Since launching this blog, this is my first post that actually IS about our journey with our third son River – another emergency surgery for a shunt malfunction this past week (read my home page for an understanding of this statement). This post is not about the stormy seas, but rather, the heart staying steady despite them (borrowed from Sanctus Real – “All Along”)

A quick fast forward to now, people look at us wondering and asking how on earth we got through a surprise brain surgery with such strength. Well, this is how God is good. “God never gives us more than we can handle” is a phrase Christians like to criticize, but what IS true is that when we have a chance to COMPLETELY SUBMIT ourselves to the Lord and His plan, God PREPARES US. When we look to God and ask that He provides us with His armor (Ephesians 6:10-18), we are UNFLAPPABLE. The problem is that we tend not to live like this! We don’t look to the Word like we look to air. I think we do tend to look up when trouble is on the horizon, and what blows my mind is that God doesn’t hold this against us – He embraces us just the same!! No matter how lost we are, no matter how far we are, no matter how many times we seize the control in our day-to-day as we set time with Him on a shelf of stuff we know we need to get to soon, He holds us and He comforts us and He follows through on His promises. What promises? The promise to never leave us or forsake us, the promise to give us this day our daily bread, the promise of comfort even in the valley of death, the promise of the fruits of the spirit coming alive in us when we seek first His kingdom…..are you picking up what I’m putting down? Stay with me…….

A friend of mine named Marilyn – she started as a friend of my mom’s, but my mom’s friends became MY friends when we first embarked on this journey with River – she sent me a screenshot of a page from the book “Songs of Suffering” by Joni Eareckson Tada the other day, way before we had any problems with River on our radar. ***If you don’t have friends who regularly remind you of your child-of-God-status – get you some of those!!!*** I didn’t totally understand the context, but honestly the context isn’t needed!

“If I stand firm to the end, you promise you’ll save me; you give strength to the weary; I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” I was now shouting, “God, I’m running to you; your name is a strong tower. Jesus, you say that everything is possible with your grace, so please help me do the impossible. Help me get through this.” I kept repeating Bible promises for the next five miles.

When we arrived at the office, something was different. My anguish had not lessened, but I had courage. Now, some people might say my rapid-fire litany only served to distract me from my misery. But I knew better. God came through on his promises. He renewed me. Refreshed me. Encouraged me. His promises helped me to the impossible, and I no longer felt defeated.

I got out of the van, wheeled through the office door, and sang as I went up the ramp. Everyone on the first floor could hear me belting out “Standing on the Promises” like a happy Baptist at Saturday night revival. To me, Charles Spurgeon nails what happened that day:

“The precious promises of our great God are distinctly intended to be taken to him and exchanged for the blessings which they guarantee….Take care how you pray. Make real business of it….[Some] do not plead the promise in a truthful….way. What is prayer but the promise pleaded? A promise, is, so to speak, the raw material of prayer. Prayer irrigates the fields of life with the waters which are stored up in the reservoirs of promise. The promise is the power of prayer. We go to God, and we say to him, “Do as you have said. O Lord, here is your Word; we ask you to fulfill it.”

WOW. That last paragraph by Charles Spurgeon, read that again!!

This was sent to me weeks ago…..but this past Saturday, my husband found the first sign that something was wrong with River’s shunt, and it felt like a physical launch back into the traumatic waters we had with River two years ago (three brain surgeries in 2021). Nate said all the right things to slow down my spinning mind with an action plan and how we had to let it go, but when does the worry creep back in but the hours you wake in the middle of the night?? And this text from Marilyn is what came to mind, and my mind was just so lazer-focused on this concept that I never really heard put this way – that prayer is the promise pleaded. This exchange we have with God, where we take what He speaks to us, that He wants us to own, and how do we own it? By handing it right back to Him. That is prayer. That is so beautifully, so simply……prayer.

And the rest of this week is history because I had the Lord by my side. “My anguish had not lessened, but I had courage.”

You don’t risk Jesus not bringing you back into His mighty arms and fulfilling His promises when we put him at bay. What you risk is anguish that is without courage. I’m going to quote When Harry Met Sally here to conclude this post: “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” If we know and believe how rich and plentiful our lives are when seeking first His Word and His closeness, we don’t seek Him out of obligation. We seek out of desire, and we do it NOW; we don’t shelf it. Lord, forgive us when we forget or ignore Your promises, which we know you do and you will, and transform our hearts to desire You, to reach out and touch your cloak out of our own desperation for You. The scene from Passion of the Christ where Mary crawls on the ground towards Jesus….the way He looks at her and lifts her up – OH MAN. This is the picture I am trying to paint in this post- see it here: “In Christ Alone”

Lord, give our hearts this song – “This is the Gospel” by Elevation Rhythm !!!! Let this be our anthem this week.