Paths Of Waiting Before The Lord is my latest music album of comforting Christian prayersongs, released last month. This new video recounts through my original art and in my own words the compelling story behind that album.
May the Lord use my story on this video to bless and encourage those who need to be reminded that Jesus loves them, of His forgiveness and grace, and that He answers our prayers in His own way and time, according to our needs, in Jesus’ name, amen.
To listen to the songs on Paths of Waiting follow the link to my Hear & Now Website or listen on your favorite streaming station.
It was 5 weeks ago today that I fell and broke my left humerus.
I didn’t think I could survive this affliction the pain was so excruciating and it left me quitedebilitated.
But here it is five weeks later and the Lord has helped me persevere despite what I was dead certain I could not live through. He is showing me yet again that He will never fail me in the trials He takes me through. He in His limitless love, mercy, and faithfulness has provided everything I’ve needed and so much support and prayer from so many wonderful people.
Through every trial He takes me, though it’s never pleasant, I’m always reminded He is always with me and He never fails. If He hasn’t failed me thus far, then I don’t have to walk in fear and doubt that next time a crisis occurs, He might slip up.
But as the following scripture passage from the Book of Hebrews relates, that is just what happened long ago to God’s special people whom He rescued from Egypt.
“God’s Holy Spirit says this:
‘You must listen when you hear God speak today.
Do not refuse to obey Him.
Do not be like God’s people many years ago.
When they travelled in the wilderness, they turned against Me.
They wanted to see if I would punish them.
For 40 years your ancestors saw the great things that I did.But still they did not obey Me.
That is why I became angry with them. I said, “They always want to do what is wrong. They refuse to understand My message.”
Because of that, I promised to punish them.Because I was angry with them, I said, “They will never arrive in My special place of rest.” ’
So be careful, my Christian friends. Do not refuse to trust God.That would be a very bad thing to do.
Do not turn away from the God who lives for ever.
Instead, help each other to be strong every day.
Today, you can still hear God’s message.
While that is still true, do not refuse to obey God.
Do not think that sin will not hurt you. That is a lie.
We must continue to trust Christ very well, as we did when we first believed in Him.
We must continue to trust Him until the end of our lives.
Then we will share in everything that is His. We have seen what the Bible says:
‘You must listen when you hear God speak today. Do not refuse to obey Him.
Hebrews 3:7-14 EASY
FEAR AND DOUBT
The Hebrew children saw God’s mighty works, His miracles, for forty years as they traversed the desert wilderness.
God often tested their faith, but instead of trusting Him building on the experience of how He’d brought them through the previous times, they repeatedly fussed, doubted, and complained against God and grew not in their faith.
They seemed never to cross that bridge of fear and worry to advance with God toward the Promised Land.
This gives us a sobering message and warning.
For all God’s children will be tested in our faith according to His Word. However the Lord asks that we trust Him.
How often The Lord in His mercy has spoken to my heart in the midst of countless afflictions, “These troubles are not going to kill you. However, fear, stress, doubt, and depression ~ now these are the dark things that can kill you. But trust, hope and faith will conquer those things and you have to choose to walk with Me by faith.”
“Many adversities come to the one who is righteous,but the Lord delivers him from them all.”
Psalms 34:19 HCSB
“He protects all his bones; not one of them is broken.”
Psalms 34:20 HCSB
I asked the Lord, why He didn’t keep His scripture promise to protect my bones.
The Holy Spirit reminded me that first of all Psalm 34:20 is a prophecy referring to the Lord Jesus Christ specifically, but in a metaphorical sense the Lord will keep all the bones of His children from breaking always.
What are bones? They are the foundation of our body. And God in this verse is promising to hold together my very foundation no matter what adversity I might have to face from any trial He puts me through. Jesus Christ God’s Son, holds all things together, even the very foundation of my being.
“Christ is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.”
Colossians 1:17 HCSB
No matter if everything seems like it is going to fall apart, Christ is still here, ever present, holding all things together. His word promises “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word…” Hebrews 1:3 HCSB
Peter wrote:
“You are being protected by God’s powerthrough faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to struggle in various trials so that the genuineness of your faith —more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 1:5-7 HCSB
Whatever challenge we may find ourselves in right now, it is a good idea to look back over the trials we have faced in the past and write down how God has brought us through those hard times.
Rehearse how faithful the Lord has been to you and give Him thanks. This practice will strengthen your faith.
I know He has never failed our family or anyone I can think of who has trusted in Him. So many people I know have amazing stories to tell of His awesome faithfulness.
We might be tempted to think that if the Hebrew children had taken the time to review God’s amazing miracles with each trial they faced during their forty year sojourn, perhaps faith would have overcome doubt and fear.
However, no one can judge them. For it must have been very hard for those people. Whenever I put myself in their shoes I shudder and thank our merciful God for sending His Son Jesus Christ to be the propitiation for our sins, He is our Mercy Seat.
Personally I know from some of the testings the Lord has put me through that I am certainly no better than His precious Hebrew children were. And I am so grateful for His mercy and grace expressed in the sacrifice of His Son. For we turn the chapter and the writer of Hebrews offers us hope:
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens —Jesus the Son of God —let us hold fast to the confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.”
Hebrews 4:14-16 HCSB
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your only Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins that we may be forgiven and made Yours forever. Help us to review the ways in which You have come through for us in the past and trust that You will never fail us no matter what is going on now to challenge our faith. Thank You, Lord, we love You, In Jesus holy name, amen.
“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God — who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly — and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.”
“Lord Help Me Endure To The End” is a prayer song inspired by a scripture verse that Jesus spoke to His disciples when He was talking to them about prophetic events of the dark last days.
Jesus said, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
Matthew 24:13 KJV
What does the word Jesus used for endure mean?
ὑπομένω hupomenō~~Thayer Definition:
1) to remain, 1a) to tarry behind, 2) to remain, i.e. abide, not recede or flee,
2a) to persevere under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one’s faith in Christ
2b) to endure, bear bravely and calmly: ill treatments
This verse with its word meaning has spoken volumes to me as I have studied and meditated over them.
I’m so thankful the Lord gave me this prayer song to encourage me to meditate on this verse as I seek Him in prayer and in His Word, especially now.
No stranger to affliction being a sufferer of chronic daily migraines and fibromyalgia, I was painting to distract myself from pain early one morning last month.
Mark reminded me of an appointment I had to get ready for so I got in a rush to print my painting and get ready for the day.
Alas, as I rounded the corner of my bed I tripped and fell backwards landing on my left side and crashed onto the hardwood floor.
Horrified, I saw my left arm detached from my body. In excruciating pain, I thought my hip and neck were broken, as they were hurting as much as my arm and shoulder, also I could not move. Talk about screaming. My beloved Mark was by my side in a second.
I had to be taken to the hospital where they did imaging. Not only did I have bruises all over the left part of my body, but the X-Rays and scans revealed that I’d severely fractured my left humerus. Thank the Lord I had broken nothing else. I returned home with my left arm in a heavy splint and sling. It was so heavy in fact, I could barely walk. The pain was unbearable. I learned how disabled one is made by such a severe injury.
At first I just felt manacled by that awful splint and was sent into panic mode in certain positions. I was in more pain than I’d ever been in my life and I begged God to take me to Heaven. He kept saying nope. Not only did I find the pain beyond my endurance, I couldn’t tolerate being so helpless and dependent on others for assistance in EVERYTHING.
The Lord said, “ENDURE.”
Hadn’t I suffered enough, I asked.
The Lord was not going to let me off the hook.
He reminded me of the prayer song He had given me, “Lord Help Me Endure To The End.”
He reminded me of the other prayer song with lyrics He had given me on my most recent release Paths of Faith, “I Will Lay Down My Life.”
Migraines flared up the agony in my fractured arm even more. The wretched splint caused huge tormenting tension knots in my back and neck. I could not get comfortable nor sleep in my bed but had to sleep in Mark’s recliner.
Despite my misery, the Lord showered me with rivers of His measureless mercy. He sent wonderful home healthcare people to assist me. They always ended up telling me about folks who were far worse off than I was and this would somehow comfort me because I not only then felt I was not alone in my pain, it motivated me to pray for people who suffered as I did.
Prayer was the only way I could lay my life down in love for others because of my disability, while others were laying their lives down in love for me. The Lord always sent me people with the most cheerful attitudes. They somehow could make me laugh despite my intense pain.
Our son flew home from LA to help my husband with my care.
Our daughter being tied up with myriad issues in Tucson did many wonderful things for us that we needed assistance with by ordering things we required and had them sent to us.
We were surrounded by love. God showed His mercy and faithfulness in so many ways that helped me to hang on when I thought I could not endure another moment of pain. Many from our church sent beautiful cards and prayers while our friend Sharon came and stayed with me twice so Mark could run some necessary errands.
Our Pastor came over and anointed me with oil and prayed for my healing. All of these beautiful expressions of God’s love comforted me, reminding me that our Heavenly Father still loved me despite my suffering.
One night after I finally fell asleep exhausted from the pain, I dreamed that the Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven and into my living room. He stood by the recliner where I lay sleeping and He checked on my arm as if He were a doctor checking on my progress. I dreamed this two nights in a row. I woke up very comforted both times, assured of His love for me.
But on days when the hours stretched by and my pain level stayed at a ten I became depressed and wept, praying for God’s mercy and repenting for everything I could think of that might have upset the Lord. For when we go through serial trials we can’t help but look up and ask the Lord, “What did I do wrong?”
Whenever I ask the Lord questions like that He refers me to His Word. From the Epistle of James: “My Christian friends, remember to be happy, even when many kinds of trouble happen to you. Troubles can help you. God wants to see if you really trust Him. Your faith in God will become stronger as a result of these troubles. So you should continue to trust God all the time. Then you will become stronger as a Christian. You will become completely how you should be. You will not need anything more.” James 1:2-4 (*Easy English Bible)
The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to comfort me and assure me that God is using my trials to enlarge my faith.
“We thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He is so good to us. As our Father, He is very kind to us. He is our God who comforts us in every way. Whenever we have trouble, He comforts us. Because of that, we ourselves can comfort other people. When they have any kind of trouble, we can comfort them, in the same way that God has comforted us. Christ himself received much pain, and God comforted Him. As Christ’s servants, we also receive the same kind of pain. But, God also comforts us very much, because we belong to Christ.”2 Corinthians 1:3-5 *(Easy English Bible)
Peter the Apostle wrote that we should expect to have suffering and trials as Christians.
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” 1 Peter 4:12-13 KJV
Peter asserted that suffering and pain motivate the Christian to do God’s will instead of their own will, even as Christ did His Father’s will on earth.
“Christ had trouble and pain while He lived in His human body. So you should prepare yourselves to have trouble and pain too. Think about it in the same way that Christ did. If someone has trouble and pain in his body, he stops doing wrong things. As a result, that person will want to do what God wants him to do. In his life in this world, he will not want to do the bad things that people think are good.” 1 Peter 4:1-2 (*Easy English Bible)
“That is why we never give up.
Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT (*New Living Translation)
Scripture Quotations from the King James Version Bible Translation, the Easy English Bible, The New Living Bible Translation, All of which are copyrighted by their various publishers.
*Created through the Indwelling Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Inspired by His Holy Spirit, To The Glory of God The Father, In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Peaceangel Song 
You must be logged in to post a comment.