Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

I saw on one of the other posts that your AOL chat name is atalantask. Is that correct? My chatname on AOL instant messenger is manyinmans. I added you to my Buddy List. It would be great to be able to chat back and forth through IM about this and to encourage one another easier.

Let me find out from you what Bible study tools you have, since you're a young Christian. Do you have a Strong's concordance, a lexicon, or a Bible handbook? What translation are you using for your daily bible study? Is it a translation you can easily understand?

The passages of scripture I have worked through for the past two years have had the focus, first of all, of getting to know the Lord. You can't deepen your relation with someone unless you really know them. They can't be your "ever present help in time of need" if you don't understand how they think, and what they want, and what their goals are. Some of the passage I have used for deepening my knowledge of who the Lord is: studying the entire book of John, one chapter per week, Psalm 23, 27, 103, 145, 139, 107, 1 John. Of course, this list isn't exhaustive. I'm still studying and working on knowing Him better.

My focus this summer has been on fear, anxiety, trials, and yieldedness to God's will for my life because of the panic attacks and fear I have been suffering from due to my IBS. I needed to find how Christ could meet this need. Could He really BE my ever present help in time of need? I decided conversing with the Lord about this would be my top priority of the summer, so was spending two to three hours a day in the early part of the summer. Since I was terrified to leave the house, I figured it was a good use of my time.

I am getting victory over the terror, am still studying 1 - 2 hours a day now, and am really deepening my walk with the Lord.

Some of the questions I wanted to deal with this summer were: Why is God allowing this to happen in my life? What good can He be intending from this since we know as Christians that all things work together for our good (Romans 8: 28-39)? Can I place myself in a position of yieldedness and trust His sovereignty? As a believer you know these are weighty issues that are where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Does our faith have answers we need, or not? What I found was, it does indeed have answers we need in crisis.

I started into 1 Peter 1: 1 - 13, which lead me to study faith and trials since they are both addressed. What role does faith play in how we interpret our trials? Where do we get our faith to believe that God will cause all things to work together for our good?

To study faith and trials in more depth, I moved into Hebrews 11 - 12:15 where I gleaned wonderful, encouraging truths. I looked at Heb. 10: 19 - 23, and Eph. 2: 8 - 9 using my Strong's concordance, lexicon, and bible handbook. I found so many answers during this phase of my study on what I am to meditate on when I am afraid ("fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith".....Heb. 12:2). I dug in deep with the Lord about my lack of trust during all the trials that had set off the IBS in the firstplace, and really came to some new understanding.

Then, I moved into a study of the word "believe". Do I believe what I should? What do I believe? Here I spent time studying specific things Jesus said to His disciples when they were afraid He couldn't take care of them. All the instances when they were afraid involved times that Jesus told them they had "little faith" when they should have trusted Him. I discovered Jesus wanted His disciples to "cry out" to get immediate help in dealing with their fear.

These passages I studied were Mark 9: 14 - 30, Matthew 17: 14 - 20, Matthew 6: 19 -34; 8: 23 - 27; 14: 22 - 33; 16: 5-12; Luke 12: 22 - 32: John 10: 10.

I then moved on directly to handling anxiety. Of course Philippians 4: 4 - 9 is the passage that comes immediately to mind concerning this, so I studied it in depth. I hadn't realized until I did this study that a key phrase for coping with anxiety is "The Lord is near", which is planted right in the middle of that passage. Do we always remember that He is near, right here, completely aware of our trials? Indeed, crafting them to make us into the people He wants us to be.

I then studied "potter and clay" passages as a follow up, moving into the area of yieldedness: Ephesians 2: 8 - 10 (not stopping at v. 9), Romans 9: 21, Isaiah 64: 4 - 9, Proverbs 3: 5 - 12, Luke 12: 18 - 21, Isaiah 8: 11 - 13; Jeremiah 5:3; 32:33, James 1: 2 - 4.

Now I am in Psalms 34 and have been seeing over and over again what you discovered while leading worship. There is power in praise. After Psalm 34 I am moving on to Psalm 37.

There are probably two years worth of Bible studies here. This is a slow process. It takes us a long time to re-train our emotions which have been habituated to fear. At the same time, I am focusing on implementing all the dietary principles from Heather's book. You have to address both body and soul. If you address the whole of your self you will get better. God is with you.

I'd like to chat and talk with you as you go through these scriptures if you decide to walk your way down this path. It has been worth every single hour I have invested. Applying the dietary information and changing how I eat and planning ahead has been worth it, too. I am feeling encouraged for the first time in many, many years. God bless you, Corinne, you are not alone.

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