After I had lung surgery and was diagnosed with LAM disease last year, I was of course shocked and upset but I had a deep sense of peace that God was going to heal me. As family and friends, we have been persistent in prayer and I have got better and better beyond the expectations of the doctors. We are so thankful to God for all he has done.

It is easy to be joyful and full of faith when things are getting better. I want to be honest with you on this blog and say that I couldn't help but be disappointed when I got an infection last month and now a collapsed lung. It is only natural to feel disappointed when life throws rubbish at you but it is what you do with those thoughts that is important. It would be so easy to give up praying, to decide that God doesn't care, to just accept the illness and move on. I may have had a set back but these things have not changed:

1. God is good.
   God is still good despite my circumstance. He has not changed. He still loves me and it is not his fault that I am in hospital.
2. God wants to heal me.
   I may not be fully healed yet but God is in the process of healing me daily. I don't know how I will be completely healed or when. I can just trust him and stand on his word that by the stripes of Jesus, I am healed.

   

3. There is always something to be thankful for.
   Even though my lung has partially collapsed, I can thank God that I am not in much pain; I can breathe well; my SATS are going up not down; I don't feel fear! Since my lung collapsed last year, I have had a terrible fear of hospitals, which has affected my breathing. Praise God that I have had none of that this time. I just feel complete peace!

   

4. I need to keep praying without ceasing.
   It would be easy to give up when God doesn't do something in the way that we expect. The enemy wants to tell us that God hasn't done it in that way so he doesn't care. That is a lie! I just need to keep praying without ceasing and trust God to answer in his perfect way.
5. God has a plan and a purpose for my life.
   God has given me gifts and promised me many things over the years. A lot of these might seem impossible now that I am sick. This just gives me more hope because I know that God never breaks his promises and he is a God of the impossible. God and his promises never change so I know that my situation will!

A few months ago, I was at a conference in Cheltenham. When someone was praying for me, they felt that I needed to remember the faithfulness of God in the past. At the time, I didn't really think that this applied to me. Now I see what it was about. God has been so faithful to me during this last year and throughout my life. He brought me through pneumonia and surgery and gave me the strength to do things that I should never be able to do. Now as I lie in a hospital bed again, yes it's frustrating, but he brought me through safely once and I know he will again. I look forward to the day when I can blog about the new lungs that God has given me. In the meantime, I am going to keep being thankful, keep believing, keep praying, keep trusting and no matter what happens, I am never going to give up!