Don’t Lose Heart - Martin Wiles

Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up…Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16 NLT

No matter the battle, he never gave up.

When he was just a young boy, my middle brother developed asthma. Although the doctor put him on medicine, some of my brother’s attacks were so dramatic that Mom or Dad had to make trips to the hospital with him where doctors and nurses placed him under an oxygen tent until the attack passed. The doctor once told Mom he should have died, but he fought instead.

Eventually, he somewhat outgrew the asthma, but he couldn’t outgrow what came later. A couple of years before he turned forty, one of his thumbs began twitching, and he started dragging one of his feet. The testing seemed to go on forever, but at forty, they finally diagnosed him with Parkinson’s.

His was more aggressive than normal. Doctors suggested a surgery designed to give him more dopamine and slow the tremors. The first surgery went well…until infection set in, and the doctor had to remove what he had implanted in my brother’s body.

One year later, after his body had healed of all infection, the doctor told my brother they could try again. Things seemed to go well this time until my brother had a wreck on the way to work. He lay in the vehicle all night, not able to move due to injuries to his spinal cord. The cause of the wreck? Infection again. Another surgery. And a greater battle. Now, he had to learn to walk again.

My brother has faced many life battles. But nothing has led him to lose heart. He’s a fighter who never gives up.

My brother mimicked Paul who also never gave up. After meeting the risen Lord and accepting His commission to take the gospel to unbelievers, Paul faced persecution and misunderstanding. Attacks came from all sides. But he never lost heart. He kept going until Roman officials removed his head.

Life is never fair. Sin has altered the good world God originally created. Nor does God plan for us to live a totally carefree and pain-free life. All good—with no bad and no challenges—makes us weak, not strong.

Through the ups and downs of life, God never leaves us. Our job is to trust and keep moving. We may not know the why of our situation, but God does, and He is perfectly capable of getting us to the other side of whatever we face. When we live by faith…as we must do…the trials of life won’t get us down for very long.

Don’t let the troubled times cause you to lose heart.

Prayer: Father, give us courage so we never lose heart when the times are tough. 

Tweetable: Have you lost heart? 

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Breathless - Martin Wiles

Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Genesis 2:7 NLT

His chest heaved as he gasped for the breath he could not find.

Born with asthma, my middle brother’s attacks soon began to come with regularity. Occasionally, the attacks were severe. As my brother gasped for breath, Dad would scoop him up and cart him to the emergency room while Mom stayed with me and my youngest brother. Nurses placed him in an oxygen tent and doctors examined him. When the attack passed, they sent him home. His asthma prevented him from playing sports in school, and more than thirty years later he still has to take medicine so he can do manual exercise without encountering breathing problems.

I watched the same breathless gasps with my daughter. While in high school, she developed exercise-induced asthma. Although she could once run track and cross country with no problem, now she couldn’t. Cross country was out of the question, and short track runs brought on attacks that led her to breathless gasps. Only inhalers, paper sacks, and cold washcloths drove them away.

There was a time when everything was breathless—animals and humans. If not for the power of God’s Spirit, it still would be. God instilled breath into the animals. Then He created man and breathed the breath of life into him. Apart from that breath, man would have remained a lifeless lump of dust.

The story of man’s beginning reminds me I’m not the author of my life. I didn’t begin it, I don’t preserve it presently, and I won’t end it. As God continually breaths His breath into me, I live. When He decides to stop, I will too. I’m not a product of fate or chance but a purposeful human being created by an almighty God.

I came from dust and will return to dust when I die, but in the meantime, God has work for me to do. My worth is based on who made me, not anything within me. Since God made me and breaths His life into me, I can accomplish whatever He created me to do. That plan may change many times over the course of my lifetime, but with each new direction, He breathes the strength I need into my body.

Remember your Creator, accept His breath, and do what He made you to do.

Prayer: Father, thank You for the breath of life which allows us to accomplish what You created us to do.

Tweetable: Are you doing what God created you to do?

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