Oct 16, 2025 – Therapy
It seems that the sleeping-through-the-night song may have been a one hit wonder. However, four hours of uninterrupted sleep and waking to no pain is still better than waking every 3 hours to an alarm for pain pills. So, I’ll take the four hours believing that it will get better and better. My physical therapist, however, yesterday said I’m not where I’m supposed to be mainly because I’m apparently protecting my arm too much at home and not doing all of the exercises enough. I just can’t get them in my brain exactly right to do them without feeling like I’m hurting myself (perhaps a metaphor for life?) I don’t want to freeze my shoulder, or my life; so, I’ll ask more questions today. It’s important to ask questions when we have them in every area of our lives especially in our relationship with our all-knowing Father. Apparently, we won’t always fully understand everything (with God or anyone) but questioning leads to interaction and interaction can lead to more meaningful relationships.
JC – [I’m starting where I left off yesterday because this book was an easy one-armed reach and was on the top of the stack.] “Look to Me continually for help, comfort, and companionship….it flows freely from My presence. This recognition of your need for Me, in small matters as well as in large ones, keeps you spiritually alive…. I enable you not only to feel comforted, but also to be a channel through whom I comfort others. Thus you are doubly blessed, because a living channel absorbs some of whatever flows through it.”
Streams – Hebrews 12:1 – “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” It is so interesting for this devotion to come on the heels of the previous one, at least for me, because I so strongly desire to be of use and to be creative and contribute to the world or at least to the one in my immediate vicinity. However, so many of the things I’ve delved into (careers, writing books, drawing note cards, painting furniture and glass, and other business ideas) seem to have not blossomed which has been discouraging and has left me doubting myself and God’s calling and directions in my life. I don’t want to doubt, and I don’t want to get discouraged which is why I go to God and my friends (book and real ones) as often as needed for encouragement and understanding.
Cowman writes, “It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, worrying, wondering if God has forsaken us, and thinking that after all we have been through, our hopes are going to end in failure. But let us refuse to be discouraged and unhappy! Let us “consider it pure joy” (James 1:2), even when we do not feel any happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by firm determination, and by simply regarding it as true, and we will find that God will make it real to us. selected The devil has two very masterful tricks. The first is to tempt us to become discouraged, for then we are defeated and have no service to others, at least for a while. The other is to tempt us to doubt, thereby breaking the bond of faith that unites us with the father. So watch out! Do not be tricked either way. G.E.M.” Cowman continues, “I like to cultivate the spirit of happiness! It retunes my soul and keeps it so perfectly in tune that Satan is afraid to touch it…. Satan is always wary of interfering with me when my heart is full of the happiness and joy of the Holy Spirit.”
Prevail #289 by Susie Larson – Galation 5:4 – “Of course our choices matter, and they’ll always have consequences. But grace is another matter altogether. When we try to earn our way, we’ve lost our way. When we rely wholeheartedly on the saving, empowering grace of Jesus Christ, we find ourselves freer and happier than we had ever imagined. Amazing grace.”
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (Utmost) – Most of the time I glean a lot from Chambers, but today he’s like one of those people in a group who I have to really try hard to understand because they know so much, but it doesn’t easily translate to my level. However, I’m very grateful for people who know so much and try to convey it to those of us who don’t. Here’s what he said, “The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work, that is, not work as the word is properly understood today, because that may mean the evasion of concentration on God… The key is prayer….”Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest” [Matthew 9:38], and He will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.” Here’s what I got: pray.
Power Thoughts devotional by Joyce Meyer (Power) – “The devil tries to tell us we can’t be like God…. But the Bible says God has shared His divine nature with us; it is in us, thus we can develop it and it can come out of us. Don’t listen to the devil’s lies. Believe instead the promises of God: you can be like God in your nature; you can have unspeakable joy; you can be merciful, never again holding a grudge. Fill your thoughts and words with God’s promises.”
Gosh, I’ve really missed my “small group” of book friends and how they start my day helping me go to God to get fresh perspectives on life. Now it’s time to get ready to go meet with my small group of in-person friends, and then physical therapy. Physical therapy after spiritual therapy. That sounds like a great day ahead.”
