The way God communicates still amazes me. He sends a message. I get it but not really. I plow back into life. He has to pull me back and remind me there is something he is trying to tell me.

On Sunday my devotional read: “Yes, come for rest. But stay for rest too…Come unto Me, not only for petitions to be granted but for nearness to Me…Be sure of My Help, be conscious of My Presence, and wait until My Rest fills you soul.” Portions of God Calling edited by A.J. Russell – September 25. The verse with the devotion was:

“Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11: 28 (KJV).

This started my week on Sunday morning. I was kind of like yeah, yeah, gotta go My Lord. Breakfast and duties ya know. It’s a nice thought…Off to church. See Ya!

I can sense Him shaking his Head with a low chuckle…as usual she doesn’t get it…yet. Have I got plans for her this week!

He had to know I was nervous about my upcoming doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. I’d done the testing for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). I didn’t sleep well on the nights before the appointment.

One thing I love about my internal medicine doc is she is positive. When she mentioned testing for RA she said, “We are going to test to rule out rheumatoid arthritis.” So I went in with an attitude that it would not be RA. I was nervous about what the next phase of testing would prove to be.

Well the test leaned towards no RA but, there were some inconsistent results in other tests of the series. So she is sending me to a Rheumatologist (Scary! I’m not sure I want to know. Ostrich moment!). My other regular test results came in better than they’ve been in months. But, I didn’t see that ray of hope at the time. Needless to say I had trouble sleeping on Tuesday night too.

On Monday and Wednesday I went to my Chiropractor. On Monday, She brought up how I needed rest. Where did that come from? I wonder… God always confirms the messages either from others, symbols, or reminders. I think she may suspect this: She was my confirmation of God’s message to find my rest in him. The message where I basically said, “That’s nice.”

I of course I gave the usual excuses. I can’t get to sleep. My mind races…Blah Blah…She instructs me to shut down the computer and actually get into bed on time (imagine that concept Milly). Then she wants me to breathe. I remember we talked about deep breathing months ago and it did help. But in true Milly style I stopped after a while.

She reminded me that we talked about breathing in God and breathing out stress. Then she said: “Breathe in God, Breathe out stress; Breathe in Faith, Breathe out doubt.”

My mind became a jumble of fast-moving thoughts. I couldn’t wait to get home and find the scripture in one of the Corinthian books…Something about Faith, Hope and what? Love? The greatest of these…

I was so excited I immediately looked it up on the concordance online. I found it right away: I Corinthians 13:13:

“So faith, hope and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (NABRE)

I found my breath:

Breathe in God, Breathe out stress;

Breathe in Faith, Breathe out doubt:

Breathe in Hope, Breathe out despair:

Breathe in Love, Breathe out Hate.

On Wednesday, I talked about the testing with my Chiropractor (She’s like my confidante doctor – I can tell her everything. shhh). I told her I was a bit down about the testing and she said something to the effect of, it’s only information and information is good. When I discussed the other test results I realized my diet was really working. My cholesterol, while still a little high, was 30 points lower than three months ago, and for the first time in three years my A1C (the diabetes test) was in the normal range. Wow! the news was really good. And I let my fearfulness shadow finding my joy.

You know…over the last couple of days, I found breathing exercise helped refocus my mind to rest in the Lord. With God supporting my Faith in him, giving me Hope for the future, and expanding Love in my heart, I am sleeping a lot better in the loving embrace of my creator. He breathes rest into my being restoring my strength.

Sweet dreams my blessed peeps,

Milly