Wonderful message and preaching 🎉

Jonny I feel your sermon has hit the bullseye in how I’ve been both living & reflecting on my life in recent weeks. Nearly 7 years of living with Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). I was no longer able to physically attend church from 2018 onwards, I stopped working in July 2021 due to the ME/CFS. Type-2 Diabetes followed in January 2022, then Hyperacusis (noise sensitivity) & Tinnitus were diagnosed in August 2022. My ground floor Housing Association flat is located directly next to 4 lanes of dual carriageway traffic, my bed is 20 feet away from the nearest lane & also adjacent to my flat there’s a pollution monitoring booth which looks like it’s about to fall apart, located in a town centre where 16 busy lanes of traffic converge from first thing in the morning until late at night. The relentless noise eventually triggered stress, anxiety & panic attacks. One of the primary symptoms of ME/CFS is sensory overload, hypersensitivity to light & sound. Wearing headphones only lowers my tolerance to sounds, especially noise pertinent to Hyperacusis. I live behind closed curtains because the light hurts my eyes & looking at the relentless river of traffic makes me feel physically nauseous. After making multiple applications to my Housing Association to move on health grounds, only for each application to be rejected, I learned my applications were being assessed by a panel of three housing association staff, none of whom were medically qualified to assess the impact of my living environment on my health. At the beginning of 2024 feelings of suicide eventually began to preoccupy my thoughts on a daily basis. The first attempt came on a rainy Friday morning in January. As I was about to jump from a multi-storey car park I heard the voice of a man. He said, “Hello mate. I realise you’re not feeling so good today but please don’t do that.” I felt somewhat confused. When I arrived on the top floor of the car park, there was just one car parked there & a brief glance through the rain swept window suggested there was no occupant. The man eventually talked me down & I received support from a short-stay, community-based NHS psychiatric service. A couple of months later I felt suicidal again. I lied down in the middle of the road junction next to my flat. I wanted to be killed by my tormentors. Concerned a disgruntled motorist might just drag me out of the way, I held a knife to my throat. I’d only just gotten myself into position & closed my eyes when I heard the voice of a woman. She said, “Don’t do that love. I was in a similar situation to you 3 weeks ago. I drove my car into an oak tree. My husband left me for another woman, after 23 years of marriage. I was sectioned. You just need help & I’m going to sit here on this road with you until the paramedics arrive.” I was assessed by the paramedics to be medically fit then promptly arrested for possession of a bladed article, an offence with a maximum 4 years sentence. Fortunately the duty solicitor was excellent & the Magistrates Court seemed to recognise I meant no harm to anyone other than myself. I was served 6 months of probation. I believe God saved me with timely interventions from concerned others, when I could no longer go any further by relying on myself. He saved me from my place in Hell. Now God is renewing me, on several levels. Gradually rebuilding me with a new mindset & perspective on life. More recently, God has introduced me to intercessory prayer which I can do, even if I’m bed bound. I continue to have faith God will heal me, physically & mentally but it’s the spiritual surgery he’s now performing on me, when I meet Him in The Secret Place, which is restoring my relationship with Him.