Dengue week.

As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
- Psalms 18:30

What a week! But I guess the turmoil is over, and really, all is well now. I'm just so glad that it is all over at last. And I really thank the Lord for He was and is my shield as I trust in Him, He has protected and guided me thru these turbulence times. If you still do not know what has happened to me, I shall give a short summary. Right after last sunday, I was down with a high fever which lasted the whole week. A bad bad bad fever. Plus the headache and nauseasness and diarrhoea. And the fact that I lost my appetite for eating or drinking the whole week. So it was really, THAT BAD. And the good thing is, I don't remember what I did for the 5 days because I literally slept through them, however with lotsa pain. I visited TTSH A&E on the first day, Marine Parade Poly on Thursday before being directly sent to KK Hospital on Saturday via ambulance. And finally, we realised that I've got dengue! Wow. Hahaha. I went on drip since Saturday. So I definitely felt better since saturday because I was struggling with the fact that I had no appetite for 5 days and thus being so worn down and haggard. The awful fact that my mom can't stop telling others of how I looked like an old man, without water and food for a week, may have better described me at that point. And I actually thought dengue was a very serious case, as in those that you have like 50-50 chance of living type. So I was quite apprehensive at the thougght of dengue ever since day 1. However it was okay when I discovered that it was very very common and not exactly very serious. Well, I have been through alot alot alot the past week. Survived such a physically draining and trying week and its time to reflect and praise God again!

I was thinking of the verse to use again, and the verse above came into my head. I read up the chapter containing that verse. Hmmmm, it was a very nice chapter to begin with.

Psalms 18:1-3
1 I will love You, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.

28 For You will light my lamp;
The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.
30 As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

31 For who is God, except the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.
34 He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great.
36 You enlarged my path under me,
So my feet did not slip.

Encouraging chapter of praise of thanks from David. But verse 30 stood out and explains my circumstance the best.

As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

His way is perfect! The word of the Lord is proven, He is a shield to all who trust in Him! And I really really have to make known that through the lowest and toughest points of the week God really upheld me and brought me through. Well, two incidents keep coming back to my mind as I was ill. First was Job's story and second was Paul. Both men were tried by the Lord through physical trials so they naturally came to my remembrance as I suffered physically. Nonethless they were much of an encouragement to me. As I remembered Job, I remembered that it was all not about me, but about God. As He explained Himself to Job, that through all testings and suffering, it was to bring glory to His name and not to Job's. It was to glorify His Holy Name and had nothing to do with Job. I realised my physical sufferings had nothing to do with me either, but was and is to bring glory and honor to the Lord. When I considered Paul's suffering, I remembered God explaining to Him that His grace was sufficient for Him and Paul was to depend on the Lord even for His physical trials. I knew through my own trial I had to depend on the Lord also, and to trust fully that His grace was sufficient for me. He IS a shield to all who trust in Him! And I am glad that the Lord showed me these two things the past week.

I was rather perplexed to fall ill at this time because I knew I had to make use of the week to do alot of my ACE assignments which was supposed to be self-iniated projects submitted for final year marks. I have not been doing them through the year so I had to be rushing them at this point of time. But I guess the Lord had better plans. At first I also didnt think it would be useful for me to really do nothing but sleep. But I realised the Lord really placed this week for me to rest. I slept a whole lot of hours and now I feel refreshed. A week of rest for the 6 gruelling weeks ahead for me. Thats so thoughtful of the Lord! God's way is perfect. and I guess it better reaffirms this fact.

And I really thank those who have kept me in prayers. I thank you all so much because I know God heard them. I thank the Lord for His merciful hand sustaining and healing me through your prayers. I appreciate those who sent me short sms-es to encourage me. Thank you so much. You never know how they perk me up when I'm so bored on bed. And also for those who came down to visit, thanks for coming down, really.