Dr Carol Ministries
How to Know God as your Husband

How to Know God as your Husband

There’s that Scripture you know should mean more to you: “Your Maker is your husband.” (Isaiah 54:5) But you’re just not feeling it. You’re single, and you desperately want to feel some “skin in the game,” not some nebulous spiritual platitude. Or you’re married, and if God is anything like your husband you’ll pass, Thank you very much.

God blessed me with over seven years of a loving marriage. I wrote about what it means to find God as your Husband a couple years ago, and my marriage certainly helped me understand some new dimensions of God’s love. Now that I’m single again after my husband’s death the reality of God as my Husband has taken on a new depth once more. And it’s got nothing to do with some nebulous spiritual platitude.

For all the ways in which modern Western society has allowed women to take care of themselves (and that’s a good thing), there’s a part of us that still needs a man. Or at least some of us think we do. Some of us rush from one relationship to the next, unconsciously (or consciously) desperate to find the one who will finally make us OK. Others of us refuse to pretend to need a man, ratcheting up our independence, certain that we’ll be misused or betrayed or at least disappointed – again – if we let our heart risk allowing a member of the male species inside. We may parade our independence in front of our friends, or we may relentlessly complain about how the man we ended up with is making us miserable.

Some of us are miserable without a man. Some of us are miserable with the man we chose. Remember, if you’re out there looking for Mr. Right, there are a lot of married women who be happy to give him to you! Ladies, this ought not to be!

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Women’s Health and Shame

Women’s Health and Shame

Women’s health topics bring up such strong emotions – “for” and “against” and everything in-between. By listening to some people you’d think the most important issues in life, in our culture, in our world, were contraception, abortion, and female sexuality.

OK, so these are important topics. But why do they stir up such strong feelings? Are these issues really as important as the “noise” would have us believe? As important as they are, there must be some deeper issues at play. It’s got to be about more than the simple “medical facts” these issues involve. What is that something deeper?

Why are Women’s Health Topics such a Big Deal?

I answer that here:

In this 3-minute video I talk about why women’s health topics resonate in us as deeply and loudly as they do. It has a lot to do with who we really are as women, the assaults we’ve experienced, and what God wants to do in and for us. Women’s health and shame too often go together, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.

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When You Pray and are Still Sick

When You Pray and are Still Sick

God is a Healer. That’s His very nature. And yet there are many believers who are still sick. If you’re one of them, you know the internal heart struggle. “He has healed others. Why not me?” “Am I doing something wrong? Should I pray harder?” “It’s my own fault. That’s why I’m not healed.” “Perhaps God really doesn’t still heal today.”

As a physician I’ve seen believers struggle with chronic illness even while they kept on praying. As a wife I continue to pray for my husband’s healing while watching him fight his illness daily. As a minister I’ve prayed for many people who are sick; some of them have been healed, but some of them have not.

One of the strongest impressions I hold in my heart came from an interview I watched some years ago between a middle-aged terminally ill woman and a healing evangelist. I don’t remember the woman’s name, but I know she died a few months later. She told the preacher, “Don’t pray for me to get well. The intimacy I have found with Jesus through my illness is more precious than anything else, and I don’t want to lose that.”

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5 Things the Bible Says to Those who are Depressed

5 Things the Bible Says to Those who are Depressed

Some people live lives filled with trouble or trauma, and it’s easy to understand why they feel tired, down, and gloomy. Some have a medical illness or are taking life-saving medication with the side effect of making them feel sad or hopeless. Some are genetically predisposed to look at the world through dark lenses and struggle to be able to feel any joy. Some have simply learned to focus on what’s wrong in the world.

Whether you are depressed because of a “biochemical imbalance”, because your life is outwardly extraordinarily difficult, or just because that’s how you see life, you’re not alone. Many believers – and some of God’s best friends throughout history – have struggled in this way.

But that’s not the end of the story. Your struggle is no surprise to God. Here are some things the Bible says to those who are depressed:

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7 Things to do After God Heals You

7 Things to do After God Heals You

Hallelujah! God has touched you! You know in your body and in your soul that God has stepped in and brought His healing power to play on your behalf. Your pain is gone. Or your mind is clear. Or you recovered when the doctors didn’t think you would. Or you can do something now that you couldn’t do before. You want to shout, “God is good!” And shout you should! That’s one of the things you should do after God heals you.

But it doesn’t stop there. I’ve seen many people experience a touch from God. For some, that moment is the start of a brand new existence. Their future opens up, and they become a living testimony to what God can do. Sadly, for others their relief may be short-lived. While they may rejoice in their healing it’s not long before they’re in the same or worse condition than before. They and others are tempted to wonder, “Were they really healed? Can you lose your healing? Why would God touch them, and then take it away?”

One middle-aged man suffering from severe back pain experienced a dramatic touch from God. After others prayed for him his pain was gone – with no medical explanation. He could bend and move and lift things and do what he couldn’t do before. He was ecstatic; he was healed! His friends encouraged him to go back to his doctor, get checked out, and tell what God had done for him. But he refused. “If I go back to the doctor, I’ll lose my disability payments. I don’t want to have to go back to work.” And less than three months later he was in worse pain than he ever had been.

That may be a somewhat dramatic, though true, example. But it illustrates that how we respond when we receive a touch from God is important. Here are some things to know and do.

After God Heals You

Using the examples of those who were healed in the Bible, here are some things to know and do after God heals you.

  1. Celebrate! Shout, dance, sing. Have a party. Rejoice that the God of the universe laid His hand on you and made you whole. Yes, it is a big deal!
  2. Show gratitude. First of all, thank God for His healing. Many in the Bible would give a special gift (a vow) to demonstrate their gratitude. (Psalm 50:14) And don’t forget to thank those who helped you when you were in need – those who prayed for you, supported you, or provided material or practical help.
  3. Tell others what God has done. Jesus often told those He healed to tell others “what great things the Lord has done for you.” (Mark 5:19) Doing so solidifies your healing in your own soul, and it brings honor to God’s kingdom on Earth. Make sure, when you tell your story, to put the primary focus on what God has done, and His goodness.
  4. Get a medical evaluation. If you were under a doctor’s care, go back and get checked out. If you were on medication, keep taking it until told otherwise. For example, you may need to taper of some medications slowly. I know of someone who believed they were healed of diabetes, stopped taking insulin, and quickly because seriously ill. Be like the leper who Jesus healed, and then told to go show himself to the priest. (Luke 5:14)
  5. Remain humble. It may be tempting to feel that you’re special because God chose to heal you. Don’t let it make you proud. Hezekiah became arrogant after God healed him, and his arrogance became a factor in the destruction of Jerusalem years later. (Isaiah 39:3-7)
  6. Live a clean lifestyle. Sometimes (by no means always!) the way you were living contributed to your sickness. God’s healing gives you a fresh start, but it doesn’t absolve you from your responsibility to live healthy. Take this as an opportunity to review anything you need to change, such as eating healthy, managing stress well, learning to forgive, etc. (John 5:14)
  7. Live for God’s glory. You’re responsible for being a good steward of whatever degree of physical or mental strength you have as a result of God’s healing. I have several friends who, after they were healed, have devoted many hours and much energy to helping others experience God’s healing. Invest your newfound health wisely. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

When God touches you, He deserves something from you in return. How you live from then on is the best way to show your gratitude.

**Some of you may feel as though this doesn’t apply to you. You’ve prayed, and God hasn’t healed you. Don’t give up! Keep praying, and doing all you can to move into a place where you can experience God’s healing. He hasn’t left you, regardless of what happens with your finite human body here and now.

Your Turn: Have you experienced God’s healing? How was your life different afterwards? Leave a comment below. 

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