As I write this Shabbat encouragement on Monday I am in the middle of a surgical procedure to remove a basal cell carcinoma from the side of my nose. No, I’m not under the knife at the moment! Rather, I’m in the nerve racking waiting period for the doctor to check the margins to see if he got it all or if he needs to go back in further. If so, I will return to the operating procedure for the next removal, additional waiting time, and so it will go for the afternoon. I already know I need skin from near my ear for a graft so I’m here for a while.

I had started the morning with a jog, my time with God to listen, talk, and pray. Even though we’re in the middle of a heat advisory the time with Him felt great. It was so blessed. The Daily Davar passages I listened to (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday’s of this week) even included the verse about having peace beyond all understanding.

Then came my listening to Him, our interchanges of thoughts about the Scripture readings I had just listened to, my petitions, prayers, words of thankfulness, submission, gratefulness. Those morning immersions in God space brought me to this place of feeling peace beyond all human understanding. That is the message I want to share with you this week, especially this week – how to have peace in the midst of chaos, fear, and uncertainty.

My nose cancer will be what it will be. My conversation with God this morning was to use this situation as He wills, whatever that is. My prayer was that the cancer would be minimal, if that be His Will, and if not, that He use this in whatever way best serves Him. Those were my lofty, yet sincere, thoughts due to the spiritual strength He gave me.

Yet the intimate hug, the peace, the “it will be okay” I am feeling in my heart, whether the result is good or bad, is being ministered to me intimately by Yeshua. It’s as if He is right here with me as I sit in this room awaiting the results of the first part of the procedure.

One of the passages today described Job pleading for a mediator! So true! I usually attend my cousin’s Bible Study by phone at this time but cannot do so today due to this surgery. As I waited I had time to reach out to her so she could share this new insight about Job with the other group members, all of whom are also Daily Davar subscribers!

What timing for these passages to be part of this week’s Word, especially the Job section. I so clearly remember thinking as a Jewish person before I knew Yeshua that I can just go to God directly, which we do. So why do I need Yeshua, an intermediary? Believing in the concept of an intermediary actually deterred my coming to faith in Yeshua for I thought that belief was not Jewish, but rather, was Christian.

Yet there was that plea straight from the mouth of my Jewish ancestor Job, right there in my own Jewish Bible. Interfacing with my cousin on this point just as our Bible study group is about to start made the truth of Yeshua’s intimacy feel as a God love drop. I am not alone in this operating room. God is up there, but He’s right here too through the palpable presence of Yeshua who cares for every detail in our lives. The perfect passages at the perfect divinely appointed times.

As I write this, I do not know the results of the first surgery. It is truly a time of faith. It is truly a time of peace that is surpassing all understanding.

Not only that, earlier this morning after my jog I was able to work on the upcoming visit of Hal Slifer, the host of the Chagigah radio program, to Ruach Israel this coming Shabbat!!! How exciting is that??!!! I ordered special desserts, interchanged with Hal and Cheryl on plans and communications, and could totally be in such a happy place all morning. How God is at work in our lives to bring this huge blessing to our synagogue, a time of our being immersed in Jewish music by this amazing man, a radio icon to literally thousands of Jewish listeners, an unusual gatekeeper who welcomes our Messianic Jewish community and understands us as part of our Jewish people with no reservations. There is no doubt in my mind that this entire experience is being orchestrated by our Creator.

So bombs may be dropped, nuclear facilities and retribution are in the headlines, cancer is in my body. All the more reason to be in constant dialogue with Yeshua, yes, dialogue, for you will hear from Him. If not audibly, you will hear from Him in your heart.

When Yeshua is in your heart, when He ministers to you through the Ruach HaKodesh, you, too, will have shalom beyond all human understanding, no matter what.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane

P.S. The surgery went great and the cancer is gone. Baruch HaShem!