[triviafriend]

Dear fellow pn'ers. Please hear me out...don't jump to conclusions about what I am going to say, I beg you. You too might find help with your illness the way that I did. I hope and pray with all my heart that it is so!

I was diagnosed over a year ago with idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, probably due to a reaction to chemicals in a hair product I used (stripped my hair of all color, the next day I couldn't walk!)

In the beginning it was truly terrible. I had horrific pain, couldn't walk without tripping/falling. Numbness, tingling, electric "shocks" running up my legs, jerking muscles...you name it, I felt it. I became so depressed and angry. I laid in bed for months, just feeling sorry for myself and trying different combinations of meds for pain and anything mentioned on the net or from other sufferers for some kind of improvement.

I felt that I was being held in bondage by this disease.

I roused myself one Sunday to get up and get myself to church. On that day it just happened that a healing sermon was taking place. Though embarrassed, I went up to the front of the church to be prayed for. I have always been a believer, but more of a "holiday" churchgoer than anything else. However, on this day, I just opened my heart and begged God for healing. But not only did I beg, I believed, with all my heart, that I would be healed. That God would come through for me, absolutely and without question. I felt for the first time perfect faith. A first for me!

I didn't get a miraculous change right then and there, but went home, feeling absolutely exhausted. I fell asleep right away (around noon), and didn't wake up until the next day at around 12:30 p.m! I felt very strange, almost like the feeling you get after being ill with the flu. After walking around the rest of the day, I knew that something huge had taken place in my body. The pain, tingling, numbness and other symptoms that I had, that had held me captive, were still there...but they were muted. My disease had become, overnight, bearable. It was the most profound experience of my life.

Since this happened, I have continued to improve in much the same way. I know that the disease is there, but I have regained my ability to live my life broken from the bondage I had felt. I can now easily bear pain and all of the other symptoms that held me so tightly in their grip. And all this despite a very negative nerve conduction study appointment just last week (diagnosis: "severe peripheral neuropathy").

Needless to say, my faith has radically changed. I embrace my daily walk with Christ. I live in constant gratitude for the miracles he continues to send my way. Blessings literally fall upon me like rain.

I tell my fellow pn'ers this story in the hope that it will help you to explore a new and different way. Ask the Lord today, if it is his will, to give you the strength and the faith to overcome your illness. Believe that it will come to be, because all things are possible with God.

[smae]

triviafriend,
I am happy that God has helped heal you some...
While I totally agree with you that God can heal and does.. for whatever reason, sometimes He chooses not to.
I don't understand it.. but I wish I did.
I have been praying for months and months to be healed, and many many many of my friends have been praying for me as well. God hasn't healed me yet...
I have the faith, I know He can do it...
But He hasn't. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Sometimes God doesn't heal people when they ask because He has them in that spot for a reason... maybe He will heal me later on in my life.. or maybe I won't feel any physical healing until Heaven. I have no idea...
I'm glad your illness has been made bareable.. but it isn't only a matter of faith and believing.. I know plenty of people with great great faith who have not been healed. It doesn't make a lot of sense... but we aren't made to understand every bit of God's will and character here on earth. Someday, when I look back, I'm sure it will make plenty of sense.
Until then, here I will sit... in pain and trusting God that He has me here for a reason...
Does that mean I will give up and stop praying for healing? Absolutely not!
God wants us to remind him of his promises and ask for what we need. I will continue to do so, but will continue to trust Him in the hard times as well.

[triviafriend]

Originally Posted by Sarah Mae

triviafriend,
I am happy that God has helped heal you some...
While I totally agree with you that God can heal and does.. for whatever reason, sometimes He chooses not to.
I don't understand it.. but I wish I did.
I have been praying for months and months to be healed, and many many many of my friends have been praying for me as well. God hasn't healed me yet...
I have the faith, I know He can do it...
But He hasn't. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Sometimes God doesn't heal people when they ask because He has them in that spot for a reason... maybe He will heal me later on in my life.. or maybe I won't feel any physical healing until Heaven. I have no idea...
I'm glad your illness has been made bareable.. but it isn't only a matter of faith and believing.. I know plenty of people with great great faith who have not been healed. It doesn't make a lot of sense... but we aren't made to understand every bit of God's will and character here on earth. Someday, when I look back, I'm sure it will make plenty of sense.
Until then, here I will sit... in pain and trusting God that He has me here for a reason...
Does that mean I will give up and stop praying for healing? Absolutely not!
God wants us to remind him of his promises and ask for what we need. I will continue to do so, but will continue to trust Him in the hard times as well.

God bless you. Sometimes "God's Time" seems completely out of sync with "our time". God loves you for your great faith, and he will give you strength to deal with your illness when he is ready. In the meantime, just keep up your walk with Christ, show up, clock in and roll up your sleeves to do his work daily. Thank you so much for your reply, and God be with you!