psalms — Nicole O'Meara - words of hope for Christians living with rare disease and chronic illness

What’s so Mysterious About Irrational Love?

God knows my greatest strength is still plain weakness. He does NOT expect me to do great things for him, with my legs or any other muscle in my body. He takes pleasure in me because I am his child. That’s what it means to put our hope in him; it is to become a child of God.

When we invest our hope in God, we get his unfailing love in return. Of course, the only way we ever come to the place where we can put our hope in him is through his grace. We cannot do it in our own strength. So, God gives us the grace to love him, then he gives us his unfailing love in return. Sounds like he’s doing all the work, right? Exactly.

It is embarrassing to be loved like that. Brennan Manning calls this, “irrational love” and it is. It makes no sense. He gives his love and we don’t have to do anything for it. Nothing. God loves us because he loves us. That’s it.

Why would a perfect God love me despite my many imperfections? Especailly now, when I feel the most unworthy of love, with my newest physical challenges making it impossible to do even the simplest loving acts to show him my love, why does he still loves me? It’s a mystery.

So, I am approaching another mystery of the living God. The question is: will I embrace it or will I continue to try to contain it under the guise of understanding.

BlogNicole O'MearaApril 20, 2022psalms, spinal cord injury, loveComment

DEVOTIONAL: Find Victory in God

it was tempting to put all my trust in the perinatologist. But with every new bleed, the lack of answers the doctors could give caused me to remain cautious and keep my trust in check. For as long as my lungs have bled, I have wanted a doctor with enough wisdom to explain why my body continues to grow bad blood vessels and how to stop it from growing more.

Compassion goes a long way in helping a suffering person endure the unimaginable. I appreciated his compassion so much, but what I wanted more was answers.

Without answers from the wisest physicians, we decided to trust God with my physical life. That was the moment I stopped hoping in the wisdom of doctors for my deliverance from future bleeds.

Psalm 20:7 finishes boldly, “Our boast is in Yahweh our God, who makes us strong and gives us victory!” The name of the Lord our God is Yahweh, I AM (Exodus 3:14). His very name is the foundation of our faith. On the other side of human limits we find hope in the infinite strength and wisdom of God. Where man’s abilities end we can find a new beginning — to trust “in the name of the Lord our God.”

BlogNicole O'MearaNovember 30, 2021rare disease, Rare Hope Series, chronic disease, psalms, devotionalComment

Hope From an Old Note

Last week, I came across an old note in the margin of my Bible. I was reading Psalm 9 and tucked next to verse 18 in my messy scrawl was this note: 7/5/12 - one week post referral

It was a reminder from 2012 me to future me. I love writing notes in my Bible because, as time passes, they become a written testimony of what God has done in my life. The day I wrote that note, God was speaking to my heart that He had not forgotten our children. Today, I needed that reminder again.

BlogNicole O'MearaSeptember 19, 2019adoption, trauma, hearing loss, psalms Comments

21 Days of Prayer for Your Friend with Cancer

What do you do when you want (shall I say “need”) to support a friend? What if you aren’t close enough to do the do-ing things you long to do?

I wrote out 21 Bible verses that I will pray for my friend with cancer, one verse for each day she is gone at a treatment center. Want the list? I’m sharing it so you can join me. Or use it to pray for other friends.

Let’s lift up these words of promise to the One who love us best and first.

BlogNicole O'MearaSeptember 11, 2019prayer, cancer, crisis support, verses, psalms Comment

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