"YOU ARE MINE"

Having had aggressive multiple sclerosis for more than 30 years there have been many storms in my life. Episodic loss of physical function has involved much anguish. I have been incurably ill and disabled for half of my life. And yet despite the agony, Christ has  been with me throughout my journey. I have learned that tears of sorrow and tears of joy can flow simultaneously. It's a strange and wonderful mystery. 

In March of 1984, on the day I was diagnosed with MS, I remember lying in the hospital, and praying, “God, why this?”  He replied directly (I could swear it was audible): “You are mine.” I thought, What kind of answer is that?

What I think God was telling me at the very outset of this 30 year

journey with chronic degenerative illness was that I am His child through faith in Christ. Not even disease can strip that from me. Nothing slips by God’s attention. All things work for good for those who trust in God. I was being called to simply trust in Him and trust that this was working for my good.[1]

My journey would take me into a terrible fire of disease, but God would abide with me ― like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego I would not be alone. And as with Job, my flesh is being destroyed but my life has been spared. 

If we surrender our lives to Christ, he will lead us through life's

storms to our eternal home. We must pray, "Thy will be done" and mean it, content to accept whatever that may mean. We must trust that He is leading us toward the Celestial City, nothing slips by God's attention, the trials we face here are nothing compared to the glory that awaits us.[2]

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EuIIl7yHfc for David Haas, "You Are Mine", 4:57]

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[1]Roman 8.28.
[2]Romans 8.18.