When You’re a Caregiver, You Need to Learn to Praise God
Part of learning to live with a chronic illness is learning to praise God.
As you care for yourselves or a loved one with a chronic illness, often you grow tired and weary. As you tire, you should focus on our Heavenly Father.
The Lord God will strengthen and renew you as you praise him.
My Story
As my wife adjusted to living and dealing with cancer, she started using a term and phrase I grew to loathe as much as she hated the words. The words were new normal. The oncologist reminded her she needed to adjust and adapt to her new normal of medicines, treatments, therapies, and dietary changes.
She just wanted her old life back. She wanted a return of the life she was living before cancer. Unfortunately, like the pre-US Civil War old south, to use a dated illustration from Margret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind,” her past life was gone with the wind, never to return. That made us both sad and broke our hearts.
I tried helping my wife adjust to the new normal as best I could. Like her, I also wanted the old routine back. I learned to take each day as it came. While I planned for the long term, I dwelt on the good of today instead of the unknowns of tomorrow. I somehow was able to trust God for them.
Bible Verse
Exodus 15:2 (KJV), “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”
What the Verse Means
We get our strength from the Lord. We should praise God.
Why should we praise him?
- The Bible commands it. “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord,” Psalm 150:6 KJV.
- Praise enables access to God. “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name,” Psalm 100:4 KJV.
- Praise is where God lives. “Enthroned upon the praises of Israel,” Psalm 22:3 KJV.
- Praise chases away despair. “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.,” Isaiah 61:3 KJV.
- God is worthy of it. “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” Psalm 145:3 KJV.
Praise is the Lord God’s only. The tribute isn’t to magnify man but to praise the Lord.
Pray Using Scripture
- I confess that the Lord is my strength and my song;
- The Lord is my salvation.
- The Lord is my God.
- I praise Him and will exalt the Lord God.
- Lord God, teach me to praise you and give God the glory.
Responding to God’s Hope
- Remember your old normal. Release the past to God. It’s okay to let go of it. It may never return. Cling to the good memories and traditions you ’ve built over the years. List three.
- Adjusting to the new normal is hard. List two new things in your daily routine. Ask God to help you with them. An example may be making sure your loved one has their medications filled and takes them.
- In spite of your caregiving responsibilities, list five things you are thank you today. Examples would be you can care for your loved one, you still have your loved one where you and your family can see and spend time with them. For what are you thankful?
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Photo Source: Pixabay
This article is from the forthcoming book, “Hope for the Caregiver: A Biblical Alternative.”
