Thankful for His Answered Prayer

Well, today the saga continued with the healing of my allergic reaction to the Virgina Creeper. I hope you aren't getting tired of the lessons God is teaching me through this experience, cause I have to admit, I am getting tired of living through the experience. Monday, I finally got an appointment with the dermatologist who put be back on a mega dose of steroids and changed my antihistamine because the Benadryl quit working. I made sure to call my internist to confirm that the hormones I am taking would not cause a reaction to the new medicines. My rash is still spreading and the nightly itching episode is the norm as well as 4 hours of sleep, if I am lucky. Today was the day I was suppose to call the dermatologist and let him know how I was doing. When I explained my current symptoms with the addition that my throat is tightening and feeling swollen, I received instructions to go straight to the Urgent Care. Anaphalaxis Shock was a concern. So off I went to sit in the Urgent (?) Care for 90 minutes. The problem was my blood pressure. The steroids had increased my blood pressure to 169 over 109. Now I am on temporary high blood pressure medicine to allow me to stay on my steroids. What a process.
Nine days ago, my face swelled up, and on that day I prayed and asked God to heal me. It is still my prayer today. So that creates questions that we all have to answer at one point or another. Does God not care? Why isn't He healing me? He heals others, why not me? Is it that big of a deal to God? Satan would love to trip us up with these questions.
See, I am okay with whatever God wants to do and I believe He answered my prayer whether I am healed today or not, because after I ask for God to heal me, I surrendered to whatever His plan is for me. I asked Him to empower me to go along whatever path He takes me on. I trust Him totally for whatever the outcome is because I know that He goes before me and He prepares my way. I will grow in dependency and faith as we walk together, whatever He chooses to do.
After every prayer we lay before the Lord, we have a choice to make. We will choose one, or the other. We will trust, or we will worry. Our choice marks our prayer as a 'trusting prayer' or a 'worrying prayer'. When we trust the Lord, we trust Him with our life, not just for the answer we think is best. When we worry, we go through the motions of giving it to Him, but we want to call the outcome. We are afraid that he won't give us what we want. We start to worry that maybe He won't love us enough to give it to us, or maybe we haven't been good enough. The focus is on whether He will give us what we want. Which kind of prayer do you think is pleasing to God? Which kind of prayer do you think gives us peace? I hate the way worrying prayers make me feel. I am done with worrying prayers. I have determined to trust the Lord for whatever direction He leads. It doesn't mean I can't tell him what I would like to happen, but the real prayer is always for His presence in the circumstance. He always answers that prayer! Though this is my 12th day with this allergy and its affects, He has helped me, taught me, strengthened me, and made His presence known to me. That is a true blessing and one that feels my heart with thankfulness.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when test and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help.

James 1: 2-5