A few Prayer Request's

My wife just got a text from her brother that he is scheduled for a leukemia test next week...
Their family has had a rough time since both their mom and dad passed away a few years ago...
seems like continual bad news. Both her and her brother could use some extra prayers!

Also My friend Dave is a heavy alcoholic and going in for an MRI tomorrow after having a routine exam for eye glasses a month ago because his vision was blurring.
They found a bleeding retina then, recommended he go see a doctor thinking he had high blood pressure or diabetes and scheduled a followup in 30 days.

Today's exam, retina of both eyes were bleeding and they told him to go directly from there to an ER and have a MRI done. The Dr wrote a letter telling them exactly what kind of MRI to do.
I am pretty sure the Doc knows there is something behind his eyes pressing on the optic nerve... but that was just my guess based on what he said.

At least Dave finally took him a little more serious than last time, but he is unemployed and uninsured so against everybody's advice, he decided he had time to make some calls first and shop around and I am taking him tomorrow at noon.

I don't even know what to ask for in prayer for him at this point... My first thought is simply praying the MRI comes back clean, but if that answer is no and this could be close to the end, him getting right with God would be good too, short of that I wish God would clear the haze enough for him to understand what is really happening to him because of the excessive alcohol. Maybe include me in your prayers that God gives me some extra strength to help him through it if the news comes back like I believe it might. Also that he helps me keep my mouth shut when I will only make things worse or gives me right words when it is time for that

I tried to get him to realize how serious this is and not worth waiting, but he knows it all and will not listen to my advice on anything really... I spent the last month trying to get him to go to a doctor after researching the bleeding retina after the first appointment. I even asked him what good all that scrimping and saving for his retirement account will do him if he dies before he can use it... Especially since I think his ex wife is still the named beneficiary on everything... but he goes opposite of what I say more than taking my advice anyway so all I could try to do is remind him what the Dr said... I drove him today because they were dilating his eyes and I knew from talking to him on the phone that he should not be on the road period... which the doctor told him 5 minutes into the exam today.

We have been friends for about 35 years and never really talked religion until he brought it up about a year ago... He was raised Catholic but calls himself a Christian. I was raised Baptist and have been a believer all my life, but not been in the bible regularly until this past year. I did reject organized religion, but never rejected God and did spend many years off to the side of the main path... I have since realized it is not All of organized religion, but there is much of it corrupted by man... The good churches out there are the ones teaching the bible and it's truth! Dave is an avid reader and always likes to slam me for not reading books... I always tell him I probably read more hours a day than he does, but it is reading the news or to learn something instead of reading to escape.

That first time he brought up God and we talked awhile, we decided we would read the whole bible at the same time and discuss it but he wanted to finish the series he was reading first. He kept putting it off and I finally started with Ezekiel first after finding Amir Tsarfati and hearing him talking about the prophecy of Ezekiel's war looking close... I said something about that one night and he said he would read about it so we could talk about it, a couple days later he said he tried but could not read it because what he read was novels and said the story just made no sense to him.

We have had a few discussions about the bible and things it says and he automatically wants to argue with anything I say about the bible or otherwise. He has made a lot of rejections of things I said I believed or the bible said, that made me cringe when he said whatever he said and I even quit bringing it up because I did not want to be the reason he was rejecting God or the Bible.

Praying for your brother in law, and friend.

just my 2 cents, I think best prayer for anyone at any time or situation is that their heart will be open to accept Jesus (salvation or if saved get more firmly aligned with Him in that moment) and that they will surrender their will for God’s will.

Sometimes, we don’t know how things turn out, some times they turn out opposite what we want or think best, but I know when I pray for the person to be aligned with Jesus and with God’s will - that is the best I can do, since God has the master plan and knows how to use all things for good.

Prayers for you too and family and medical staffs.

Reading your account and praying at the same time, Dear FRiend.

As a Believer, I know how hard it is to keep from saying “the wrong thing” and making the situation worse. Scripture is helpful during these times of stressful “Biting My Tongue”!

Psalm 141 3Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. 4Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing or take part in works of wickedness with men who do iniquity; let me not feast on their delicacies.…

James 1:26
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.

Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.

Psalm 39:1
I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.”

Proverbs 13:3
He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.

Proverbs 21:23
He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from distress.

Psalm 17:3-5
Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress…

Psalm 39:1
To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

Psalm 71:8
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

Also, the WHOLE BOOK of Philippians is GREAT! Rather than a negative admonition, it gives us a POSITIVE thing to do with out mouths.

Praying for you and your friends, in Jesus Name.

(((HUGS)))

I just want to say thank you to everybody for all your prayers...

Dave just called me and said the MRI came back clear and normal showing no tumors... So Praise the Lord!

The Doctor suggested he go to his primary care doctor and get a basic physical, get checked for diabetes and have blood pressure monitored. This doctor that is helping him has gone WAY over and above. This was a $60 eye exam he had at Midwestern University, so he is a doctor overseeing students learning to be optometrists. Dave told him he does not have a regular doctor and the Doctor said well the university does that training too and referred him to that program... He told Dave to call him back with his appointment time so he can call and talk to whoever he will be seeing before hand.

I feel like this is working the only way possible for it to actually work, as Dave is an alcoholic... during one of the tests they did the other day, I pulled the doctor off to the side and told him that. He asked how much he drinks and I told him I had nothing but a guess based on something Dave told me years ago, that he was drinking 2 handles a week, so I told him probably at least a fifth a day.

He won’t listen to any advice I give him and usually will go the opposite of what I say... After the first appointment and they told him the same thing, go get your blood pressure checked and a diabetes test. The first thing I told him when he called me, is if it were me, I would go to Walgreens and get a cheap blood pressure monitor... So I could check and chart it every morning and night plus anytime vision blurred out (the blurred vision came and went when he first got checked). Also make a doctor appointment to get a physical and then when you walk in the door, you can hand him a chart of what it has been between now and then. But he opted to fill the 300 eyeglass prescription instead and wait for the 30 day follow up to see if it fixed itself. So prayers for me to bite my tongue have worked too... For now anyway, when the emergency is passed, sometime in the future, I will probably have to mention it could have saved him some stress and $$ if he would have taken my advice... but I told you so was not going to help anything now.

So continued prayers for Dave would be appreciated... He has been a functional alcoholic for 25 years probably. He always got up and went to work and kept his house up better than I do... Just a high school graduate that has done numerous things... Shipping and receiving, Service writer at a Saturn dealer and even trained to fix laser levels for a couple years, so he is not stupid, but He would get fed up and change jobs every few years... usually quitting them, so no unemployment and he found another one. If he got fired, he would take a break for a couple weeks and not search real hard when he had benefits coming in... but he always got one before they ran out. What I believe wrecked him was the 99 week extended benefits. It changed him, taking some functionality out and giving him a really bad attitude, he could make as much sitting at home as he did dealing with these idiots (his words)... It was somewhat understandable in that he was dealing with stupid people doing stupid things and just was not going to put himself through that every day, so I get it, would not have even been a problem if he did not sit at home and get into the bottle. Now in the past 2 or 3 years he has probably only worked a few months because he has an attitude problem... but does have savings and a healthy Roth too, so providing for himself and simply does not see a problem.

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