally got around to listening to a sermon by Kent Christmas on doubt (you can watch the sermon here, and it's well worth your time), and you want to talk about a timely message, wow.  That one hit me square between the eyes.

So, anyhow, fast forward to today, I was praying to God, and asking Jesus to heal me, and really pleading with Him over it.  I did this several times across the day, and during one of my "in between" times, while walking, He put a song in my head, which is one of His ways of talking with me.  Ironically, the song was "The rains down in Africa".  No joke.  Curious to why that wouldn't leave my head, and just kept looping on repeat over and over again, I went and looked up what it meant.  It's a song about a guy who was divided between his love of Africa, and the woman he loved.

Bam!  Bullseye!  Right between the eyes.  I mean, if you want God to send you a better message that you're divided, and sitting on the fence, He couldn't have picked a better one.  Anyhow, after praying that out, and getting firmly on His side of the fence, I began asking Him how soon until He heals me, as He's already promised me many things that I can't do if I go blind, or remain like I am.  I mean, I can do them, but it becomes really, really, really difficult, and I don't think that's what He wants for me.  Plus, I keep hearing the prophets saying that God will heal ALL of his children soon.  So, I have that going for me, and it encourages me to know that He WILL heal me.  As always, the only question is WHEN.

Well, this is the part where it gets fun.  Going back to my sugar and starch prohibition, I was sitting there in the livingroom of my apartment and thinking about all the things in here I can't have because of that prohibition, and I was like, "Lord, what do I do with these?  I can't have them right now.  Should I throw them out?"  And what does He say?  "Save them for when you're healed."  It took a second for that to register, but when it did, I about balled my brains out.  I mean, you talk about a wow moment.  Now, to add more "wow" to that, consider this.  Of all the items that I can't have, most are long shelf life items.  So, that means that it could be months, or years, before I can have them.  So why did I nearly ball like a baby?

One of those items I can't have has a short shelf life.  1 month maximum. :D  So if God is going to heal me, it has to be within the next month for that to be included.  Why hadn't I thrown out that short shelf life item before this if I knew that I was prohibited from having it for a while?  Because I trusted God to heal me before it went bad because He knows I hate to waste anything if I can, at all, help it.  Option 3 was to cheat and get in trouble with my sugar again, so that one was off the list.  Anyhow, wrapping up this story as quickly as I can, I wanted to share with you what happened once God told me that.

As a step of faith that God would heal me in the next month, so I didn't have to waste that short shelf life item, a favorite drink I like to make, I went around the apartment and started placing these anywhere that I had a forbidden item as a symbol of encouragement, and faith, that GOD WILL HEAL ME!  Here's what I did:

To explain these so you can understand, the first item is instant potatoes.  The second is the short shelf life drink I was mentioning.  The third is, of course, sugar. :D  (I don't eat the stuff raw.  But it does go into a LOT of things I make, including cookies, cakes, etc.) The last is canned potatoes, two rows of strawberry jam and sauce (the latter is amazing on waffles), and some canned beef I have, which is not short lived, or sweet, but merely got included in the picture.  So you can ignore that.  Anyhow, the encouragement that I've included in each image is a sign I printed out and placed all over the apartment to remind me that GOD WILL HEAL ME, and as soon as He does, I can have those items again.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share this little bit of encouragement with you guys in case you ever feel down, doubtful, or questioning of God's word, His healing power, and what He will do for you.  And, maybe you can do the same thing I did by typing it up in your computer, printing it out, and then placing it anywhere you need encouragement. :)