Welcome to Fern's Homestead!
Are You Grieving Beloved?
And God himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,and death
shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former
things have passed away.
(Rev. 21:3-4 RSV)
The Four Stages of Grief:
Denial - I can't believe this!
Depression - I can't deal with this!
Anger - I can't understand why?
Acceptance - I can now see.
Being diagnosed with a serious chronic illness, forever changes our life. I will
never be the same person again now that I live with Hepatitis C and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
. We actually go through a grieving process. We need to learn to let go, and say
goodbye to our old self, and hello to the new self that God is going to mold and shape anew.
Shock and denial are the very first emotions we have after receiving our diagnosis
or the diagnosis of a loved one. Then comes depression, anger and acceptance. This is what
most of us have been taught. They're not necessarily in that order either.....or doesn't
mean that once you have experienced anger, for instance, that you will never have that
same emotion again. Trust me - you will! It's a process each of us has to go through.
Thankfully, I haven't experienced depression, but have had moments of it.....I've had moments of anger as well.
I have had my fair share of discouragement. I have accepted this now because I can see what God is doing
in my life through this, and because of it.
And you will too. Just give it time beloved. We can't rush the grieving process. There is a season
for mourning and a season for joy. You will be filled with joy again.
God gave me a supernatural peace from the very beginning, even though I have faltered at times
by looking at my circumstances, instead of Jesus and His promises. I know that
He is in control of everything that happens to us, because He tells us so.
Elisabeth Elliot explains it this way in,
A Path Through Suffering
Recognize it ~ I have this illness
Accept it ~ I can't change this
Offer it to God as a sacrifice ~ Lord, You take these burdens
Offer Yourself with it ~ Use me El Shaddai; I will praise You
These are the times that we need to focus on Him and His Word and what He promises us.
God's word is either true or it isn't. Period. Ask yourself these questions:
Is God's Word able to bring hope into every seemingly, to me,
hope-less and help-less situation?
Do our problems, our sufferings -
surprise or baffle the Almighty One? No, of course not!
Let me share a poem by J.H. Sammis:
But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay,
For the favor He shows and the Joy He bestows
Are for them who will Trust and Obey
This poem is telling us that we must lay it all down before Him ~ our sorrows,
our illnesses, our pain ~ everything. And then we simply must trust and obey Him,
and then and only then, can we experience the joy that He has for each one of us!
God is our Refiner and will never give us more heat than we can bear.
There is an old saying that goes like this, 'Difficulty
is the very atmosphere of miracle.' We must remember that we are not our own. We have been bought
with a price, therefore we belong to Him. Whatever happens to us then is His
business. He is in control. Yes, we are in the
Refiners Fire ~ but we need to remember that it's
a controlled fire.
Haven't we all been to that place where we've cried out enough!! No more Lord!! Yet,
I have found through my most fiery trials, that God has taught me the
most significant lessons and growth in my own character. I have found that God
has increased my faith and made me stronger in my belief of who He is because of my weaknessess
and sufferings. I feel that this more than compensates for the losses in my life. My own faith is stronger
because of living with chronic illness.
It's not a pretty picture at times when He is
burning out the dross in our character, but it's necessary in order for us to be refined and
made pure as silver. Don't forget....if there were no trials there could not
be miracles!
Perhaps you are in the depths of despair or feel isolated and forgotten right now. I have been
there and so has our Redeemer. Maybe you feel like giving up because you feel that you're
up against impossible odds? This is not something new to man or to God.
The people of Israel went up against
impossible odds when faced with the Red Sea and Pharoah's army of chariots.
Our GOD is the same yesterday, today and forever. Joseph must have felt like he was lost
and up against impossible odds - sold into slavery by his own brothers!
Believe me, nothing that can happen to us is not common to man. GOD can handle our
problems. But He wants us to Trust in Him.
1 Corinthians 10:13,
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a
way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Let me leave with you some quotes:
"Despair is suffering without meaning."
Viktor Frankl
"One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning;
all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult.
It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable.
To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it
is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows
in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory."
Jerry Bridges
"The world is full of suffering. It is also full of the overcoming of it.
We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only
joy in the world. . . . Character cannot be developed in ease
and quiet. Only through the experience of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired,
and success achieved."
Helen Keller
We have experienced much healing by learning to eat foods from Abba's Garden and making lifestyle changes according to the Word of God....we'd like to invite you to join our wonderful Ladies Fellowship. We look forward to meeting you soon!!
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