Pray for those......

My grandmother has been in the hospital down in San Diego for several days having some tests done because of some medical problems she has been having. I have been calling her everyday since she has been there and have been able to speak to her every time except one when she was sleeping. When I spoke to her on Sunday, she sounded really weak, but better than previous days. She told me that they would be sending her home in the next couple days and that all of her tests came back with "good" results. I was pleased to hear all this.

Given the events that have occurred over the past several months with my family down in San Diego (see previous posts on the saga explaining this), they are not providing me with any kind of updates on my grandmother's condition. I simply have to try and get a hold of her myself to get a status. My little brother (who would be giving me updates) is dealing with some personal issues with his house and all the rain in San Diego (i.e. flooding, caved in ceiling, etc.), so I have been trying to keep him informed on what I hear just in case he is not in the loop either.

So, today I called the hospital and was told that she was discharged. I assumed that she went back home. I was wrong. I shot my little brother a quick note on the testing my grandma had done and the fact that she had been discharged and was at home now. I tried to call my grandma at her house several times without an answer. About three minutes after I shot off the email to my little brother, he responded. He told be that my grandma had been moved into a nursing home for physical therapy and that she was extremely weak and not eating. He went on to apologize for not sending me this information sooner; he assumed my mother was keeping me informed. So, I got a contact number to get a hold of my grandmother and my little brother assured me that he would let me know if he heard anything moving forward.

After all of this, I am left sitting here with a ton of emotions running through me as to why I was not told of my grandmother's condition. I love her so much and this is clearly the enemy working to keep me from praying for her. I immediately sent out a prayer request to several close friends and folks from my church. I then grabbed my bible and began to flip through the pages looking for some guidance on how to deal with the way my family is treating me. My first thought was that I was being selfish by talking to God about how "I" was being treated. In the big scheme of things that does not matter. But, I am human - and I am not perfect. I clearly see the enemy at work here and persecution from several members of my family. If this were several years ago, I would simply get angry and make a couple of phone calls and give them all a piece of mind. Not tonight though. Instead I found peace in the Word.

I was reading for about an hour or so and a couple of scriptures really resonated with what I was dealing with. Words of Jesus:

"But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," Matthew 5:44

Now, I would not say that my family is necessarily my enemy, but I would say that they certainly persecute me. So, I included all of them in my prayer request.

I then went on to read Matthew 7:1-2

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you"

I was finding it so hard not to judge my family for everything that is happening right now. The reality of situation is that this is clearly not my family doing everything they can to get under my skin. This is the enemy at work and we are at war with the enemy. The enemy is working 24/7 to try and wound me, to hurt me, to cause me to be self-centered, to drive his horns through my heart and break me. How can I possibly judge my family in this when it is clearly not them. The best thing I can do is stand firm against the enemy with God by side and pray that my family come to know Jesus and build a relationship with him. This is my prayer tonight.