Update on Barbara
Update on Barbara.
This week’s sessions with her two counselors were significant, with breakthrough insights in each one. These helped her to be able to accept painful truth, to realize some lies she’d accepted about herself and to be able to effectively replace them with truth.
The enemy, of course, did not let those advances go uncontested. The next night, Barbara fell while getting back into bed during the night and bruised her back on the night stand. Painful as this was (as continues to be), there was nothing broken, no serious damage. And, in the Lord’s timing, the visiting nurse was scheduled to come the next day, confirming that there was no damage and giving us help in treating her pain.
It is a battle, but the Lord is with us and we are praying on the armor every morning. Thank you again for your prayers.
Answers!
Thank you so much for all who posted replies to my request for prayer for yesterday’s session. We appreciate your encouraging words and support.
The Lord answered your prayers wonderfully and more widely than I had expected in the midst of some intense spiritual warfare.
1. On Wednesday we had an appointment with one of Barbara’s two counselors. We tried to do it by skype, but there were technical problems (spiritual warfare), so the counselor drove right down to our house when she could have just postponed it. During the session she gave us a very simple and powerful model for changing ones’ thought patterns concerning a core belief. And Barbara accepted that, an important step.
2. Then yesterday we went to Barbara’s other counselor, in spite of the fact that Barbara was having a very bad day and strongly did not want to go (spiritual warfare). The session did not go the way I’d hoped, with the counselor delving into what I thought were irrelevant points, seemingly wasting time. But in the last few minutes, the Lord exposed the foundational cause of Barbara’s depression and guided the counselor in describing it in a powerful way that Barbara could grasp.
3. And then the most important answer: Barbara accepted that painful and distressing truth, one she had buried for many years and didn’t want to face—this is a huge step forward which potentially opens the way for real progress.
4. Then shortly after returning from the counseling session, Barbara’s visiting mental health nurse came. Barbara shared the discovery of the foundational cause (big step forward for her to be open and share something so painful), and the nurse very strongly affirmed that truth and encouraged Barbara in wholeheartedly embracing it.
Now we have to move forward together, applying what the Lord has provided in information and the model for changing her thought patterns, disempowering the source of her depression. As we discussed this, the Lord brought out how the “irrelevant” things her counselor was dealing with yesterday turned out to be important tools in helping Barbara work things through.
Praise God for His faithfulness in answering your prayers powerfully, specifically and graciously. To Him be the credit and glory for this. He has placed us on a path to freedom.
We are on the path, but, of course, are not out of the swamp yet, so need your continued prayers for daily progress. Pray with us for Barbara’s continued cooperation, for the Lord to bring healing and growth, with new thought patterns developing out of consistent rejection of lies and negatives, replacing them with truth and positives.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Warmly, Steve
