Do not despise this small beginning,

for the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the work begin…

Zechariah 4:10

“Do what you couldn’t do before and do it until you can do it easily.” I read this from a book on divine healing. I have heard similar exhortations before, but this time, I got it. I prayed about the issue of what I might do and picked one thing I have not been physically able to do in a very long time – yard work. I don’t particularly care for yard work, but I do like a nice yard to relax in. Our back yard had become anything but nice.  Between the overgrown garden and the dogs and the piles of things that seemed to grow exponentially every year, the yard was a mess.

I decided to put this teaching to the test and began the process of reclaiming our back yard. The first Saturday, I worked for about 3 hours, not non-stop but throughout the day. The work was hard and at the end of the day, I needed pain medication, badly.

The second Saturday, I worked about the same with the same ending, me on the sofa taking pain meds. But the third Saturday, I worked just as hard, for just as long but at the end of the day, I didn’t need any pain meds!  Not even Tylenol!  How exciting! The fourth Saturday was the same – no pain, then the rains came and I haven’t been out since! I am so encouraged by this. Chronic pain has kept me from so many things for so many years and to be able to do just this yard work is nothing short of a miracle. I am so grateful.  My yard is a long way from looking like my dream back yard, but it is now in the range of possible instead of impossible.

Sometimes, I think we are waiting on God to do the miraculous and He is waiting on us to accept the fact that the miraculous is a done deal. I still have pain, but as God leads, I am going to reclaim my life (and my yard) and do the things I couldn’t do when pain ruled my life. I will hike with my son and putter in my back yard and keep my home cleaner and groom my dogs better and…    Most of that is not too exciting but it is stuff I have not been able to take for granted for the past twenty years.  For the first time in a very long time, I see possibilities in my life instead of impossibilities. Only God could have turned that around.

If you could reclaim something, one step at a time, what would that be?  If your days became filled with possibilities instead of lack, beginning with your thinking, where could you go?  What could you do? What has been put on hold that might be taken back? 

Father, when I think of Your goodness, I am humbled and blessed and speechless. What can I say but thank You? Thank You. You are my healer God and I am amazed at how You continue to work in my life. What a wonder You truly are! Thank You for the yard work I have been able to do and the possibilities of reclaiming my life that are rising up in me. Please continue Your work in me and lead me in Your perfect will. In Jesus’s name, I pray, Amen.

Pic credit: diycorners.com