THE BIG PICTURE, PART 4B

26.  WHEN TROUBLE COMES

A.  The Big Picture of the Sources of Trouble

                I refer you back to the chart that describes the various sources of our troubles.  That chart recognizes that the sources of trouble and evil include the devil, ourselves, the general fallen condition of the world, and the opposition to goodness and the Gospel.  It is important to keep that in mind, and it is helpful when trying to sort out what is happening to us.  At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that the ultimate reason we suffer is The Law of Sin and Death.  I sometimes use a more pleasant-sounding term:  the human condition. 

                What this means is that we have been consigned to a life that has its blessings but also has its troubles.  We have been consigned to that fate because of sin—not just our own sin, but the sin of the human race. 

                However, we must remember that I have developed an understanding of reality that includes something larger than The Law of Sin and Death.  That larger picture includes the victory of God in Jesus Christ.  The Christian world-view includes specific sources of trouble, which are helpful at times to understand.  It includes an understanding of sin as the ultimate cause of trouble.  But it always understands life to be concluded under the victory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

                So, I believe that The Big Picture is a great comfort to us in times of trouble.  It helps us to understand evil, and it helps us to hold onto hope.  Yet, many people—many Christians—take no comfort from The Big Picture.

                Many take no comfort because they simply do not see The Big Picture.  Though they are saved, they have a limited understanding of the things of God.  I believe that they are deceived.  They may be deceived because of their own ignorance.  That ignorance may come from lack of teaching in the particular church that they attend.  Or it may be that they have not availed themselves of teaching.  Or they may have been taught false doctrines.  Some so-called Christian teaching is filled with “prosperity doctrine,” which often is a selfishness bordering on idolatry. 

Whatever the cause of the ignorance, the Christian who does not see The Big Picture is deceived.  When I say this, I am not saying that they should know my particular version of The Big Picture.  But they should know what the Bible says.  As I commented earlier, many Christians talk about creation but never talk about The Fall and The Law of Sin and Death.  They never understand the role of suffering in the Christian life.  Thus, their Christian faith is of no comfort to them when trouble comes.

Other Christians just simply are reluctant to commit to The Big Picture.  To do so involves giving up The Way Things Are.  If I fall in love with life as it is now, then I am not going to be willing to commit myself to God’s plan for my life.  To fall in love with this life is to fall in love with an illusion.  That is true, but it is also true that many people do fall in love with this life.  Generally, what they really fall in love with is some aspect of this life. 

For example, suppose a man starts a business.  The business prospers.  He makes a good living.  Then, something happens—the economy falters or a big corporation comes to town and directly competes with his business—and the man’s business fails.  Can this man put this reversal in the context of The Big Picture?  Or will he be angry, bitter, and lose interest in his faith?  It depends on where his real commitments are.  If he understands—with his heart, regardless of his “head knowledge”—his business to be  the key to his happiness and fulfillment, then his business failure is going to be utterly devastating. 

                It may be that the man will “pick himself up, dust himself off” and begin again.  He may again start a successful business.  But, if his rebound is grounded in his own abilities, then he has not really learned the right lesson.  He has not committed his life to The Big Picture, no matter what his religious profession might be. 

                I fear that many Christians—especially American Christians—have a life philosophy similar to the man I just described.  They confess a creed and talk about salvation, but their day-to-day lives, their energy, their focus, their hopes and dreams, are all wrapped up in the things of this world.  By “this world” I mean their perception of the present order of existence.  In I John, we read this warning:

Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of the sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.                                                     I John 2:15-17

                When trouble comes, our attitude is going to depend to a great degree on our commitment to The Big Picture.  There may be sadness and regret.  If a loved one dies, we are going to mourn for that person.  We are not being disloyal to The Big Picture to do so.  But if we understand any event as ultimately destructive of our lives and our destiny, then we have lost our vision of The Big Picture.

B.  Our God Is Good

                The foundation of our faith is that we serve a good and loving God.  The climax of Romans 8 is the affirmation that follows:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

                                                                                                Romans 8:38-39

When trouble comes, our foundation is secure.  Though the trouble assails our emotions, rocks our self-confidence, creates suspicion about our friends, throws us into physical destitution, threatens every aspect of our being, it cannot remove us from the love of God in Christ.  The love is in Christ in at least two ways.  It is expressed in Christ as the Father has given Him to us as a gift of His love.  It is found in Christ as we trust Christ for salvation. 

                So, no matter what happens, we know that God still loves us.  This is exactly the opposite message we receive from our circumstances, especially the troubling circumstances.  When trouble comes our way, we instinctually react negatively—with fear, anger, anxiety, inconsolable grief.  The circumstances of our life seem often to speak—even scream—to us:  “You are not loved.  You are threatened all around.  The worst case scenario has come.”  So, we have to learn, to train ourselves—through prayer, Bible study, and seeking the help of fellow Christians—to think and listen and see with eyes of faith, to believe that God loves us.  “Circumstances” literally means “the things that stand around.”  So, whatever surrounds us must not speak as loudly as our faith.  Our faith is founded on Scripture, on the work of Jesus Christ, on the witness of the Holy Spirit.  If we allow our faith to rest on our circumstances, then we will be distressed every other day.  So, no circumstance can separate us from God’s love.

                A second reassurance we have from Romans 8 is the following:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

                                                                                Romans 8:28

This is another affirmation that we serve a good and loving God.  And yet troubling circumstances would seem to contradict this.  If we get a good job and start on a successful career path, we can affirm that God is working in everything for our good.  But then, if cancer comes or a spouse dies or our career turns to shambles or some other terrible trouble enters our life, we fail to see how God is working anything good in such a situation. 

                First, we must define our good.  Our faith includes a submission to the sovereign reign of God.  He, therefore, has the prerogative to define our good.  I believe that God wants our ultimate good.  Our ultimate good is to live forever with Him.  Our ultimate good cannot be defined in terms of the present order of existence.  It is not that God takes delight in suffering and pain in this present time.  But I must submit to His decisions about my life.

                Second, good is wrapped up in the purpose of God.  God works for the good of those who have been “called according to his purpose.”  The purpose of God is the redemptive project in Jesus Christ.  That purpose is not served necessarily by my comfort, my health, my prosperity.  I believe that blessing comes to me from God, but it comes wrapped in the purpose of God.  As I am committed to The Big Picture, I find destiny and fulfillment and happiness.  I find good.  I cannot cling so tightly to any good in this present order that I cannot release it to hold to the purpose of God.

                  Finally, we must recognize that our victory is in the victory of God in Christ Jesus.  We find this affirmed also in Romans 8 as follows:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:  “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

                                                                                Romans 8:35-37

Notice that our victory comes even in the midst of terrible trouble.  For Paul, that trouble was persecution, especially.  It probably also included the financial hardships of an itinerant preacher (notice “hardship,” “famine,” and “nakedness”).  Though he looked like a victim, he considered himself more than a conqueror.  Why?  The victory has been won in Jesus Christ.  Jesus has risen from the dead, signaling the utter victory over The Law of Sin and Death.  The present order of existence, which includes poverty, disease, violence, and hatred will ultimately give way to the resurrection. 

Thus, I don’t have to win in order for God to win.  I don’t have to succeed, I don’t have to win debates, I don’t have to have a huge, prosperous congregation, I don’t have to be financially flush.  God’s ultimate victory FOR ME AND IN ME is not dependent on any of these things.  That takes some pressure off of me.  It also means that my destiny is not tied up in the success in these things.  That does not mean that I am not involved emotionally and spiritually and every other way in the things of earth.  Rather, it means that I understand where the victory is.  As the old song says, the victory is in Jesus.  If my business fails, my health fails, even my life itself ends, I am a winner! 

I think that I can have a very good attitude, if I really believe that.  I can smile, laugh, relax and love people, enjoy a party, if I know that God has won the victory.  Again, I am on the A Team.  I have a stake in God’s great redemptive program.  I shall pray fervently for the salvation of individuals that I know.  I shall grieve over the bad behavior of folks that should know better.  I shall be concerned about the welfare of the church.  But, in good times and in bad, I know that I am a winner through Jesus Christ. 

If a loved one dies, I am sad.  But I mourn as one who has hope, the hope of the resurrection (see I Thessalonians 4:13-18).  For I know that this death cannot overthrow God’s victory or my victory.  Every day there is evidence thrown at me that God is a loser.  Every day there is evidence thrown at me that I am a loser.  If I put my faith in self-reliance, the romance of progress, and striving for self-righteousness (see Chapter 10), then, if I am realistic, I am going to lose eventually.  But if I put my faith in Jesus Christ and him crucified, I am going to be a winner. 

C.  The God Who Comforts

God is not only a God of victory, but He is a God of comfort.  When someone loses someone or something, he or she wants comfort, not a pep rally.  Suffering is generally one of two types—pain or loss. 

Pain is acute and cries out for relief.  If it is physical pain, then theology is probably not in order.  That is not to say that saints have not been able to endure pain simply because of their faith.  I heard a story of one of the saints who was going to be burned at the stake.  The night before, he tried to put his hand in the flame of a candle, and he could not.  Yet, the next morning, he was able to die at the stake.  Only the power of God enabled him. 

The suffering of loss cries out for presence.  That is, if someone or something is gone from us, then we need someone or something to be with us.  Folks, especially children, often cling to something, like a Teddy Bear, at a time of loss.  Hugs are important at a time of loss, because we feel the presence of another person.  God understands that.  God was the witness to His own Son’s crucifixion.  He understands loss.  And has become the God of All Comfort.  Read these words:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.  If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the

same sufferings we suffer.  And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

                                                                                II Corinthians 1:3-7

In this passage, identification is important.  Christ identified Himself with us, the human race.  As He became identified with us, He shared in our sufferings, literally, through the pain of the cross.  Thus, whenever we suffer, Christ has suffered with us.  He has done that whether or not we have accepted Him.  He does it because He loves us.

When we become Christians, we identify with Christ.  That means that, when Christ suffered, we suffered.  Thus, our suffering as Christians is in one respect the working out of that suffering of Christ in our lives in the real world.  I think that is especially true in cases of persecution, but it may be true in all cases.  The reason I say that is that we place our whole life in the hands of God when we trust Christ.  Whatever suffering we experience is thus a sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

But there is an “upside” to this:  not only do we identify with Christ in His suffering, we identify with Him in His comfort.  We are given little information about this, but I think that the comfort that the Father gave to the Son during and after His suffering is what is referred to.  Remember that in the wilderness after the temptation, angels came to minister to Jesus (Matthew 4:11).  In the Garden of Gethsemane, He was ministered to by an angel (Luke 22:43).  We have also the record of the comfort that God gave to Jesus after the ascension (see Hebrews 1:13 and Psalms 110:1).  Thus, God has comforted Christ, and through our identification with Him, we experience that comfort. 

That is to say, that, because we have a relationship with God through our faith in Christ, we are comforted by God.  This is one of the many facets of the diamond of salvation.  We generally understand that we receive many benefits through our faith in Christ.  However, many of us are unaware that one of those benefits is this comfort that comes from God to us through Christ.  Somehow, through the Holy Spirit, we experience God’s “hug” at times of loss. 

It is critical for the Christian to understand this, because, for many Christians, an extreme loss is a crisis of faith.  The remarkable thing is that God is the ultimate grief counselor.  The trouble with some of us is that we get nervous at the extremity of some people’s grief.  And we are afraid that somehow they will push God away or that their anger and hysteria are expressions of unbelief.  I remember a preacher telling a story of his pain after the death of a loved one.  He had a great deal of trouble until he finally got mad at God.  Then, an amazing peace enveloped him.  I realize now that I have been guilty at times of trying to protect God from people’s anger and grief.  I was afraid that they would be disqualified from God’s comfort if they got mad at God. 

Paul also emphasizes that his readers, the church at Corinth, have identified with him and he with them.  This means that they, Paul and the church, share in suffering and comfort through that mutual identification.  That was an apostolic kind of relationship, but I believe we all share suffering and comfort together (see, for example, I Corinthians 12:25-26). 

Our comfort from God makes us better comforters.  I know a woman who understood her calling was to comfort women who had lost their husbands.  She too had lost a husband.  When an older woman in the community would lose someone, then she would show up at the woman’s house.  She would hang out for hours, quietly.  She was not a theologian, not a trained grief counselor.  She just had a gift of comfort.  Our losses can be turned into gifts when we learn to pass on to others the comfort that has come to us from God.

D.  A-Team Purpose

When trouble comes, we can make one of two mistakes in dealing with our duties, obligations, and commitments.  I am thinking especially of our commitments as Christians to The Big Picture.  I have already described our being on the A Team.  That means we have a calling to join with God in His redemptive purpose.  When extreme trouble comes, as I have said, we can make one of two mistakes.

One mistake is to abandon our purpose.  Whether we say it or not, we give witness to a message of meaninglessness.  “I have lost my spouse, there really is nothing left to live for.”  So, we lose interest in church, in service to others, and in God’s work in the world.

The other mistake is to become a workaholic.  That can happen in a Christian setting as well as any other.  Such a reaction is really an attempt to avoid reality.  It is a kind of unbelief, for it says, “If I avoid thinking about and responding emotionally to this loss, then I won’t have to deal with what I suspect, which is that this loss is the end of my purpose and meaning.” 

Both of these extremes are unhealthy reactions to our loss.  It seems to me that we have to deal realistically with our sadness.  We have to recognize that we have lost something very valuable.  God will comfort us.  Our friends will comfort us.  But we are going to hurt deeply.  That hurt can be incapacitating for a while.  We have to give ourselves some time for grief and not enter back into heavy responsibility too quickly.  I hope most employers understand this. 

On the other hand, our faith tells us that ultimate purposes have not been destroyed by our loss.  Eventually, we must take up our duties again.  If we understand our commitment to The Big Picture and our place on the A Team, then we understand that our lives have direction and purpose.  Trouble is distracting and can try to sidetrack us permanently from our purpose.  At some point in our recovery process, we need to reassess who we are and what our ultimate purposes are.  I hope that such a time of reassessment will bring us back onto the A Team.

When that happens, we can experience some important kinds of healing.  This is because our A-Team commitments inevitably get us involved with people.  And as we become involved in the needs of others, our pain begins to diminish and we begin to see ourselves as having a purpose. 

Extreme loss has a way of shattering the rationality of the universe.  Many people fear that they are losing their minds when they are in middle of grief, because the world does not seem to make sense.  As we begin to recover and reach a point that we can once again be caught up in the purposes of God’s Big Picture, then rationality is restored to our lives. 

Purpose and direction can give a good kind of inertia to our lives.  Inertia is the property of a body to keep doing whatever it is doing.  If it is moving in a certain direction, it will require force to change that direction.  If it is at rest, it will require force to get it moving.  If we have committed ourselves to The Big Picture and are on the A Team, then we have some inertia.  When we experience trouble and loss, that inertia will resist diversion and distraction.  We will understand our troubles as streams to cross and not puddles to wallow in.

E.  The Church—A Body That Can Feel

                An important ally in your struggles with trouble is the local church.  In I Corinthians 12, the church is compared to a human body.  That figure of speech is used by Paul to instruct the church in many ways.  It teaches unity, respect for diversity of gifts, and compassion for one another.  When one part of my body hurts, the rest of my body suffers with it.  It can be a stubbed toe.  I hate to stub my toe.  And when I do, I sit down, grab the foot with the injured toe, and begin all sorts of reactions—grimacing, moaning, clenched teeth, rocking back and forth.  All of this is over a stubbed toe. 

                The body of Christ, which is the church, feels when one member hurts.  Originally, “member” referred to a part of the body—an arm, or leg, or organ, such as the liver.  Paul was using the Greek word that is translated “member” in that way when he wrote about a “member” of the body of Christ suffering.  So now, we refer to a person belonging to the church as a “member.”  So, when a member of the body of which I am a part begins to hurt, I, too, begin to hurt.  I shall not be fully recovered until that person is no longer suffering.

                We are extremely individualistic in America.  We are trained from earliest childhood to make our own way in the world.  Therefore, the importance of the church is a lost value for many of us.  Churches today are successful and are valued because of what the do for the individual and are not seen as values in their own right.  Yet, I believe that God understands us as a part of a group.  “It is not good for the man to be alone.”  (Genesis 2:18) That statement from God was made in reference to the two sexes and the marriage relationship, but, when one studies Scripture, it seems also to apply to God’s vision for us to be together as the people of God.  We find our fulfillment in relation to other people.  So, it is important to develop your church relationship and to begin to recognize yourself as not a “lone ranger” but as a part of the body of Christ.

                As we are integrated into the body, then we develop deep relationships with one another.  Those relationships, hopefully, reach a point of intimacy, in which we are able to share with other people in the body the deep issues of our lives.  That sharing is not only an exchange of information, it becomes a matter of prayer.  So, our intimacy with one another becomes wrapped up in our relationship with God.  Thus, as we grow into one another, we grow into God.  Then, when trouble comes, we very instinctually share the pain.  It is as natural as the body’s reaction to a stubbed toe.  We hurt because a part of us hurts.

                Sadly, some people’s instincts lead them to shut themselves off from the body.  I have observed many people who are very guarded about sharing their troubles with the rest of the church.  This happens in the small-town churches that I pastor, where news moves at twice the speed of light!  Yet, many people don’t want people talking about them and their troubles.  No doubt they have observed some negative reactions to the troubles of others.  So, I don’t blame them for their reaction.  I blame the church, which has failed to create an environment of trust.  But, I encourage you to share your troubles with the church anyway.  The negative stuff is going to go on.  You can’t stop it no matter what you do.  Try to ignore it.  Because the risk you take by sharing your needs and troubles with other people is worthwhile.  You risk getting some negative comments.  You gain some true friends who will pray for you and encourage you at a critical point in your life. 

                As you grope your way into recovery, you also find that the church can really become your base of operations for recovery.  The church has the doctrines—the truths that provide a rational framework for your life.  It has the Scripture, which is God’s story that you are becoming a part of.  It has the Sacraments, the important symbols of God’s love and grace to you.  It has the fellowship, the loving, supportive people who are ready to share your life and to share their own lives with you.  And it has the God-ordained leadership that can help you to find direction in your life. 

F.  The God Who Sees

                The book of Genesis tells the story of Hagar.  Hagar was an innocent by-stander in the drama taking place in the household of Abraham and Sarah, the first family of the Hebrew nation.  Abraham had been called by God to become a great nation.  However, he and Sarah had no children.  This became a tremendous struggle of faith for Abraham.  Finally, Sarah gave Abraham her slave girl, Hagar, to bear a child.  This was an accepted practice in that day.  However, it was also against the promises of God.  Well, Hagar slept with Abraham and became pregnant.

                When this came about, Hagar began to flaunt her fecundity before Sarah, who was still childless.  This angered Sarah and she began to mistreat Hagar.  So Hagar ran away.  At a spring in the desert, the Lord encountered Hagar.  This is some of their conversation:

And he [the Lord’s angelic representative] said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai [Sarah was first called this], where have you come from, and where are you going?”

                “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

                Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”  The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”

                [After this the Lord spoke to her and predicted that she would bear a son named Ishmael.]  She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her:  “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”  That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi [“well of the Living One who sees me”]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar encountered God and found out God saw her.  She was a slave, possibly a teenager.  She had done what she was told—to sleep with her mistress’ husband.  And the result was that she and her mistress could not get along.  She ran from the situation and encountered God.  And she learned that God was fully aware of her life and all that went on in it.  And she found that God cared very much about her life and her destiny. 

                In the midst of our troubles, God is watching.  God sees us in our deep pain.  God understands and feels what it is like to lose a husband or a child or a friend.  God knows how much we may have loved a house that has burned to the ground.  God knows how much energy and attention we have put into a business that has failed.  God understands the hurt and isolation of betrayal by close associates.  God is the Living One Who Sees Me. 

                Jesus visited His friends Mary and Martha.  Their brother, Lazarus, had died.  The story, related in John 11, is a wonderful story of the triumph of Jesus.  At the end, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead as an illustration that He is the Resurrection and the Life.  However, before Jesus did that act, as He approached the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus wept. (John 11:35)  It is a brief statement, with no embellishment.  Jesus was going to the tomb to raise Lazarus, and yet He first wept with and for His friends who had lost their brother.  That seems to illustrate the character of God.  God has all things in His power.  He knows the end from the beginning.  He, more than anyone, sees The Big Picture and knows the ultimate triumph that awaits us.  And yet, He is sensitive to the pain we endure in this present order of existence.  It was enough to make Jesus cry.

                One of the painful aspects of suffering is a sense of loneliness, a sense that no one really understands our pain.  In those times, God knows, God sees, God understands.  You may be a lonely servant girl in the vast Middle Eastern desert, a lonely figure sitting by a spring-fed pool.  But right beside you is the Living One and He sees you.  He knows the hopelessness, the anger, the fear, the worry, the sadness, the loneliness.  He sees, and He cares.

G.  The Work of the Holy Spirit

                There are many sources of comfort and strength in our times of trouble and sadness.  I believe that a key element in our recovery process is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  God’s business is to heal us of our human condition.  We need to understand that statement.

                Remember, first, that the human condition in the present order of existence is a combination of the creative work of God and The Law of Sin and Death.  The redemptive work of God brings about the victory of the cross and resurrection into our lives.  That takes place in processes of salvation, by which we enter into The Law of the Spirit of Life. 

                When we experience a deep loss, especially the death of a loved one, then we are experiencing an effect of The Law of Sin and Death.  That experience can be very damaging.  Our loss wounds us deep inside.  I have seen people become recluses or bitter, hostile people, or promiscuous and reckless—all in reaction to death.  We have many resources, but there is a need for an internal healing. 

                I believe the Holy Spirit can bring about that healing.  Certainly, the church, our own faith, and our commitment to A-Team purpose can all play a role in our recovery.  But we should also avail ourselves, through honest, persistent prayer, of the healing power of the Holy Spirit.  In John 16:14, Jesus says of the Holy Spirit and His work:  “He will  bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”  So the Holy Spirit ministers to us the things of Jesus.  That includes the victory of Jesus, which is a victory over sin and death, and the effects of death.  Those effects include the depths of grief. 

                I agree with the experts who say that we need to go through a grieving process.  It is important to experience the emotions of grief, for those emotions connect us to the reality of our loss.  And I know that we can make a certain recovery simply by natural psychological processes.  But, I think that as Christians, our ultimate recovery is to walk in the victory of the resurrection.

                I want to caution you in two practical ways.  First of all, do not expect instantaneous healing.  Second, do not expect avoidance of emotions.  Emotions generally accompany the work of the Holy Spirit.  Third, do not expect that you will be delivered from missing your loved one.  What you can expect is a recovery into a full sense of the joy of your salvation.  You can expect once again to find fulfillment in The Big Picture.  With that recovery (which may take a matter of months or even a year), will come healthy relationships and healthy participation in all of life.

                How can the Holy Spirit do that?  By bringing the reality of Jesus—in all of His love and compassion and redemptive victory—into your life in a way that applies directly to your need for recovery.  God does not simply write dry theological texts and then expect us to apply them to our lives.  God the Holy Spirit has as His ministry to take the things of Jesus and apply them to your life situation. 

                How do you receive that ministry?  I would encourage you to spend private time in prayer, to be open to the prayers of Spirit-filled Christians as they lay hands on you.  And continue in your devotional and worship life-style that has sustained you in the past.  Wait patiently on the Lord and seek Him.  He will take advantage of the right time and place to begin His healing process within you.