Do you have an affliction? Are you searching for answers? Many
of us suffer from afflictions, yet how many actually find the true answer or the hidden gift within?
Sometimes I feel like I have been benched in the game of
life seriously, for like a decade at least due to my health, and I think I am
starting to want back in the game. There were thing I took for granted, didn’t
appreciate, did wrongly. I have had to learn a lot of lessons. I have baby
plants now that I am tending. I have heard that is a sign of healing (even if
it was in a Sandra Bullock movie).
Today I found an article on a man’s fatigue and chronic
anemia, and started reading of how he began to see it as a gift, and I had just
written down that very verse in my planner, 2 Cor 12:7-10, where Paul tells us
to stop focusing on the handicap and begin appreciating the gift (MSG). The
article ended abruptly saying if you want to read it, you have to subscribe to
the magazine. That was daft but I get the message, and I have to wonder: what
is the gift in my affliction? I ask to know that I may then use it as the gift
it is intended. Perhaps it is as simple as to bring me closer to God, for in
the same verses Paul tells us that Jesus would not remove his affliction and
told Paul that through his weakness He is made stronger, therefore Paul concludes
that in turning his weakness over to Christ, he becomes stronger in Christ in
himself.
What just came to me though is that the gift in my
affliction is joy and appreciation for life, neither of which I ever had. I don’t
know if one can find these gifts in affliction unless they first turn to God.
It has taken a lot of searching, looking, learning, listening, and shutting up
for me to get this far but it was well worth it; well worth the pain and effort,
for in return, I have received a true gift from God. I am filled with joy after
a lifetime of depression. I appreciate all aspects of life and am rapidly
filling with love to share.
If you are afflicted, maybe it is time you ask, what is your
gift?
About Cheryl Yale-Bruedigam
Cheryl Yale-Bruedigam has been writing spiritually for thirty years. With undergraduate studies in English and women's studies, she devoted over a decade of research and writing to women’s studies and spirituality. Author of What If We Are the Angels she is now teaching and sharing A Woman's Path to Wholeness Through Biblical Teachings.
Order her books or find at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and ITunes
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