Day 7 - June 22 - A Growing Faith

Eric's faith (along with many of ours) is deeper than it was a week ago. We talked today about how most of the time God uses a tiny chisel on each of us to shape us into the people we need to become, to shape us to be more like Christ. Or perhaps He buffs us so we can shine. It's often fairly painless and we tend to become immune to the work He's doing on us.

And then once in a while (normally when we least expect it), He pulls out his giant, oversized chisel and His gargantuan hammer and guess what? He puts it to work on us. This is what Eric and Cherié and Joelle and Connor and many of us journeying with them are experiencing right now (and some us thought He was finished with us! Ha!).

The big chisel hurts, no doubt. But it's part of the refinement that shapes us, that builds us, that restores us, that polishes us, that ultimately will make us whom He needs us to be. So in that case... bring it on.

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us – an unbelievable inheritance! We go thorugh exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

- Romans 8:15-17 (Message)

• Not much has changed with Connor overnight. Continue to pray for rest and healing.

• When Eric awoke this morning, he read some scripture, and went to check the blog. He noticed the list of prayers that Jenann's had posted in her recent comment. Eric just went down the list and saw how many of them had been answered. For rest, provision, etc. Eric could just say, "Thank you, Lord, for this new day!" No alarms had gone off overnight.  There was much to be thankful for.

• Concerns for Cherié -  she awoke from a nap yesterday and had a very hard time seeing clearly. She is also lacking energy. She has a lot on her mind right now and is under enormous stress, so please pray for her. Pray that she'll sustain her health.

• Pray also that Cherié will be able to stop serving others and allow others to serve her. For those of you who know Cherié this is like asking a fish not to swim. She is so gifted in the area of service to others. She is a fabulous hostess, and right now she desires to continue in that role, but now is obviously not the time. Pray that she'll be able to set it aside and allow others to serve her.

It's Sunday. Tomorrow will be one week since this whole ordeal has begun. Thanks for your prayers and comments. God is good.