God is great!

MY TESTIMONY FOR 2009:
If I can sum it up, so far 2009 has been a year of slowly dying to myself.
 
Dying in various areas of my life including my health, my work, my abilities in motherhood, my family, my hopes and dreams for the future, my marriage.
God is doing so much! Changing me daily. Encouraging me daily. Showing Himself to us. Making us excited about the future in and with 3ci. Making our hearts soft for the lost again. Teaching us how to listen to the Holy Spirit more carefully. Changing our priorities, values and timetables! I could go on forever! This testimony relates to my health.
 
MY HEALTH:
In the first week of this year, I woke up with a dull pain in my right hip and leg. Within a few hours, it progressed into severe pain and weakness of my leg. Within a day I couldn't climb stairs anymore. (The previous day and weeks before,  I was fit and running 10 km runs easily) My leg was also feeling numb and had pins & needles. After an emergency CT scan I was diagnosed with a acute disc herniation of the lumber spine. This is a fairly common back injury, but the problem was the exact place where it herniated. It was pressing severely on the nerve bundle going towards my leg. By my own experience with patients, I knew the quick progression and muscle weakness was alarming signs, and that most of these cases would inevitably end up with a back operation- to relieve the pressure on the nerve before permanent damage happens to it. The statistics was ±12% chance of improving without an operation. But from the start, I knew I didn't want a back op at my age (too young, I'm still young!) We prayed about it. We prayed even more. And most of 3ci prayed.  
 
I had the very good advice to seek a 2nd opinion, when the first back specialist wanted to operate immediately. The 2nd back specialist said I could wait up to 12 weeks, if I could stand the pain, before permanent damage was done, and then decide on a operation. This meant I had to have strict bed rest for 6 weeks, and another 6 weeks of no bending,  I had a LOT of pain, I had to take strong medication that made me woozy and a bit crazy, I was not allowed to drive, and I was not able to look after my family at all, and unable to work. BUT, God is so good. His presence was more tangible than ever before. My husband was wonderful and managed the household and 3ci was amazing. Families in church brought us dinner every night for 28 days. Friends dropped and fetched the kids at school and sport, others brought us groceries, many many people prayed and phoned and encouraged me. Others came to visit and kept me busy in bed with stories and games etc. I never asked for any of this, it was all volunteered, and some of the people that blessed me, I didn't even know well. 3ci is truly amazing. They are real in their love for God, and this love is seen in the practicalities of everyday life. I believe we all share in the comfort of Christ, because we all share in the suffering of each other. (2Cor 1 : 7). 3ci truly share in everything!
 
It was a difficult time, and the pain very severe, but it was a good time for me to realize my own vulnerability, the gift of health, how much the Sovereign God is control, how little I have control, that my function and work is not important but my identity is found and grounded in Christ, and that eternity will come soon and last forever.  It seems so easy to say these things now, but every realization was a battle at the time.
 
So many people prayed for me, including the elders on several occasions. I was not healed instantly, I still had to live with the pain and adjustments to my life, but God did heal me in such a way that at the end of the 12 weeks I had improved so much, that I did not need an operation. Whoa! This is a miracle in itself, and even the specialists are amazed at this.  I still have pain sometimes, and the rehabilitation is a slow process. My right leg is still numb, and I live with that daily. But, I can praise God for healing my heart, for saving me, for revealing Himself to me, for using me, and for the prospect of spending eternity with Him without pain.
Even though it was hard, I thank God for taking me through this whole experience, because it made me know Him more. And I understand a little more of eternity. This experience and continued afflictions because of it, changed me forever. Though the worldly things became less important, and worldly time became more transient, the spiritual things increased in importance, and eternity seems somehow closer.
I still believe that God can heal me completely in the future, and will keep praying for this.
 
Though my list of trials is no where near Paul's list, I do understand what he says in 2Corinthians4:16 "we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things of this earth that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal".
Peter also says something similar in 1 Peter 1:6 " in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold refined in fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ ..."
 
I believe that the prayers of all the people in 3ci and in my family, has resulted in much glory given to God.   
In 2Cor 1:11 Paul says that "you, also must help us by prayer, so that many may give thanks, on our behalf, for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many."    
Personally, I also want to thank all who prayed for me. (So many said that God even woke them up at night to pray for me) Let's all give thanks to God, on my behalf, for the blessing granted me, through the prayers of many!
 
And if you find yourself in the middle of something similar, or something worse, a momentary affliction, or little trial of various kinds, tell us all in 3ci, so MANY of us can pray for you and share in your suffering, so that it can result in MUCH glory given to God, and so that we can all share in your comfort too, and MANY can be build up by the blessing granted to you, by the prayers of MANY.
May you be encouraged, your faith is being refined in fire, and it will be proofed genuine, and result in MUCH glory to Jesus Christ, our Lord.   
 
Much love and appreciation
Ronel Thirion