Tag Archives: Heal me O Lord

Healing and a Home

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…I am on my way to find a place to stay. Judges 17:9 (NKJV)

Time for another update for those of you following our MOLD STORY… in early October we are moving from our summer camper to a guest house near the one we stayed in last winter.  We could move a few weeks sooner, but thought it would be fitting to stay in the camper for the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34), the yearly time when Jews celebrate their pilgrimage in the wilderness after God delivered them from Egypt.  Do you remember how the Israelites quickly forgot the Lord’s great deliverance and miracles at the Red Sea?  They were yearning to go back to Egypt for the garlic and cucumbers (Numbers 11:5).  Those are actually two crops that did very well at our old house on Dry Creek.  The cucumbers were even so delicious and plentiful two years ago that at the time as we were eating them, I commented, “These must be the kind of cucumbers that made the Israelites want to return to Egypt!” Though we still miss it, we aren’t praying to go back to Egypt, just praying for that new place to call home.  

God continues to provide. While we were hoping to be in our permanent home by now, we count our blessings. We are so thankful for our camping summer at the home of a dear friend in a camper on-loan from other dear friends. We are so thankful for the owners who have invited us to stay in their guest house this winter, where we’ll have beds and indoor plumbing!  There will be many windows to let in the winter sunshine, and a gas stove to make it warm and cozy.  And our son will be able to have his chickens in the nearby field, just as he did all summer near the camper.  God is so good! 

And yet, “healing and a home, healing and a home, healing and a home”… we still cry out to the Lord over and over like the persistent widow of Luke 18, often praying David’s Psalms again and again for God says… Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me (Psalm 50:15) One day it struck me how healing and a home are two things we receive when we go to heaven. God promises us…

HEALING: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:  Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.  Psalm 103:2-3 (NKJV)

HOME:  Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:1-2 (NKJV)

Does this mean we must wait for heaven for healing and a home? No!  My friend Shannon reminds me when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), we can ask for these gifts of healing and a home now.  And so, I continue to claim His promises that by His stripes I am healed (Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24) and that my God shall supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).  I was even lying in bed singing My Healing Song the other day when the pains were so awful.  I reminded Him, He is YHVH Rapha, our healing God, and YHVH Jireh, our provider! And I continue to praise Him and knock at His door with my prayers… on earth as it is in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven.  

…The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him,
Who shelters him all the day long;
And he shall dwell between His shoulders.  Deuteronomy 33:12 (NKJV)

Today’s TEA CUPP:  Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-8. Along with healing and a home, what other gifts of heaven can we enjoy NOW while still in this world? Peace, joy, salvation… why not make a list and claim these promises for you and your family today?!  Dear one, I pray that whatever you are facing right now, you will persevere, wait on the Lord, be steadfast, press on, keep trusting Jesus, and continue to pour out your heart to Him in prayer.

My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:18 (NKJV)

They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. Psalm 36:8 (NKJV)

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4 (NKJV)

From Jenny’s Journal: 2 Samuel 6:14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might… Then Jenny wrote before the Lord with all her might, even though she has a terrible tummy ache, and we are homeless.  But the sun is shining through the camper window and the sky is blue and we have Your Words of comfort and promise, Jesus, the hope of healing and a home here and now, and also someday in heaven. We have Your salvation because of Your work on the cross and the blood You shed (that drop was for me). We have Your Holy Spirit inside us to comfort and guide us,. And so, Abba Father, dearest Jesus, I lift my hands and heart and pen to You in a dance of praise! I love You so much! Be glorified today! Be glorified in my life! Be glorified in saving our nation! I come and worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord, my God, my Maker, be exalted above the heavens, may Your glory be over all the earth!

Scripture from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

More Mold

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Then the priest shall come and look; and indeed if the plague has spread in the house, it is an active leprosy in the house. It is unclean. And he shall break down the house, its stones, its timber, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them outside the city to an unclean place. Leviticus 14:44-45 (NKJV)

I broke down the day I read these verses in Leviticus.  I’ve read Leviticus every year for 30 years and I don’t think I’ve ever cried, perhaps was confused, but probably never cried.  It was just too much for me to be reminded of our home we lost.  Our rental house was overtaken by mold and we are still searching for a new one.  Our bodies continue to be in pain, too.  The same day I read Leviticus 14, our youngest son and I were sitting together reading his school book, the section was called, “We love our homes.”  Oh, the tears came running again!  

Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of family and friends. He sent from above, He took us; He drew us out of many irrigation waters.  Yet indeed we also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, for whom we have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that we may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

I thought it was time for a MOLD update.  Many of you know we left our rental home in November 2022 due to a horrible mold outbreak.  We were hoping to be back in it before Christmas, but the owner decided not to repair it. So, in January 2023 we tossed 7000 lb. of belongings and put the salvageable items in storage. We’ve been staying at a guest house the Lord graciously provided until we find a new home.  Today I share an update using Bible verses I’ve read recently.  It’s neat how we can always find our story in God’s Word…

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For to us it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. 

My flesh has been in pain over it, and my soul has mourned over it. Even today my complaint is bitter; my hand is listless because of my groaning. But Abba Father knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. For our God has tested us; He has refined us as silver is refined. He brought us into the net; He laid affliction on our backs.

 But as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Montana: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.  I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We went through fire and through water; but the Lord will bring us out to rich fulfillment. And I will hope continually, and will praise Jesus yet more and more. We have learned in whatever state we are, to be content: We know how to be abased, and we know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things we have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!  Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins.  Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed, save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise. Unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labor in vain. Oh, Lord you are my strength.  My God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Blessed be God, who has not turned away our prayers, nor His mercy from us!

Today’s TEA CUPP: Write a Psalm (perhaps Psalm 30 or 31) down the left column in your prayer journal. Now pour out your heart to the Lord Jesus on the right-hand side column. 

 All my life He has been faithful and He isn’t going to stop now!

Scripture from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson (with verses from Leviticus 14:44-45, Job 13:15, Job 14:22, Job 23:2, Job 23:10-12, Psalm 18:6, Psalm 25:18, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 28:8, Psalm 66:10-12, Psalm 66:20, Psalm 80:19, Psalm 71:14, Psalm 127:1,  Proverbs 12:13, Jeremiah 17:14, 2 Corinthians 1:3-12, 2 Corinthians 7:6, Philippians 1:12, Philippians 1:29, Philippians 3:8-9, Philippians 4:11-13,19)

 

Mold in Me

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The heart knows its own bitterness,
And a stranger does not share its joy. Proverbs 14:10 (NKJV)  


“What does it feel like?” friends have asked me. Mold is hard to explain and difficult to describe, so I will try to paint a picture for you, dear praying sister. Everyone who goes through the valley of mold has a unique experience, but this is how it feels for me…
  • Mold feels like a scary mystery.
  • Mold feels like a truck ran over me every morning.
  • Mold feels like I can only process one thing at a time.
  • Mold feels like I get upset for no apparent reason.
  • Mold feels like I need new glasses.
  • Mold feels like I’ve been working on my next book for years because of brain fog.
  • Mold feels like I can’t plan a trip to see family because that takes too much thought.
  • Mold feels like writing down every thought or else I will forget it.
  • Mold feels like never finishing my to-do list.
  • Mold feels like a broken record crying, “Heal me, O Lord.” 
  • Mold feels like a bad dream.
  • Mold feels like extreme weariness.
  • Mold feels like sleepless nights and endless aches.
  • Mold feels like getting up every two hours to use the restroom, praying, “At midnight I rise to give You thanks because of Your righteous laws.”
  • Mold feels like getting up at 3:30 a.m. for quiet time with Jesus since I can’t sleep.  
  •  
  • Mold feels like cancer without the fancy label.
  • Mold feels like dizziness when I stand suddenly.
  • Mold feels like knots in the back of my neck.
  • Mold feels like itchy skin and blotchy areas that come and go.
  • Mold feels like chapped lips and sores inside my mouth.
  • Mold feels like lower back pain that goes all the way down my legs to my feet.
  • Mold feels like numb fingers and toes.
  • Mold feels like I often loose my grip.
  • Mold feels like being anointed with oil and having great hope, only to feel awful the next day.  
  •  
  • Mold feels like an elephant sitting on my lungs.
  • Mold feels like a sneeze and a sniffle.
  • Mold feels like not wanting to even move.
  • Mold feels like making myself walk in all-weather because movement is key to moving out the mold.
  • Mold feels like dizziness as soon as I come inside from my walks.
  • Mold feels like Peter’s wife Eden on the Chosen, wondering when will my healing come?  
  •  
  • Mold feels like a pain.
  • Mold feels like an ice pick up my tail bone.
  • Mold feels like the worst cramps ever.
  • Mold feels like a rock in my stomach.
  • Mold feels like a twisting tummy ache.
  • Mold feels like a stab in my liver.
  • Mold feels like my husband on his knees by our bed every night, crying out to God.  
  •  
  • Mold feels like a wilted flower.
  • Mold feels like my body reacts to everything.
  • Mold feels like giving up all my favorite foods, yet still I feel sick.
  • Mold feels like getting confused over all the different lists of foods to avoid or to eat.
  • Mold feels like watching others eat the yummy birthday cake I just baked for them.
  • Mold feels like nausea so I eat something, then nausea because I ate something.
  • Mold feels like reaching out to touch Jesus’ robe, and yet I can’t quite reach.  
  •  
  • Mold feels like having the answer, but 100 more questions.
  • Mold feels like drinking gallons of water a day to flush out the toxins.
  • Mold feels like going to the restroom every hour because the mycotoxins destroyed my bladder lining.
  • Mold feels like taking tons of magnesium to make sure food actually moves through me.
  • Mold feels like I’m pregnant every evening with a swollen gut.
  • Mold feels like being curled up with a heating pad and Jesus every morning.  
  •  
  • Mold feels like loneliness.
  • Mold feels like missing the party because I don’t feel well.
  • Mold feels like saying good-bye to all my hobbies. 
  • Mold feels like throwing away my home in hopes I will get well.
  • Mold feels like renter’s insurance is useless as it doesn’t cover mold.
  • Mold feels like I’m still sick even after throwing away my home.
  • Mold feels like hopelessness, though I keep hoping.  
  •  
  • Mold feels like no one understands.
  • Mold feels like looking into the bewildered eyes of my husband who has prayed every prayer.
  • Mold feels like a pat on the shoulder from our youngest son who has only known his mom in pain.
  • Mold feels like watching our youngest son get nose bleed after nose bleed.
  • Mold feels like wondering why our youngest son can’t eat like his grown-up siblings.
  • Mold feels like crying again when his test results are worse than mine.
  • Mold feels like thanking God for friends who care.
  • Mold feels like an unanswered prayer.
  • Mold feels like I’m slowly dying, though I still smile.
  • Mold feels like tears in the bathroom where no one sees.
  • Mold feels like spending all my livelihood on supplements yet being healed by none.
  • Mold feels like giving up but pressing on.
  • Mold feels like sharing in the sufferings of Christ.  
  •  
  • Mold feels like because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
  • Mold feels like saying, “Get thee hence, satan… I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord!”
  • Mold feels like hoping, enduring, persevering, and praying, because tomorrow may be the day Jesus heals my family and me.  

Today’s TEA CUPP:  Dear one, if you found this website because you have mold in your home, I’m so sorry.  I know how miserable you must be.  I’m reading the book of Job in my Bible right now. God’s Word expresses exactly how I’m feeling.  I encourage you to stay in God’s Word, read Job, read the Psalms, read the promises of Jesus in the Gospels; and soon, very soon, by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, we shall all be made well!  

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. Job 13:15

Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.  Romans 12:12 (NKJV)

One thing that might tickle you tea-lovers… the doctor said to drink several cups of green tea and dandelion tea a day to help with detox!  How’s that for God’s grace and sense of humor in our trials?!  

Oh, that my grief were fully weighed,
And my calamity laid with it on the scales!
…For the arrows of the Almighty are within me… Job 6:2-4 (NKJV)    

After several years of visiting doctors, Jennifer Grace was finally diagnosed with Ochratoxin A in September 2022. In October 2022, her home was tested and found to have Aspergillus and Penicillin molds.  An “expert” came to test the house again in November 2022, opening the attic and cellar accesses, releasing additional mold spores which drove her family from their rental home.  In December 2022, they tossed over 7000 pounds of belongings, put keepsakes in storage, and moved temporarily to a guest house. Their family continues to pray for healing and a home with a barn for 3 cats, 3 goats, and 26 chickens. Thank you for praying!!!    

Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins. Psalm 25:18 (NKJV)  

Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, Which refuses to be healed?… Jeremiah 15:18 (NKJV)  

...I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you…. 2 Kings 20:5 (NKJV)

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4 (NKJV)

If today’s post was of interest, you might also like to read Heal Me, O Lord and Mold Overturned my Table and My Tears in God’s Bottle.   I also recommend this doctor’s website and book: Dr. Crista. And you will love listening to the healing verses from God’s Word read by Dodie Osteen…  

Scripture from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

My Tears in God’s Bottle

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You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book? Psalm 56:8 (NKJV)

 Mattresses outside the door… a garbage bag split open spilling books onto the frozen ground… trailers weighted down so much the tires are compressed… 33 years of belongings headed to the dump… the framed wedding picture, the toddler ride-on toys, the school books, the bunkbeds, the easy chair (nothing is easy, who gave it that name?) … even a 54-year-old teddy bear… all waiting in our yard for dump day. But the Lord must have been smiling down on us, for the sun shown on this January day, He sent helpers, and the massive haul to the transfer station was completed.

Just two weeks before, the temperatures had plummeted far below zero. The snow sculpted the landscape, biting bare fingers. “No one should have to evacuate for mold in winter!” we cried! Thank you, Jesus, for warming Montana by 70 degrees, from 30 below to 40 above! Thank you for this lull in the weather to bring my brother and other helpers. Thank you for all the dear ones who are praying for us!

God’s Cloud has definitely lifted from our home on Dry Creek Road, and we are following Jesus where He leads us, our next stop being a temporary guest house. Turns out that Dry Creek may have been dry, but the ground around our rental house was not. All the irrigation water from uphill came right to our cellar, which, combined with attic problems, created a mold sandwich with our family in the middle! So, all the mold-spore-infested-sandwich-fixings were strewn outside the door, awaiting their doom at the dump.

My dear husband still has the garage and barn to finish sorting, tossing, packing and cleaning. He could use a hand if you have one, or two. There is nothing more depressing than throwing away all your belongings, but if you have company, the job is lighter. For God tells us to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Thank you to my brother and dear friends who have already come to our rescue. God bless you all!

We are counting our blessings. The other evening I left our borrowed house in a borrowed truck wearing borrowed clothes and realized that even our very breaths are borrowed from the Lord until He calls us home. And so I thank Him for dear praying friends, a box of notecards, a new prayer shawl, new Bibles for our family, a bag of sweaters, a winter coat, a home for our kitties, grocery deliveries, a surprise envelope, sheets for the new mattresses we will have someday, school supplies for our son, bits of cheer, packing and sorting, cleaning and delivering appliances to the thrift store, a trailer loan, a truck loan, a guest house loan, loading and unloading, a love offering, a phone call, a text, an email, a smile, a note, a prayer… thank you, dearest Jesus for taking care of us with all these dear ones. Bless each one! And we thank You in advance, Lord Jesus, for the next home You are preparing for us… please remember the barn for the animals and a garden, and please heal us. Thank you, Jesus, You know what we need before we even ask!

Today’s TEA CUPP:   A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They’re building a palace for me over there; Though exiled from home, yet still may I sing: All glory to God, I’m a child of the King (Hattie E. Buell, 1877).

p.s. Please keep praying for our healing and new home. God bless you!!! 

…I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you… 2 Kings 20:5 (NKJV)

Hear my prayer, O Lord, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were. Psalm 39:12 (NKJV)

I am weary with my groaning;
All night I make my bed swim;
I drench my couch with my tears.  Psalm 6:6 (NKJV)

Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy. Psalm 126:5 (NKJV)

…Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5 (NKJV)

My new temporary Daniel window with borrowed mug and Gideon Bible and dish towel prayer shawl.  

…she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. Luke 7:44 (NKJV)

…For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  Matthew 6:8 (NKJV)

You shall laugh at destruction and famine…
You shall know that your tent is in peace. Job 5:22-24 (NKJV)

I am weary with my crying;
My throat is dry;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.  Psalm 69:3 (NKJV)

You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in great measure.  Psalm 80:5 (NKJV)

…And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces... Isaiah 25:8 (NKJV)

…The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
Nor the voice of crying.  Isaiah 65:19 (NKJV)

Oh, that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!  Jeremiah 9:1 (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.