2024 has found me on a path of searching and feeling alone and lost. I knew that I needed God and His presence and love, and He has been there, but I still felt lost and alone. This morning I read some pages from The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence and also some from The Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. This morning’s prayer spark of “Be still and know that I am God.” I took a moment of meditation trying to quiet my mind. And All of these led me to Philippians 4:8-9, and God’s answer was right there. “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you.” 💜 I have been waiting and praying for this peace…but have been going about it wrong. My mind was busy. I was focusing on so many things and my heart was broken, and perhaps I needed to go through this brokenness, but today I awoke to being able to be quiet and still, and even though I already had this passage of scripture underlined in my Bible and knew it, today it jumped out of the page to me in a new way, and God showed me so plainly how to be with Him. May the God of peace be with you all as well and that you feel His presence around you.

I haven’t been to church since my diagnosis in 2017 that knocked me for a loop. Told it was rare, incurable and treatment made me sick. I started to drift away from my church family, with whom I was very active, to barely seeing them but a few times a year. I’m happy to say that this challenge has brought me back to life. The Lord has been speaking loud and clear and I went to church today. It was like I never left. Gods beloved are the best people on this earth and we need more of them. God bless you all with renewed life and insight as we go deeper.

My name is Elaine, and as I read over some of the comments here, I have come to the realization that my “light and temporary afflictions” in comparison to what some are facing are nothing. I thank Him right now for supplying all my needs. I thank Him right now for a strong mind and a healthy body. I thank Him right now for being a Miracle Worker, a Waymaker, a Shining Light in times of darkness. I pray for all of you with serious health issues. Remember God is a Healer. He is the Doctor above all doctors. He is GOD and can do ANYTHING but fail.