Here’s to 2014!

Here’s the wild and crazy crew with whom we spend every New Year’s Eve. We’ve shared the last moments of each year with the Kilgore family for as long as I can remember. We also included two couples who have joined the crew in the past. Welcome, once again, Jones and Dunnagan families!! Notice Trey who joined us in the picture via Facetime on Terry’s cell. We missed you Trey!! (A few more fun pics at the end of this post.)

I don’t have to tell anyone who follows this blog I will never forget nine months of 2013 . . . although I’d much prefer to erase them forever from my memory, no doubt, there is a reason for them. As I reflect, it will go down as one of the darkest years of my life. (I pray it will end up being the darkest with much brighter ones to come.) I have always hated odd numbers – ridiculous but true.

Needless to say, the thought of a new beginning, a new year, a new mind (and a healthy body) was a welcoming one for me. There is much to process about what I’ve learned and am learning on this unexpected journey but I know two things heading into 2014. I want this year to be a banner for what my great God has done and is going to do in my life, and I want to approach each day with more confidence in God’s unchanging character (instead of my ever-changing emotions). I am so sick of this disease dictating my emotions. We’ll see how that goes. It will take oodles of prayer and time in the Word! Anyway, I am still processing so much but I wanted to share this incredible “God moment” with you today.

A precious sister-in-Christ (who has also had a less-than-stellar 2013) gifted me with the “Jesus Today” app for my iPhone. I use the “Jesus Calling” app daily and knew the JT app would be a welcome addition to my daily time with the Lord. I have the books as well but the apps are so convenient because I have them with me wherever I go.

Well, today – which happened to be the first day of the new year – I was on Day 5 (This book doesn’t go by date but rather by number). This is what it said . . .

I will restore you to health and heal your wounds. I am with you, within you, all around you – continually at work in your life. When your awareness of Me grows dim, My Presence continues to shine brightly upon you. This Light has immense healing Power. So dare to ask great things of Me, remembering who I am. I am able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think. Pondering My limitless ability to help you will strengthen your faith and encourage you to pray boldly.

Praying in My Name – with perseverance – can accomplish great things. Learn from the parable of the persistent widow, who refused to give up. She kept bringing her petition to a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. Eventually, her persistence wore him down, and he gave her what she sought. How much more will I respond to My children who cry out to Me day and night! Though you may have to wait a long time, do not give up. For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds.

”But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord, because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.” Jeremiah 30:17

”Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundant above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”  Ephesians 3:20

”I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  Luke 18:1-8

”For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps knocking, the door shall be opened.”  Luke 11:10

You can imagine my elation as I read this entry knowing what my heart desired for the new year – a new mindset, a new body and a deeper, persistent faith in Him. How timely the “Day 5” entry was! You see, the prayer warriors I know who fast for me every week had told me on the same week this past year that the Lord had laid Eph. 3:20 on their hearts and He wanted them to pray this over me. I also received a letter from another friend who had written my name in her Bible next to Eph 3:20 two years earlier. Clearly, God was trying to tell me something. And here He was using the same scripture as I enter 2014 to remind me He is the God of the impossible.

Not only this, but I have also shared the salience of the “ask, seek, knock” passage from my study in the book of Matthew this year in BSF. God actually allowed me to live out this passage in November when I was at MDA. One of my prayer warrior friends and I have discussed more than once how God is continually reminding us of the need to be persistent and bold in prayer. We can’t give-up. We can’t pray half-heartedly. We must pray and pray continually. And, here was the same passage in my JT reading today (this passage is also included in the Gospel of Luke as quoted here).

Needless to say, I was greatly encouraged in the way the Lord confirmed through my reading in “Jesus Today” what He has been showing me and my friends through this journey. I want to believe and will continue praying, with all of my being, that 2014 will be the year of my healing. That He will show Himself in ways exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine. And, that we will see and know what He has done because we were a part of it . . . faithfully, on our knees.

May 2014 be a year of His blessings and our growth.

 
Our best attempt at capturing the youngest members of the annual NYE celebration. Alexa Hope with cousins, Rylen and Layton. And the Kilgore crew – Aubrey & Caden and Malachi & Luke.


Just a glimpse of the produce it takes for me to have three 8 oz. organic juices every day for approximately six days. My mom lovingly preps my juice packets every week. The cleaning and sorting process takes approximately two hours. Doing “clean” juicing using the Gerson Method, which requires reverse-osmosis water and all organic produce and cleansing methods is intense but it is one of the ways we are fighting this disease and keeping me healthy. Some day, I’ll blog about how a Norwalk juicer works – it is equally time consuming. Ty Mom, Dad and Chris for your continual labor of love to keep me healthy!!