Episode 015: Finding Hope in the Pause

This is the Promises of God Podcast and I’m your host, Tracie Rollins. This podcast is about you, your ability to hear and believe and take action on God’s promises in your life because all of God’s promises are yes and amen. Resources mentioned in today’s episode can be found on PromisesofGodPodcast.com. Now, let’s get started.

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode Number 15. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about choosing hope in both the good times and the bad, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible journaling ministries.com where you can learn more about Bible journaling with our free 10-day Bible journaling course. Today we’re talking about finding hope in the pause. Our verse for today is Romans 15:4, which I will read from the English Standard version. It says, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and the encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope. The laws of life are so difficult. I remember in March of 2018 I was walking the dogs with my husband and I usually walk the dogs in the morning, and I had walked the dogs earlier in that morning, but my husband came home and we thought, why not give them an extra walk So we both, the started walking, and we’re going around our usual route, and all of a sudden I tripped and I fell crashing down to the sidewalk and my knee got jammed along the way and I had twisted my leg in a way that was probably not the right way to twist it.

The next day I woke up and I really couldn’t move that leg. I don’t know how it was that I got home from that walk because it was definitely two to three blocks of walking after that that I had felt no pain at all. Like it was. I mean I had pain but it wasn’t like I couldn’t walk on it. It was more like pain from like a bruise that, that I must have. Um, when I hit the sidewalk, I must have got some injury. So I had felt that pain, but I was able to walk home and walk up the stairs. At this time I had a two story house in my room, was upstairs and walked upstairs and we got ready for the night and went back to, went to sleep. And when I woke up in the morning, I couldn’t move that light, that leg was so like it hurt to stand on it and I grabbed my cane because I had a rod from a previous surgery and just kind of use that to kind of get around for the next day and went, made an appointment to see my doctor. Actually it’s more of an orthopedic surgeon is I call him my doctor, but he’s actually a surgeon. It’s. He had been treating me for about 12 years and we came into the office and he takes x rays and he looked at it and he said, it’s broken. Here’s this for those of fracture or there’s little fracture line you showed me on the x-ray, and there’s a little fracture there. And it wasn’t like he could do anything. It’s, you know, you basically, it was, I guess it wasn’t big enough to put into any kind of cast or wasn’t, you know, it was just a little hairline fracture, but it was still painful to walk on it. And so I couldn’t walk on it and he gave me some crutches. And for I think six weeks I hobbled around on these crutches. Well, I was thinking after those six weeks that would be able to get back into walking again.

And so they came back to the office, and we did the x rays, and the um, the fracture was gone, so it had healed, but I still couldn’t walk very well. And in looking at the x rays, he looked at me, and he said, honey, it’s time, it’s time to do that knee replacement that we’ve been talking about that we’ve been putting off for so many years. And we had put off the surgery. We had a, had a different surgery in 2006 because the, uh, my knee had been giving out at that time. And so he did a separate surgery in hopes of postponing a total knee replacement surgery. And it worked for 12 years. But he said it was time to do it. I wasn’t quite ready for that. So I spent quite a few weeks after that working with physical therapists and trying to get my native somehow work without that.

I did some injections and went through quite a bit of work before finally realizing that he knew more than I do about my knee. And um, yeah, that I would have to get that surgery after all. So I’m still, I’m my point even telling you this is that I had part of walking was a journey like it was, is what I did every day is my fitness goal. It was one of the many things that I did. I would walk in the morning, I would ride bikes, I would go and do the elliptical at the gym. I actually had a membership at the time and I hadn’t met that membership for I want to say three to four years and I would use it. I was definitely consistent and using it was part of my fitness routine and there was a lot of different classes you could take that I will try to take. I even tried to take a spinning class, but that didn’t work out for me because obviously, I had problems with my knees. Um, but my plan was, was part of this fitness, right It was part of, you know, having fitness in my life and, and this was my plan was to be healthy and fit and not have problems with my body and unfortunately this plan that I have is, is still on pause as I recover from my total knee replacement surgery. So I guess what I’m saying is, is that it’s hard in the positive life. So in the cause of my dream to be fit and go back to the gym and be healthy, I have to just know that I’m in this, this waiting period and it’s through endurance and encouragement of scripture that I have hope. I know that I will be healed.

It is a promise that I believe in. I know that God’s going to provide that. It is in his timing and his will and in his way, and I’m doing the very best job that I can right now to be in his will, and I’m doing as much as I can to heal my knee. The following everybody is advice, listening and praying and doing all that. And it is just a pause. It is just a little weight, and I know that a year sounds like a long time to be waiting and yeah, to me it is a long time to be waiting. I’m quite impatient sometimes, especially when it comes to seeing everybody else walked frequently and wanting to do that myself so I can be quite impatient, but I know that you know, this is God’s plan and where I am, where he wants me to be in, and I wonder for you are, you know, do you, what do you do in the cause of your life. I mean, do you wait patiently? Are you sometimes frustrated and impatient like, as I can be? I think that I’m, I’m doing great now. I’m definitely in scripture and, and having hope in the Lord, but some days are hard, especially when there’s a lot of pain. Um, so for you, I mean, think about what you do in the pause of your life or the waiting periods. Take some time this week to write out a few verses that can encourage you during this time of waiting. I know in January I made a lot of verses in preparation for my surgery and so I need to go through each of those verses often to remind myself and to encourage myself and so that I can have hope in the Lord.

If you don’t yet feel the hope of God in your life, if you don’t have any hope in your life for that matter, I encourage you to invite God in your life today. If you know God and you just have strayed a little bit, and you feel that he won’t forgive you, don’t, don’t do that. He’ll forgive you. He loves you. Come back, you’re not promised tomorrow. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free- of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins and follow his will in your life and you will feel the love of God that surpasses all understanding. Waiting in a positive life is hard. It is so, so difficult, but as Romans 15:4 reminds us, it is through endurance and through the encouragement of scriptures that we truly might have hope. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next episode of the Promises of God. Bye now.

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