I Want God to Be My God, Not My Pain… I want to look like Jesus…

I Want God To Be My God, Not My Pain. I Want To Look Like Jesus.

I always thought that having an idol would be something that I liked…. Over the last several years I have let my pain control me way too much… Just so you know, I love God with all of heart and everything about me… But, my pain has been in control more than it should have been….. There have been missed ministry opportunities and opportunity to love people because of me anticipated the pain to come after activity….. I knew that the pain was coming and I didn’t do the thing that I wanted to do… My fibromyalgia pain is real and it is not going away…. I know it is hard for other people to understand what this all over nerve pain is like… My pain is debilitating because of the extreme pain and exhaustion it creates…. Several things makes it worse… Normally my pain is 5 or 6 on a scale of 10…. When I do stuff it goes up to 8 or 9 on that same scale…. After activity it stays up for about 3 or 4 hours… The weather affects it also… A cold front will make it start to hurt worse a couple of days ahead of the front and not stop until the front goes through…..

God has shown me that my pain doesn’t have to control my eminent future… My pain tells me that it is going to hurt really bad, later… But I don’t have to think about that… Because it is going to happen no matter what I do…. I can go ahead and do whatever I want to do…. I’ve been riding my bike for about 3 or 4 weeks… I am getting stronger… I started out riding around the block… Now I am up to 12 to 15 miles a day… It takes about an hour or hour and a half… The bad pain comes and I am incapacitated for about 3-4 hours… While I am incapacitated, I might sleep an hour or two… Then I spend the rest of the time reading my bible and hearing from God…. I meditate on God’s word all of the time… No matter what is going on that is the major thing that I think about… I let God speak to me through every circumstance….

When I am around people, I just want them to see Jesus in me…. I don’t want them to see the pain… The pain is not my God…. God is my God…. The Lord Jesus Christ is the lover of my life… I love Jesus and He loves me…. All I want to do is show folks how much God loves them…. My pain is my sacrifice or my cross to bare…. God the Holy Spirit lives in me… He reminds me how much Jesus loves me…. He also reminds me how much Jesus loves the world…. I want to love the people that Jesus loves….

Matthew 6:33-34 Seek the Kingdom of God* above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Philippians 4:6-9 6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

John 14:1-21
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.* If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?* 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.* From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, obey* my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,* who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.* 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”