stretched shoulder

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9

While I was in Mexico last fall, I injured my left shoulder/neck muscle. I got back to the states in December and started physical therapy after receiving a medical exam & MRI. For a few months I did therapy several times a week, took meds daily & iced the muscle frequently, hoping it would heal. I just wanted to be able to pick up kids, go climbing, and fully extend both arms in worship again.

After none of the therapy nor medicine seemed to work, God got my attention. I began remembering, hearing of, and witnessing several people with physical sicknesses/injuries/diseases that God completely healed physically.

I remembered the young 13 year old boy on my Guatemala trip in 2010 who prayed for God to heal an elderly man's leg, who was born without a kneecap. As the boy was praying in Jesus' name, he felt a kneecap growing under the Guatemalan's pants! The man got up, after being in a wheelchair his entire life, and began to run and dance and laugh! I have witnessed God heal people weekly in church and at Bible studies of hurt backs/necks, eye diseases, headaches, knee problems, you name it. I have heard of a mission team in South Africa that has only been on the trip for a few weeks and they have officially lost count of all the healings, miracles, and wonders that God has done!

So after getting my attention, I began to believe he could completely heal my shoulder/neck muscle that had been hurting me since last November. It seems like at every church service, bible study, and just hangout with friends, I was getting prayer & hoping God would completely heal me. Every time people prayed for me, I felt the Holy Spirit touch me and I knew he was doing something. I would feel some of the pain leave me, but then it would come back the next day or so.

 I began doubting and listening to the enemy's lie that maybe it was because my faith wasn't strong enough. Then I thought of the apostle Paul when he says, "A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times, I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

I concluded that Jesus' power resting upon me, is far better than a healed shoulder. I can give up climbing, picking up kids, and worshiping with both arms raised. But I can't give up Jesus.

So then... I was lying in my bed watching a part of The Passion on Sunday night. The part where Jesus is crucified is so hard to watch, but it still doesn't show what he really went through. The Bible says he was naked, not just in his undies like the movie shows. Imagine being beaten by whips of broken glass, bone & clay while you're naked; nails going into your hands & feet; being separated from God; carrying all the sin of the whole world; and going through hell. I forget too often how bad it really was. As I watched the Roman soldiers nail his hands to the cross, God showed me why his ways are so much higher than mine. As they were preparing to nail his second hand in, they had to stretch his arm to line it up with the hole on the wood. In the movie, they stretch his arm so violently that it comes out of socket and Jesus yells again in agonizing pain.

I felt my heart sink. Who was I, being so silly complaining about the pain in my shoulder, when my pain isn't even a fragment of what Jesus suffered for me? Tears wouldn't stop as God loved on me, whispering, Baby, this is why I didn't heal your shoulder before. I wanted to share more of my heart with you. I wanted you to see this and come closer to me. 

The next night I was at a Bible study and the speaker asked if anyone needed prayer for their right shoulder. Mine was the left, so I kept quiet, content with my pain after what God showed me. Then my friend said, "It's the LEFT!" Haha so they began praying. I felt warmth and the Holy Spirit. I was a bit afraid to raise my arm and test it out. I didn't want to be disappointed again. But as I raised it, I didn't feel one bit of pain! I rotated it around, and the usual popping of all my bones was gone!!!! I worshiped the rest of the night, for the first time since November, with both arms fully raised without pain! And now I get to go climbing on Thursday!

I love my Healer.