Do Miracles Still Happen??
From the start of 2022, I just did not feel right. I’m usually high energy but this was not the case. February came along and I started having digestive issues. I was monitoring what I ate and trying to eat smaller servings. This may have helped some but did not solve the issue.
Then came March. I was having more pain and on Friday evening, March 11th, I experienced the most pain and thought if this does not let up, I’ll go to ER tomorrow and let them check me out. The next day, I felt better as far as the pain went but I was tired and rested most of the day. On Sunday the 13th, I could hardly keep my eyes open. All I wanted to do was sleep and Michelle took my temperature which was around 101º. We went to the ER. They immediately did a CT on me and realized I had a ruptured appendix, which I now know probably happened on Friday evening.
The Canton ER immediately transferred me to Christus Trinity Mother Francis Hospital in Tyler where they put me on two different IV antibiotics. I never saw a doctor that night and all day Monday. On Tuesday morning, the trauma surgeon came in and told me she could not believe how strong I was being 69 years old. She told me 95% of men my age would not have survived 24 hours.
She also told me they did not want to do surgery right away because if they did, they would have to remove a portion of my colon and other tissue, because I was so inflamed by the infection. She said all the tissue in the area, including other organs, blood vessels and veins were pretty much stuck together with the inflammation and it could be a massive, life-changing surgery.
If I was not so healthy, they would have no choice but since I looked healthy and my vitals were good, the surgeons were going to hold off. I am so thankful for the wisdom of these doctors who gave me a chance at letting my body make a comeback.
I was in the hospital for nine days. During this time in the hospital, they ran another three of four CT’s on me. There was no clear abscess they could detect so they could go in and drain the toxins, so they sent me home and scheduled me for another CT in six days. I was not on any antibiotics because they wanted to see if an abscess would form. Within three days, I was back in ER because my temperature went up again and my WBC was up over 20K. The norm for white blood cells is 4.5K - 11K. Again, I was admitted to the same hospital. The next day after another CT the doctor came in and said they could see a very small abscess but did not know if they could actually drain it or not. If they could do this, they would put in a very small tube to drain the toxins out of my abdomen. On the second day (actually 11th day in hospital), a radiologist went into my side with a robotic needle with a CT and sonogram to guide him and he was unsuccessful. He strongly recommended to the doctors that they go ahead and proceed with the surgery. I was not improving.
The next morning, my doctor came into my room and spoke with Michelle and me. (We had already made up our minds that if they were going to suggest surgery, I was in God’s hands and all would be made good.) The doctor told me that judging from the CT, they should do surgery on me but then told me that she was looking at a healthy man with close to perfect vital statistics. She smiled at me and said she thought I was strong enough to overcome the infection. So she released me to be discharged the following morning with 10 days of oral antibiotics.
The following morning I was sitting in the lobby of the hospital waiting for Michelle to pick me up and I was having a cup of coffee and praying. I asked the Lord what He had in store for me. Was He going to heal me?
Immediately after the question, everything went black for a moment and then I experienced myself standing on a dirt street and there was a man walking in front of me. Then I heard a commotion behind me and there was a group of men who was leading a blind man by the hand. When they called out to Jesus, the man in front of me turned around. Jesus took the man by the hand and brought him out of the city and He spit in his eyes and asked him what he saw. The man said he could see people, but they were like trees. In other words, they were blurry. Jesus had the man look up and then asked him again and he could then see clearly. (Mark 8:22-26)
I asked the Lord what this meant and immediately I knew. I was being taken out of the city and going home. The blind man said he could see but could not make things out because everything was ‘blurry’. Then Jesus told him to look up and then everything became clear. I believed the Lord was showing me that the next CT was going to be clear.
I went home and for eight days, I rested and spent most of my time looking up to the Lord, playing my guitar and worshiping him. I even thanked Him for allowing the vibrations and frequencies of the guitar pressed on my abdomen to bring healing. To top it all off, we get home from the hospital later that day and we have an order on our website for an item that has not sold for over a year on the internet. Each one of my designs have a name. The piece this lady from California ordered is called HEALED! I do not consider this a coincidence. I believe God spoke to us that this was a done deal.
Every time I got a CT while I was in the hospital, the scans were so murky the doctors could not make out anything. It was all one big mess. Then eight days after being home on oral antibiotics, I went in for another CT and later that morning, had a visit with the doctor. She came in and told me the CT was amazingly cleared up. I was thinking she was going to schedule me for surgery to go in and patch up where my appendix had ruptured. I questioned her to see when she wanted to see me again and she told me there was no reason to see me again. In other words, I was healed!
I survived a ruptured appendix and ended up having NO SURGERY! I would consider that a major miracle.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge HIM in all your ways and HE shall direct your paths. Proverb 3:5-6
Blessings to you and your families!
David & Michelle Broussard
Offense is rampant in our society today. We have access to 24-hour non-stop news and social media creates a platform for anyone to be a preacher, prophet or politician. People’s opinions cause division and offense which lead to damaged relationships. We begin seeing people as their opinions rather than looking at them as God sees them.
People hold an offense against someone they have never met, they get offended by what someone posted on Facebook or any other social media platform or they get offended when they learn a friend or family member is of the opposite political party.
The Word of God is the plumb line for Christians. In John 13:34-35 Jesus instructs us to love one another as He has loved us and we are to be known for our love for each other. Offense creates a breach in relationships and we are no longer known more for the political or religious memes that we post on Facebook than our love for each other.
Dr. Henry Cloud says “Relationship or bonding… is at the foundation of God’s nature. Since we are created in His likeness, a relationship is our most fundamental need, the very foundation of who we are. Without relationship, without attachment to God and others, we can’t be ourselves.”
Do you become offended when you discover people believe differently than you do? Have you lost friends or family because of a political difference? Is being right more important to you than your relationships?
How do we love one another? In Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus says that we are to love the Lord God with all our heart and love our neighbors as ourselves. How is your relationship with God? How is your relationship with yourself?
Many people believe God is sitting up in heaven like Zeus with his lightning bolt ready to strike us if we do wrong. The truth is God is ready to love us even when we do not believe we are worthy of love. Is it possible that if we focus on receiving God’s love we will be less critical of ourselves and others? Is it possible that the reason why our society is so easily offended is that we are not grounded in the love of the Father? Are you angry with God?
Forgiveness is the key to overcoming an offense that is either real or imagined. Forgive those who have wronged you, forgive those who believe differently than you and forgive those who have offended you via social media. It is also important to forgive yourself. The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:31-32 that we are to put away bitterness, anger and evil speaking and be kind to each other, forgiving one another as we have been forgiven.
Let’s choose to forgive and then forgive again. Ask the Lord to give you His eyes to see people as He sees them. Look at a person’s heart not their outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). I want to be known as someone who loves well, not someone who becomes offended easily. What about you?
Love is the best defense for offense!
Recently I was thinking about Hope and how easy it is to hop onto the downward spiral of hopelessness with the chaotic political climate in our world. As believers in Christ we are supposed to be in the world and not of the world but how do we remain hopeful in a very challenging world?
What is Hope?
What is hope? Do you ever find yourself telling another person that “you hope things work out for them” or “you hope they have a good day”? Do you consider yourself a hopeful person? Do you actually believe that things will work out for good or do you just say it out of habit?
Romans 5:3-4 (NKJV) says that as we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produce perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. As I read this passage, I realized that according to the Bible, hope is the end-product of trials and tribulations. Strong’s Concordance defines Hope as the expectation of something good and joyful or believing in The One who is the Foundation of Hope. So, what is Hope and how do we get it?
Several factors influence our belief that God is a loving God. If your earthly father (or a male authority figure) abused you, was angry with you, or loved you based on your performance, we tend to fear God and not believe His unconditional love for us. We tend to transfer both the strengths and weakness of our earthly father to our Heavenly Father. If your father was gentle and loving, you tend to believe the same about God. If your father was a harsh taskmaster we tend to see God that way. If your father was distant you may have problems relating to Father God.
For believers to have a joyful expectation of something good happening, we must first believe that Father God is good and that He loves us. The love of Father God is the foundation on which hope stands. It is easier for people to believe that God is sitting up in Heaven like Zeus with his lightning bolt ready to strike us if we do wrong. Another common misconception is that He is a taskmaster with a checklist and He checks off when we do enough or act the right way. Sadly, many people combine the two views to see God as Zeus with a checklist.
4 ways to have hope in hopeless situations.
H – Heart
What is the state of your heart? Have life events caused you to be jaded and not believe that you are worth loving? Do you tend to shut down and block people out of your life in order to protect yourself? If so, spend some time with your Heavenly Father. First John 3:20-21 says that if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. If our hearts do not condemn us then we have confidence in God.
When we are tempted to believe that we are not worth loving or that no one will ever love us remember what God says about you, remember He is greater than our hearts and knows ALL things. Zephaniah 3:17 says that God rejoices over you with singing, can you envision that? Zechariah 2:8 and Deuteronomy 32:10 say that you are the apple of His eye! Write down these truths from scripture and meditate on them daily. I write mine on index cards and keep them with me at all times. Instead of scrolling thru Facebook, I scroll thru scriptures and I know that there is no fake news in the Word of God!!
O – Overcoming
Do you know that we were created to be an overcomer? First John 5:4-5 says that “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus in the Son of God?”
The Greek word most often translated ‘overcome’ in the New Testament comes from the word nike which means ‘to get the victory’. In Romans 8:37, Paul says that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:38-39, that he is ‘persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities. nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, ,nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Choose to believe that you can overcome any situation because you can do all things through Christ!!
P – Perseverance
Merriam-Webster defines perseverance as a continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition. When life gets tough just keep on going! Some seasons of life seem to be full of trials and tribulations. According to Romans 5:3-4 tribulations produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58 that we are to be steadfast, unmovable and that our labor is not in vain.
During these times of testing, I find the Psalms to be a source of both comfort and encouragement. Psalm 130:5 says that “I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait and in His word do I hope.” Psalm 40 is an excellent text for standing firm in your faith during trials. Psalms 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are excellent prayers in times of despair. We must stand on the Word of God during times of testing, have our shield of faith in one hand and the sword of the Spirit in the other (Ephesians 6:14-18).
When you feel like quitting remember that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witness and we are to run with endurance the race that is set before us while keeping our eyes of Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:1-3). You can do it!
E – Encounter
God did not design us to face troubles alone. So often we believe that it is us against the world and in the true American spirit, we try to be as self-sufficient as possible. Sadly this results in us isolating ourselves and believing that we are responsible for everything and everyone. When Peter jumped out of the boat to walk on the water towards Jesus, he walked on water as long as his eyes were fixed upon Jesus. When he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked at the water, he began to sink. During our times of testing we must encounter Jesus daily to continue walking forward. Do not take your eyes of your Savior!
Spend time with Him daily. As I previously mentioned, I keep index cards with me so that I continually have scripture with me. Set a reminder in your phone to read scripture and pray. Mark off time on your calendar and make daily devotion a regular part of your day.
When life seems to be spiraling out of control, I say a simple reminder to myself that Beth Moore shared in her book, Believing God. I have used this reminder for several years. Repeat the 5 phrases listed below to refocus your eyes on Jesus and His truth rather than what you see or feel.
God is who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says that I am.
I can do all things though Christ.
God’s word is active and alive in me.
Whatever you choose to do, do it expecting for the Creator of the Universe to meet you – He always does.
My prayer for you is that the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13)
What is hope?
3 Practical Ways to Find Hope
During a severe health crisis and recent hospitalization, I was at a very low point in my life. I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted.
After years of ongoing physical, financial, and emotional struggles, I began to wonder if God was still there. Does He hear my prayers? Does He see me and does He really even care?
Isn’t God supposed to answer the cries of our hearts? Was He not listening or, even worse, was He ignoring me? If so, what hope could I possibly have for my struggles to end?
I became desperate for hope. I knew that I was on the edge of hopelessness and despair, but as a Christian and a counselor, I didn’t want to admit it because Christian counselors are not ‘supposed’ to feel this way.
Some friends invited my husband and me to see the movie The Pilgrim's Progress. In the movie, the citizens of Vanity Fair are about to martyr the main character named Christian. As Christian is sitting in jail awaiting his pending death, a character named Hope arrived to help Christian escape from prison and death. As Christian continues on his journey to the Golden City, Hope never left him.
This movie highlighted the importance of hope in my life. Hope is important for the battles we face. Hope is needed for our daily lives and navigating all the life situations that we encounter.
After this realization about the importance of hope, I began to study hope. I wanted to understand it, and most importantly, find it.
My personal mission is to help those who feel hopeless, abandoned, unloved, and unseen to find encouragement, comfort, and, most importantly - HOPE.
Definitions of hope
Dictionary
According to Merriam-Webster, hope is both a verb and a noun. We can have hope (noun), which is the desire or belief for something to happen or be true, "I have hope today will be a good day." We can hope (verb) by wanting the desire or belief to be true, "I hope you have a good day today."
Bible
Strong’s Concordance defines hope biblically as the joyful, serene, and confident expectation of eternal salvation.
Scripture defines hope in two ways.
A Process
A Person
Hope as a Process
Romans 5:1-5 shows hope to be the endpoint of tribulations.
"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
According to this passage, hope is the endpoint of tribulations. In other words, tribulations produce hope. In theory, we should be VERY hopeful!
Hope as a Person
The Apostle Paul calls Jesus Christ our hope in 1 Peter 1:3 and 1 Timothy 1:1.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1 Timothy 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.
Hope is both a process and a Person.
Psychology
In 1991, according to Psychology Today, psychologist Charles R. Snyder and his colleagues came up with Hope Theory. According to their theory, the person who has hope has both the will and determination to achieve their goals and a set of different strategies available to reach their goals.
Put simply: hope involves the will to get to the end. A person who has hope will utilize many ways to achieve their goals. The Hope Theory considers hope as a dynamic cognitive motivational system that aids in learning goals that Snyder shows be positively related to success in life.
Various scientific studies show that hope is the vehicle to get you to places in life that you never thought possible. Science agrees with the Word of God with hope being a confident expectation of a good outcome.
For our purposes, I will focus on the biblical aspect of hope.
Hope vs Faith Comparison
Hope and faith are not the same.
Hope is for the future, and faith is for the present.
Hope is in your mind, and faith is in your heart.
Hope and faith are not the same.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4, Paul speaks about the work of faith, the labor of love, and the steadfastness of hope.
Faith produces work or action (James 2:14 and James 2:26). It is not passive; it is alive and active.
Love produces labor or hard, sacrificial giving on behalf of others.
Hope is steadfast and developed by endurance and perseverance (Romans 5:1-5). Romans 8:25 says that we wait for hope with patience.
First Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” The steadfastness of hope is necessary for us to be able to perform the work of faith and the labor of love.
In 1 Peter 1:13, Peter tells us to rest, fix or place our hope completely on the grace brought by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Hope has a specific focus, while faith spurs us to action.
Hope is for the future and faith is for the present.
Hebrews 1:1-3 says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The word ‘substance’ in this passage means an underlying foundation. Faith is the bedrock on which hope is supported. Since faith is a substance, it is present right now.
Hope that one can see is not hope because we do not hope for what we see. (Romans 8:24-25) Proverbs 24:14 talks about a ‘future hope’ available for us if we find wisdom.
King David says that he would have despaired or lost hope unless he had believed that he would see the goodness of God in the land (Psalm 27:13). He would have lost hope unless he had faith. What keeps us from despair or hopelessness is not what we see in the present, but what we believe for the future.
In Derek Prince’s book, Unshakeable Hope, he says that faith is ultimately based on the Word of God and the fact that the whole universe was brought into being by the invisible Word of God.
Hebrews 3:6 says that we are” to hold onto our hope until the end.” Holding onto hope is not a passive inner expectation but a firm conviction based on our Faith in Jesus and His Word. Our hope for the future is based on our faith in the present because our faith is the substance or foundation of our hope.
Hope is in your mind and faith is in your heart.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Paul instructs us to be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love along with the helmet of the hope of salvation.
Proverbs 23;7 says that as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Jesus says that what defiles a man is in his heart (Matthew 15:18), while Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to guard our hearts diligently.
Given the importance of our heart for our faith, donning the breastplate of faith is vital. We must protect our hearts since faith resides there (Romans 10:10).
The helmet of the hope of salvation protects your mind. The thoughts we think are critical to our wellbeing. In Lamentations 3:21, Jeremiah, the prophet, mentions that recalling or thinking about God’s mercies and faithfulness bring him hope.
Paul, the Apostle, encourages us to think about good things (Philippians 4:8-9). He also tells us to renew our minds so that we may know the good, acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).
Renewing our minds is a requirement for believing that God’s thoughts are for you and He desires to give you a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11-13)
How to Find Hope
So, how do you find hope?
The good news is that according to Jeremiah 29:11-14, finding hope is possible; it only requires three things.
Believe God has good thoughts
Praying to God
Searching for Him with our whole heart
Jeremiah 29:11-13
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
In this passage, God says that He wants to give us a future and hope. He then goes on to say what will happen if we believe Him.
We will call upon Him and pray to Him.
He will listen to us.
We will seek Him
We will find Him if we search with all of our hearts.
There are two conditions required to receive the 2 promises mentioned in this scripture passage.
God says that He
will listen to us
will be found
IF we
Pray to Him
Search for Him with our whole heart.
These promises sound wonderful but what if we struggle believing that God is good? How does praying and searching for Him give us hope? Or what if we have been praying for our circumstances for a long time and have not had our prayers answered?
Three Practical Applications to Find Hope for Your Life
Believe God is Good
Praying
Seek God Relentlessly
Believe
Dr. Henry Cloud says that
"Relationship or bonding... is at the foundation of God's nature. Since we are created in his likeness, the relationship is our most fundamental need, the very foundation of who we are. Without relationship, without attachment to God and others, we can't be ourselves."
Dr. Tim Clinton and Dr. Gary Sibcy, in their book Attachments: Why You Love, Feel and Act the Way You Do, describe God as the ultimate attachment figure. We need God as the center of our emotional universe.
Drs. Clinton and Sibcy described 5 Criteria for a positive Attachment Relationship.
We seek proximity to the caregiver in times of trouble.
The caregiver provides a safe haven or a felt sense of security.
The caregiver provides a secure base from which to explore the world.
Any threat of separation induces fear and anxiety.
Loss of the caregiver induces grief and sorrow.
God, the Father, satisfies all these conditions if we let Him.
He is our ever-present help in times of trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
He is our refuge and fortress. (Psalm 91:2)
He is our Rock. (Psalm 62:2)
He will never leave us or forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
Without Him, we have no hope (Ephesians 2:12)
We must believe that God is good and has good thoughts about us, thoughts to give us a future and a hope. God, through Jesus Christ, made us co-heirs with Christ and has given us every spiritual blessing. I know it may not ‘feel’ like you are blessed, but that is when we need faith, the substance of things hoped for, not hopeful feelings, good vibes, or karma.
Beth Moore shared in her book, Believing God 5 phrases to refocus your eyes on Jesus and His truth rather than what you see or feel. I wrote these on an index card and placed it by my computer so it is visible to me throughout the day.
God is who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says that I am.
I can do all things through Christ.
God’s word is active and alive in me.
When we place our hope or thoughts on Jesus, we can declare the same thing as King David when he said that he would have despaired had he not believed in the goodness of God. (Psalm 27:13)
Pray
Praying is simple and yields powerful results yet it is a discipline that we often neglect..
Jesus spent time teaching His disciples to pray (Luke 11:1-13) and on many occasions He went to be alone to pray. I find it interesting that He never taught His disciples to preach but He did teach them to pray. How different would things be if we prayed more than preached? Sounds like an interesting future blog post.
In his classic book, On Prayer, EM Bounds says,
“Christ, who in this as well as other things is our Example, spent many whole nights in prayer. His custom was to pray much. He had his habitual place to pray. Many long seasons of praying make up his history and character. Paul prayed day and night. It took time from very important interests for Daniel to pray three times a day. David's morning, noon, and night praying were doubtless on many occasions very protracted. While we have no specific account of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, yet the indications are that they consumed much time in prayer, and on some occasions long seasons of praying was their custom.”
Martin Luther said that “much time spent with God is the secret of all successful prayer.”
According to scripture we are to pray:
About everything (Philippians 4:6-7)
Earnestly (Colossians 4:2)
Without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17)
Personally, I like simple direct prayers. I know that when my prayers have few words such as ‘Lord, help me!”, they are very effective. Another key for me is to find scripture relevant to my situation and pray the scripture the situation. This makes it very easy to pray and it helps me to not overthink on the situation. I believe God’s Word and apply it to my life.
Seek
The 3rd step in finding Hope is to seek God with all your heart and pursue Him relentlessly.
Where are you looking for hope? Do you place your expectation of hope in a prescription, alcohol, shopping or another person?
We must focus on Jesus, our Living Hope. He is the only Anchor for us. The world around us is changing at an alarming rate and what we thought we could count on having is no longer certain.
For many people their crutch of dependency is being pulled out from them. What are you leaning on to get you through the tough times?
It is necessary to forgo social media and many digital entertainment options. Preoccupation with worldly drama is not a solution to hopelessness. Jesus Christ is the solution.
The Real Housewives of Whatever City will not help you in the pit of despair. The political party of your choosing will not come to your rescue in a time of need. Social media does not give life and encourage. Jesus Christ is the only One who is with you wherever you are and is always willing to listen.
I encourage you to call out to Him today and seek Him with all your heart.
Conclusion
After spending quite a bit of time believing that I had lost hope, I realized that what I lost was not really hope. What I lost was a belief in me and my abilities. I believed that if I did everything right, then things would turn out the way I expected. Or if I just had more knowledge about a subject, then it would be much better. Or if I just worked harder, then things would be ok.
I placed my belief in me and it turns out that I am a poor substitute for hope. It took being in a position not to be able to rely on myself for things that forced me to let go of all that I held close. Self-sufficiency was my crutch of dependency.
I had no choice but to trust Jesus, the Living Hope.
When I started letting go of control, I saw God work in ways I never imagined. He sent workers to do His will in every situation. As I sat back and watched events unfold, I realized I was beginning to have hope. Hope was surfacing because of Jesus, not me.
I chose to believe His Word, and I found hope. I believe there is hope for you!
