When Struggles Threaten to Drown You
Struggling today – I am sick… again. I have bronchitis and am having difficulty breathing. My mind & body are weary of battling illness…
For the past 10 years, since having cancer and the subsequent treatment to kill it wreaked havoc on my immune system, I have battled debilitating chronic illness.
It took a while for the doctors to figure it all out, as I went from being an active runner, involved mom and running a full time private practice, to a couch potato, unable to walk u p the stairs without wheezing or struggling to breathe. Chronic infections and debilitating illness ensued for years with monthly courses of steroids and antibiotics.
I have improved greatly over the past 2 years, but it required removing myself from most of life. ( more on that in another post) Today, as my mind and soul braced against the riptide of discouragement that threatened to take me under- I remember that relaxing into the swirl of overpowering water is how you handle a riptide-
So it is sometimes with the undertow of life struggles. Leaning into the deep deep love of Jesus today. This helped me calm the words of defeat and fear, and just rest.
Great devotional from She Reads Truth Hymns-Day 4
O THE DEEP DEEP LOVE OF JESUS
by Samuel Trevor Francis, 1875
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth,
Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth oer them from the throne!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Love of every love the best!
Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
Tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee!
