Guatemala, my last month of the Race.
My left knee began hurting pretty badly toward the beginning of the month. I wasn’t able to run much on the Race, so I had been doing Insanity workout videos to get in shape. Sometime toward the beginning of Guatemala, I began noticing pain, then extreme pain, when I did deep stretches that required bending or weight/pressure on the knee. I must have injured it, because normally any aches and pains tend to be in my RIGHT knee (minor arthritis and old injury), not the left.
This went on most of the month and was getting worse, not better. When I got home and started doing distance running again, I began having extreme flare ups — so bad that if I stayed seated for too long, I’d get up and limp around like a fragile little old lady, unable to straighten my left leg fully; and that knee would hurt – I’m talking SHOOTING PAIN – at the back of the knee whenever I tried to bend it. And it throbbed like the dickens if ever I sat on it (e.g. bent, Indian style).
I tried to take breaks from running here and there, but it got so bad I had to take five days off from running. Each night I came home from work, thinking I’d just rest it one more day. Just one more day…but each night, I noticed it never got better. The next morning I would wake up with that same stiff, sore feeling and the old lady walk.
One night, after talking to a friend, had enough of the pain and cried out to Jesus. I begged Him to heal me, to take the pain and soreness away. I didn’t have anyone to lay hands on me, so I asked Him to send angels to pray over me, to have the Holy Spirit lay HIS hands on me. And then I cried and prayed and prayed and cried.
At one point I felt like I was supposed to try bending my leg…I did, and it still hurt, but it was better. Then I prayed some more, I started praising and worshiping the Lord, and then I bent my knee again. Again, it was better.
After about the third or fourth time, I finally stood up and walked around. AMAZING! I could actually put weight on it and straighten it all the way. I even tried squatting, putting my full weight on it….the muscles around the knee could use a bit more strengthening, but the pain and stiffness were TOTALLY GONE.
The next day was the final test. I woke up in the morning and put full weight on the left leg…no old lady walk!
Then I went to the park across the street from my mom’s and ran, not three, but FOUR miles! Unlike the previous times I’d done this, my knee was PAIN-FREE!!! NONE, NO PAIN, AT ALL!!!!!
Jesus is ALIVE, y’all!! We are set free by His blood and healed by His wounds, and the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead lives in us if we just invite Him to. The power of God dwells in me because i believe and know that Jesus is Lord and that He died for my sins and was raised again on the third day. He loves me and wants to heal to me…He’s just been waiting for me to ask!
He’ll do it for you, too. Just ask with faith, believing it will happen, and use the name of Jesus. Healing in the name of Jesus!
