35/40: Sometimes God helps you fast in the oddest ways

Wow, the last ten days or so I have being going through what I call a “cold-quake”; about a 7.5 on the “Cold Richter Scale”.  I made that last part up 😉

Through I prayed and asked God to heal me he has chosen not too but chose to be faithful in my sickness.  (He’s God and I’m not.)

On a positive side, I have had little appetite through the process.  Doing most of the things I normally do has ranged from difficult to impossible, but fasting…that has been easy.

Thank God I’m feeling better today and am in a reflective mode.

This recent “cold-quake” has been a good reminder to me that there are people all around me who are suffering days without end and with no hope of their suffering ending in sight.

I think of cancer victims going through long and arduous chemo/radiation treatments, little children with crippling and life-shortening diseases or people with debilitating diseases like ALS, Lupus, diabetes, heart issues, etc.

Others with, unless God intervenes, permanent and progressing disabilities and handicaps.

And then there is this process I am coming to know all to well myself–aging.

Yes, I thank God for helping me with my fast these last few days by allowing me a little season of suffering.  It was a good reminder: there are many people out there who are fasting and suffering–not because they want to, but because they have no choice.

• Prayer: Oh God, let the minor pains and discomfort which this short season of fasting has brought be a reminder of those around me every day who suffer without end.   
• Help me to be more aware; more patient, more understanding and kind. 
• Help me to be a voice of comfort and care, help me to help them as they fast, maybe for the rest of their lives: their health, the presence of a loved one, the hopes and prospects of a lifetime. 
• This I humbly ask, with a heart of gratitude for all the times you have shared in my suffering, amen.

  1 Peter 4:19 (NLT)

¹⁹ So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.