This is not a competition.

Just the other day I was conversing with a close friend who’s like a sister to me, and as she was explaining to me the fact that she had to have major surgery, when, why, and where, she also proceeded to ask me to pray for her. After that conversation, it was the details she went into concerning some of her fellow church members and other people she knew, loved, cared for, and respected in the Lord that had suddenly got me very upset and concerned. She said, “I deal with chronic pain every day and sometimes it shows on my face, not intentionally or on purpose but some days are worse for me than others, and people will come up to me saying that I need to pray over myself, ask God to heal my body, I must not be doing something right if He (God) hasn’t healed me yet, or asking for healing and complaining in the same sentence isn’t going to cut it with God.” I was in shock after she told me this. I mean, of course, it seems that they were just trying to encourage her in the Lord on the one hand right, but on the other it seems that judgments were being thrown and they were acting holier than though, especially when she said they told her that their praying to God to heal their pain worked. Look, it’s not a competition out here when it comes to God. We are all just men and women after God’s own heart. Why would we have to try, show, and prove that we’re holier than our fellow brother or sister to prove that hey, “Look at me, I am better in the Lord than you, or because you don’t move how I move in the Lord, or speak how I speak in the Lord, you’re beneath me, or you’re fake, or you do not belong in our Godly clique because you don’t…(do this or do that)” Are you kidding me?

In the NIV Bible, it says, “For God does not show favoritism,” which means it doesn’t matter to God who you try to be, or want to appear to be to others, He searches the heart, and He knows each one of us better than we know our own ourselves. God invites ALL of us to the banquet. The broken and forgotten, the lost and afraid, the hurt and the bitter, the angry and the sad, and the forgotten along with the best and the brightest. We are all called to share in the divine revelation of God’s healing love as experienced through the saving grace of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Truth be told, I also go through and deal with chronic pain as my good friend/sister in Christ Jesus does, and I totally relate to everything she was saying. As she was shedding tears, it only sparked my anger and refueled my convictions with this issue all over again. See, I stand strongly in the fact that while those holier than though folks who are on the outside looking in proclaim and feel like us Christians who aren’t on their level is because we again, aren’t doing something right or doing what it is they do, are blinded by their own abuse of the Godly power they have. I’ll talk about this more in depth in a few. I comforted my sister in Christ by reminding her about Paul who had a thorn in his side and wanted God to remove it, but God wouldn’t, just like me. I told her, I’ve been dealing with my pain for twenty plus years, I use to cry out and ask God why, I use to get angry because I felt that it wasn’t fair, getting taken out of work at a young age, wondering how in the world was I going to take care of three young children, ages 7, 5, and 3 at the time, while that same year, 2006, their dad was shot and killed. Me and my families’ trials and tribulations were just getting ready to truly start and I was going to be tested in so many ways. But fast forward to today, and I continuously tell God, “Thank you,” because looking back, I am still here and I am still standing, maybe I am a little bent, but I am no longer broken, when many of my loved one’s and good friends have passed on. I have nothing to complain about. I told my sister in Christ; we have nothing to complain or be ashamed about. God has heard our prayers, and the fact that He hasn’t healed us isn’t because He can’t, it’s because He knew and knows that we can endure it, He chose us to carry it for a reason, and this is because it’s a part of our testimony. In the beginning, like the first four years after I was diagnosed, I became convinced that I was no longer able to do anything, I went back into severe depression, I stayed isolated from my family and stopped going to family gatherings, church, attending special events for my children at school, I mean, I was ashamed, especially having to walk with a cane.

The thing is, God would not turn me loose. He never abandoned or forsook me. He was right by my side the whole time and he gave me the strength to overcome my severe depression and isolation. If our praises aren’t like your praises, or our stomp isn’t like your stomp, or even our shouts, then keep your distance you holier than though Christians because we don’t do it for you (people or the church), we do it for our God and Jesus and for everything He has done for us. If God healed you, I am going to praise Him with you and for you, if He didn’t heal me, don’t treat me as if I’m contagious, because again, it’s all in His hands and I trust the process. Jesus surely is the cure. He tells us, “His grace is sufficient, and His strength is made perfect in weakness.” So, even when me and my sister in Christ are weak, God is our strength. My brothers and sisters in Christ, He is your strength too. Romans 8:28 of the NIV Bible says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” God is letting us know that as a Christian our suffering can be redemptive but only because of His availability in the suffering.

When I suggested that these holier than though Christians are blinded by their own Godly power that they have, I meant that instead of looking down on their fellow Christian brother or sister in Christ, they should encourage and uplift them, stop acting as if it’s a competition. So, like okay, you can quote the Bible better than her, better than him, suggest tips to them that helped you to better understand the Bible instead of looking down your nose at that person. So, you can pray stronger and better than that person, possibly longer, now it has become a competition with you and for you, a show and tell, but understand, the next person after you to pray had a shorter prayer but it was more sincere and from the heart, it wasn’t about show and tell for them, who do you think God is most pleased with in this moment? I’m telling you right now you holier than though Christians, get your priorities right. We are not all called to walk the same path in Jesus. What’s for you is for you and what’s for me is for me. To my good friend/sister in Christ, keep your head up and stay praying for those who act like it’s a competition, because despite this, God loves us all and we are love. No one is better than the next person and vice versa.

Until next time folks��!!