Photo Credit: YouTube
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for You are with me…” – Psalm 23:4
We really never know what another person is going through. Just last night, I was attending a concert where my musician son‘s 7th and 8th grade students were playing their guitar pieces. During a different group’s performance, my attention was drawn to my cell phone. Exchanging texts with my sister-in-law about my dad. He’s not doing well, and she was updating me on how he was last night. This unfortunately might have been a distraction to parents around me, wondering why I couldn’t just leave my cell phone in my purse. I have thought the same myself at other times. If these only knew…
It’s tricky for me to try to give a blast of encouragement through this written word…to you. I don’t know the depth of your situation…some of you I don’t know at all. Forgive me for anything that comes across to you as judging what you’re going through, without knowing really. Judging is not where I am at all…I want to somehow join you in your battle. God strengthens us in our own battles as we stand alongside each other.
It’s clear that battles rage in our lives. For me, there is my dad who suffers from Alzheimer’s and a smoldering cancer, and I live states away. Fortunately, he is under the watchful eye of family very nearby – family who loves him and intervenes for him. There are other circumstances that darken my thoughts and disturb sleep…like you, it’s probably never just one thing, is it?
What keeps me taking the next step, and staying engaged, and pressing into life is God and his love for and presence with us. As much as some, even friends of mine, may think, He is not a fairy tale or an imaginary friend. Every breath…every single breath…I owe to Him. He is as real to me as anything in this life…both the wonderful and the wretched stuff of this life…He pierces through all of that, especially when I’m embattled by some terrible burden. Even in His silence, I know He is near…because He says He is, and His grace in that moment gives evidence.
I would not trivialize those terrifying moments when we have seemingly lost the battle…when we feel we can’t go on…or don’t even know where to go if we pressed forward. All I know is that when those times have been my experience, across this lengthening life of mine…He is there with us, and He will fight our battles for us if we cling to Him.
Visual art helps me sometimes when a volume of words is beyond my grasping, especially in low times. A print of the painting (below left) hung in my older brother’s room, during some dark nights of soul for him. He was the sort who would toss such a thing in the back of his closet if it didn’t help…the truth that God doesn’t forget us may have been the last thing he gripped in those times of depression. The image on the right (below) is a strong reminder that God has promised us in many passages in His Word, that He will not let go of His children. Never!
Photo Credit: Pinterest, Pinterest
That “not letting go” is something I know intimately about being a child of God. In my 20’s especially, I pretty much let go of God. Trying to pursue relationships and dreams that had little to do with Him and much to do with my own destruction. He never let go of me through all of that.
Photo Credit: Pinterest
For King & Country, a band of Christians, understands this God who gives us hope. They’ve recently released a song It’s Not Over Yet, which encourages me. They wrote this song out of their own experiences of hardship and illness in their personal lives. It’s so real, and it’s so true.
Worship with me…and remember that God holds both our present and our future in strong and capable hands. He holds us. There is an evil in this world that tries to beat us down and whispers in our thoughts (sometimes using our own voice, really) to quit, give up, don’t keep fighting. This is where we must fight through – for ourselves and each other – and rest in God who loves us completely.
They are inside your head
You got a voice that says
You won’t get past this one
You won’t win your freedom
It’s like a constant war
And you wanna settle a score
But you’re bruised and beaten
And you feel defeated
This goes out to the heaviest hearts
(Chorus)
Oh, to everyone who’s hit their limit
It’s not over yet, it’s not over yet
And even when you think you’re finished
It’s not over yet, it’s not over yet
Keep on fighting
Out of the dark, into the light, it’s not over
Hope is rising
Never give in, never give up, it’s not over
Yet, whoa, yet, whoa
Game, set, match
Time to put it in your past
Feel the winter leaving
It’s redemption season
Long live the young at heart
Cheers to a brand new start
We’re revived and breathing
To live a life of freedom
Until the kingdom comes
We’ll run till the race is won
Don’t you ever give up
No, no never give up
Until the kingdom comes
We’ll run till the race is won
Don’t you ever give up
We will never give up*
YouTube Video – Story Behind the Song It’s Not Over Yet
5 Comforting Verses for When You Feel Weak – Michelle Lindsey
Worship Wednesday – Shoulders – For King & Country