Keeping the Faith

Must memorize THIS verse!

I'm feeling very hopeful as I continue the new regime my doctor has me on of rotating my antibiotic medications. I completed the dosage of Augmentin and now I'm back on the Ciproflaxin and Flagyl. I've only had a few rounds of sickness... not near as many as previously and not as severe. I was able to work my scheduled days last week AND this week, so I'm very thankful for that!

I had a very scary episode of something I never heard of or knew could happen. It is called a "nocturnal panic attack" and it woke me out of a sound sleep with symptoms I thought were a heart attack! Here's the definition I found ... 

"Nighttime (nocturnal) panic attacks can occur with no obvious trigger and awaken you from sleep. As with a daytime panic attack, you may experience sweating, rapid heart rate, trembling, shortness of breath, heavy breathing (hyperventilation), flushing or chills, and a sense of impending doom."

I also experienced roaring in my ears and my vision became blurry!  I was scared to death!! So I called my sister, Sue, (thank God she wasn't working!) and she came out (I was alone). When she got here, her nursing skills were amazing and she assured me I wasn't dying but I was having a panic attack. She helped me with my meds and back to bed and stayed with me till I was sleepy. I had quit taking my anti-anxiety meds, just because I thought I was fine without them. I'm taking SO MANY PILLS and I hate it! But I'm not ever going to stop taking what my doctors say I need ever again! God has blessed them with knowledge to help me to be well and I must trust that He is in control of ALL things. Panic attacks are very real and very scary! I'll never treat them lightly again. 

That all said, I know my true Healer and my true help only comes from God. I am trying very hard to get back into my daily Bible study and prayer time in the mornings. I am usually a very early riser so I most usually have time to give to God before I begin my day, I have been lazy and rebellious lately and have pushed my one-on-one time with God aside. This was NOT good for me at all. I recently ordered myself a life application study bible (NLT) and I've been using it the past few days. I really love it. I am finishing a study I called "RESETTING MY PRIORITIES". I listed some of my main goals for getting myself (my thoughts, my feelings, my weaknesses) back on track with God. They were as follows:

1. Seek Wisdom in God's Word DAILY, instead of advice from other people or my own limited and selfish answers. And I challenged myself to reach for my Bible more instead of other distractions. 

2. Inner Peace and acceptance of God's will for my life. This, to me, means being a constant witness of grace and dignity as a child of God and to reflect His Glory at all times in order to draw others to Him. I need to be strong and courageous as I face the storms. 

3. Show love and forgiveness to those who have hurt me by letting go of the past and by seeing the good in them. I must earnestly pray for them and place them in God's hands. Only by true forgiveness will my soul be pure...and free.

4. Devotion in my service to God.  This means focusing on my strengths and not on my weaknesses or limitations. I must be ready to serve Him at all times.  I must place HIS will before my own. I must practice total obedience. 

5. Find joy in life again. And this is something I admit that I haven't been doing much of for quite some time. I have felt slighted by God and I have felt like He's been blessing everyone but me. I have allowed negativity to take control and cause me to be depressed. I feel that in order to be joyful myself, I need to try to bring joy to others. I need to stop dwelling on the bad...the sad and what I feel may be hopeless and I need to focus on the joyful things of life, big or small. 

6. I need to rededicate my life to God and have complete faith in Him. I need to trust that He knows my every need and He is in control. I need to "be still and know that He is God" and He loves me and that's all that matters. Everything else is secondary. 

I searched my Bible for scripture on all of the above goals and there were many! My very favorite was the one in my opening graphic of this blog. 

I may not be perfect ... well, I KNOW I'm not! But I can STRIVE for being a better Christian and for being stronger in a world filled with sadness, disaster, CRAZINESS and immorality. I do know I CANNOT make it on my own. I need God and He, in turn, blesses me with people who truly love me. I'm SO thankful for that! 

May whoever reads this... and everyone else!... be super-blessed today and every day!