'Don't be afraid, for I am with you'

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

-Isaiah 41:10

Fear, discouragement, weakness - we've all had those feelings.

If you've followed the last couple of postings (click here for the first one, here for the second), you'll know that I'm recovering from eye surgery, with the likelihood that I'm going to have one or two more procedures on my left eye.

As mentioned before, the vision in that eye is blurry. Slowly improving, but blurry. That makes it a little slow to write blog postings (please excuse any typos), emails and other computer tasks. So I need words - like those from Isaiah - to bring encouragement and hope.

And I hope these words help in your own struggles.

'Wait patiently for the Lord'

Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

-Psalm 27:14

A followup from the last posting - about dealing with worries. I'm also needing some patience.

I'm currently waiting for my left eye to heal from surgery. As this is being written, it's blurry and not really focused.

So I  could use a dose of patience. I want my vision to be stable now. But the healing process requires time, potentially months. So in addition to bring my worries to God in prayer, I need to wait patiently as my eye heals.

How do you wait patiently for the Lord?

'Do not be anxious about anything'

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

-Philippians 4:6-7

Lately, it's been hard not to be anxious.

Back in January, I learned that I had a detached retina in my left eye. By Jan. 15, I had the first of two procedures to correct the problem.

That seemed to fix it, but it erupted in a different spot in the same eye, so in late January I had surgery. Now, my left eye's vision is blurry, as expected after surgery. It's slowly improving. Slowly. And it's likely I'll need to have one or two more procedures for the same eye.

It's easy to fall into anxiety and worry about that vision as it slowly returns. But I'm trying - sometimes successfully - to place those worries in God's hands through prayer.

Paul offered these words to the Philippians to ease anxiety. How do you handle your own worries?