{"id":537,"date":"2018-07-03T10:23:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T15:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/what-do-you-do-when-life-presents\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:14:29","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:14:29","slug":"what-do-you-do-when-life-presents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=537","title":{"rendered":"What Do You Do When Life Presents an Upsetting Surprise?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I take my daily FB postings very seriously. Throughout the day I pay attention to people, places and things that could potentially be the inspiration for me. As I was driving home from Austin after two weeks away, I was thinking about my post for today. I was thinking that maybe I should write a finale to my \u201cchasing gangster chickens\u201d experiences or maybe it should be about the \u201cneed to recoup from the chicken coop\u201d. The inspiration could have come from my drive home and the 45-minute traffic hold-up on I-35 North with the subject matter being about \u201cpatience\u201d! <\/p>\n

But, the inspiration came when a text message came in from a dear friend: \u201cI am texting you because we need serious prayer warriors. We just got some very bad news about my brother. The doctor just told them he has a large mass in his colon and liver and it looks like there are other spots throughout his abdomen. We need a miracle touch from God and I know that I can count on you for some serious prayer. Thank you so much.\u201d <\/p>\n

I loved my friend\u2019s resolve \u2013 she knew what to do \u2013 call in prayer partners and prayer warriors. I prayed and then I remembered a similar message that our family received years ago. <\/p>\n

We had just received a telephone call with the diagnosis from my husband\u2019s doctor: \u201cYou have Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma that has metastasized to a tumor that is impinging on your spinal cord. It\u2019s a life or death matter. You must have immediate surgery or you could be paralyzed.\u201d Ron, my husband, being an in-charge guy, and not moved by anxiety or concern, declined the offer for the surgery. He wanted to research what he\u2019d been told, get a second opinion, seek counsel and take his time. But the doctor was insistent on aggressively moving forward. So what do you do when you don\u2019t know what to do? The answer is: PRAY. We prayed for God\u2019s wisdom, His strength, His guidance, and most of all, His peace. <\/p>\n

At the same time, we were speaking words from God’s Word: “Our God, our Healer. He is our Prince of Peace. By His stripes, we are healed. We trust in you, Father God. We will not be afraid.\u201d Then, we sought counsel from our children via a family phone-call meeting. We prayed for discernment for the course of action we should take. Then, each of us expressed our confidence in God as the Great Physician. It was apparent that we shouldn\u2019t wait as we had been instructed by the doctor. Ron said, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s do it! Call the doctor!\u201d We did and within the next 48 hours, he had a successful surgery. <\/p>\n

Over the next 7 months, when the questions came again, we repeated the same steps: Pray, speak God\u2019s Word, seek Godly counsel, pray some more. We found that we were closer to God during this time of crisis because we were acutely aware of our desperate need for Him. And quite frankly, that\u2019s a great place to be. In Him, we found the answers to our questions and peace in our hearts because we sensed His presence with us. <\/p>\n

The answer to this question and many more: \u201cWhat do you do when life gives you an upsetting surprise?\u201d or \u201cWhere can I turn when there’s no one else I can turn to?\u201d or \u201cWho can I lean on when there\u2019s no one to lean on?\u201d or \u201cWhere can I hide until the storms pass over?\u201d\u2026.. The answer to all of these questions is found in ONE SIMPLE TRUTH. We go to Him who is our solid rock, our refuge, our shelter, our friend. That\u2019s WHO, WHAT, WHEN and WHERE to ALL questions we have for our today and our tomorrows. \u201cGod is our VERY PRESENT HELP in trouble and in time of need.\u201d Psalm 46:1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I take my daily FB postings very seriously. Throughout the day I pay attention to people, places and things that could potentially be the inspiration for me. As I was driving home from Austin after two weeks away, I was thinking about my post for today. I was thinking that maybe I should write a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2354,2355,2356,44,2357,2358,2359,2360,2361,2362,2363,2364,2365,2366,1493],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-great-physician","tag-guidance","tag-miracle-inspiration","tag-peace","tag-pray","tag-prayer-partner","tag-prayer-warrior","tag-psalm-461","tag-seek-godly-counsel","tag-speak-gods-word","tag-strength","tag-very-present-help","tag-what-do-you-do","tag-what-to-do","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8316,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions\/8316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}