I hope you caught the Seahawks vs. the Packers last Sunday. If you didn’t here’s a quick recap:
For fifty-six minutes it looked like Greenbay was going to win the NFC championship.
In the next two minutes the Seahawks took the lead.
In the last two minutes, Greenbay tied the game.
In overtime the Seahawks won the game in the most dramatic fashion.

Why am I writing about it in my blog? The answer is pretty neat. As I was thinking about the game I realized it may be a metaphor for my life and perhaps your life too.

If my life is represented by the Seahawks and the enemy is represented by the Packers, you will see how this metaphor plays out. (By the way, I really like Aaron Rogers and have a great deal of respect for the Packers.)

The Seahawks prepared for a game, The game did not go as planned. That is the same as my life, I prepared for a life with my family. The plan didn’t go as expected. The enemy attacked me with ALS.

For most of the game the Seahawks were done. The experts were showing statistics of how Greenbay had never lost a game after being sixteen points ahead. Russell Wilson, The Seahawks quarterback, paid no attention to the statistics. He held onto the belief that his team was supposed to win. In the same way I am struggling with ALS, been so for four years. The experts say I’m going to die in two years. After the two years I was supposed to live for six months. The latest prediction was I was supposed to die in ten days. But like Russell, I believe I am supposed to live and be healed. My game isn’t over and when victory comes, and it will, there will be a joyous noise to celebrate the Lord.

Just to let you know, when the Seahawks won there was such a joyous noise that it actually registered as an earthquake with a magnitude of 1.7 on the Richter scale!

I don’t know what trials you are going through but remember, it isn’t over until God says it is. Meanwhile be faithful and believe that your Lord has it under control. I found a snippet from an interview with Russell Wilson after the game. He sums up this blog with his comments.

Enjoy and keep believing.

I have a strong feeling that other people struggle with the same question I am facing. I feel someone out there needs to know the answer to this question. What’s the question you are wondering? Here it is.

But before I ask the question let me present you with the problem. The problem is with prayer, more specifically how we pray them. One camp says that you should surrender. Let go and let God. Give up and let the Lord do what He’s going to do. Stop fighting the battle, the battle belongs to the Lord. Lets call this camp “The prayer of relinquishment”.

The other camp says pray without ceasing. Be persistent in asking God and never give up. Be like the persistent widow who kept asking in a bold manner and she got what she wanted. Pray and never give up is the mantra for this camp. Lets call this camp “The prayer of persistence”.

Both of these camps can site scripture and verse from the Bible to support their position. How should we pray?

1.      Lord, I give up, let Your will be done not mine. I will be happy with whatever You give me because You are Lord and You know better than I. Lord, if You heal me, great. Lord, if You don’t heal me that’s great too because You are Lord.

2.      Lord, heal me and heal me now. I will ask this of You boldly as You have told me to ask. I will keep asking until I get it. Because You said everyone who asks receives.

So which one do we choose? They are opposing each other.  One surrenders, the other one persists and goes after healing. Maybe the answer is meeting halfway: " Lord, I surrender to Your will but I want my healing."

It turns out that meeting halfway is not scriptural, it is not supported by the Bible. So what is the answer? I asked God for the answer and here’s what He gave me. He reminded me of a verse that John wrote that answers this question. It is found in 1 John 5:14-15,  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”

What does that mean?

It means you surrender to God’s will which is the truth. When you surrender to that, then you can ask God for His will to be done and get out of the way and let God do His thing!

My prayer now is: “Lord, let Your will be done, and I know that Jesus took the stripes for my healing. It is Your will that every born again believer be healed. So Lord, I ask You to help me receive my healing, because I know it is Your will, and it is already done.”

There you have it. What seemed like two opposing camps were actually saying similar prayers! It is not about what we ask, but how we ask. It is all about your attitude. More correctly, my attitude.

I have to remember that God loves me and He wants the best for me. The enemy wins when he changes my opinion of God.  I start thinking that God does not want me to be healed. In other words, the enemy introduces doubt. But we know better, don’t we? 

 I hope this helps you, I know this message helped me. 

This will be a short and sweet blog. Two out of three of my daughters are now away at college. Five minutes ago I was tossing them in the air and giving them basket rides. I know it is a cliché, but the years flew by and now I have only one in the nest. She is scheduled to fly away in three short years. Wow!

One of the wonderful things I can think of is that we enjoyed every day of their growth. Oh believe me, they weren’t all winners, we had our challenges; but, that is what life is, winners and losers. You enjoy the good and forget about the rest.

That brings me to the point of my blog. Right now I am in a season of having both good and bad times. Sometimes the good times last for a week, day, or an hour. With ALS, every day is in flux. The only way to survive such turbulent times is by enjoying the good and forgetting the rest. Understand the bad times can be daunting but it will pass. It helps to remember that and picture the good times that will come.

You have to imagine and dream about good things. Speaking of which I’m going to leave you with part of my Christmas gift from Ashley. She did a song for me and it is all about imagination, I’m sure you will recognize it and put a smile on your face. You may need to turn up the volume. Enjoy!