Welcome to installment #5 in a series called Making Scripture Your Own. (Read intro post here.) Today’s author, Diana Rockwell, is a sweet woman I met through a Suzie Eller retreat several years ago. Her kindness and compassion shine through immediately upon meeting her, and I’m grateful she offered to be part of this series. I am loving seeing how specific verses become real—and sustaining—for each person in their own ways. Enjoy!
Do you struggle with health concerns? Most of my adult life, I’ve suffered from pain. Vice-gripping migraines rocked my world when I was younger. I became disabled, unable to work for two years. Returning to school, retrained to be a nurse, only to hurt my back. But for sheer determination, eight months after the injury, I returned to nursing, just in a different type of nursing. I persevere when pain is my constant companion.
I learned early on that I can do all things through Jesus Christ, who gives me strength. You might recognize this verse from Philippians 4:13. Yet I love my exercise verse. What is an exercise verse? It is a verse that motivates you to be a better person. This verse for me is Isaiah 40:31, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
When I think I can’t go one more step, I stop and say an arrow prayer, a 911 prayer, and I quote this verse, placing my hope in the Lord to renew my strength. Do I still have migraines, and do I still struggle with back pain? The migraines are not as intense as the headaches were in my youth, and my back hurts, but I can function. I await the day when I meet the Lord and can be pain-free and run. Because beloved, we are promised no tears and no pain in heaven. Until then, I can do all things through Jesus Christ, who gives me strength. Blessings.
DIANA ROCKWELL loves Jesus. She is a wife, a mother, and a grandmother who recently retired from her career as a nurse. Her weight loss story is in Your Life Still Counts by Tracie Miles; and she is a contributor to two devotional books. In addition to writing, she volunteers encouraging women in their walk with the Lord. She lives in Mansfield, Mo, where she plans to continue to write a blog at http://www.diana2rockwell.com. Her editor is her Westie named Tory.