"Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee:
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
Psalm 55:22
(KJV)
What a mighty God we serve!
He is able to absorb every burden of every person and sustain each one of us, too!
I often think of the many times I come to Him, heavy-hearted and laden with care,
and it occurs to me that I am only one of literally billions of Christians who do the same thing every, single day.
About Christianity, I found this on Wikipedia...
"The faith represents approximately one-third of the world's population and is the largest religion in the world, with the three largest groups of Christians being the Catholic Church, Protestantism, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The largest Christian denomination is the Catholic Church, with 1.09 billion adherents."
According to this, one-third of the world's population are Christians.
If each one of them call upon Him as frequently as I do,
that is a whole lot of praying going on.
And, yet, our omnipresent, Almighty God hears every one of those prayers...
even the whispered, barely-audible ones.
Even the ones that are spoken in tears...and tears alone.
Gordon Jensen wrote a song that says this,
"Tears are a language. God understands."
(Video at end of post.)
In the book, "Echoes From The Heart", there are original and selected sacred poems
arranged and compiled by Emma Moody, wife of the great preacher, Dwight L. Moody.
The book was published in 1876, and in it is contained one of my favorite poems.
The Lord brought it to mind as I was penning this post,
and how very shocked I was to discover that the title to this poem is taken directly from the exact, same Scripture He gave me to include at the very beginning!!!
I can't begin to tell you how many times God does things like this as I am writing and sharing the burdens He has placed upon my heart.
It is all Divine orchestration, as I have nothing of my own to offer that is in any way inspired or of any significant or eternal importance.
The poem of which I speak is called,
"Cast Thy Burden Upon The Lord, and He Shall Sustain Thee".
Oh, the countless times these precious words have comforted me through the years,
as I hope they will encourage you now!
Sadly, I could not identify the author of these inspired words, so I do not know who to accredit.
What I do know is that the original poem was slightly altered and beautifully set to music by Barney E. Warren and published in 1893,
It is his version that I have heard and sung and loved so dearly since childhood,
and his is the version I am including here.
(If you care to read the original, unaltered poem that was published in Emma Moody's book,
you can do so by clicking here.)
"Christian, when thy way seems darkest,
And thine eyes with tears are dim,
Straight to God, thy Father, hast’ning,
Tell thy sorrows unto Him.
Not to human ear confiding
Thy sad tale of grief and care,
But, before thy Father, kneeling,
Pour out all thy sorrows there.
Sympathy of friends may cheer thee,
When the raging storm is past,
But God only can console thee,
In the wild, terrific blast.
Go with words, or tears, or silence,
Only lay them at His feet:
Thou shalt prove how great His pity,
And His tenderness how sweet.
Think how thy divine Redeemer
Knows, as thou canst never know,
All the deepest depths of suff’ring,
All the weight of human woe.
And, though now in glory seated,
He can hear thy feeblest cry,
Even hear the stifled sighings
Of the dumb heart’s agony.
All thy griefs by Him permitted,
Needful is each one to thee;
All thy tears by Him are counted,
One too much there cannot be.
And if, while they fall so quickly,
Thou canst own His way is right,
Then each bitter tear of anguish,
Precious is in Jesus’ sight.
For too well thy Savior loves thee
To allow thy life to be
One long, calm, unbroken summer,
One unruffled, stormless sea.
He would have thee fondly nestle,
Closer to His loving breast;
He would have that world seem brighter,
Where alone is perfect rest."
Did you catch this part?
"Go with words, or tears, or silence,
Only lay them at His feet;
Thou shalt prove how great His pity,
And His tenderness how sweet."
How many of us can vouch for this?
How many of us have fallen upon our knees countless times,
tears flowing incessantly,
unable to utter even a word,
yet, we knew, deep within our hearts, that God understood completely.
yet, we knew, deep within our hearts, that God understood completely.
Words are not necessary for God to understand.
I seem to call upon Him more and more.
I find that the longer I serve Him and the longer I live,
the more I need Him and depend upon His strength.
Sometimes, I feel bad for asking so much of Him,
and my daily prayers begin to sound like a broken record.
And then I remember the words dear Mom spoke to me so many times...
"Cheryl, God is pleased the most when we lean on Him the hardest."
God wants us to lean on Him.
He wants to hear our prayers.
He delights in the sound of our petitions being raised to His throne of grace.
What a blessed privilege is prayer!
I come before you precious prayer warriors once again with another prayer request.
Some of you know Chris Thompson, who blogs at So Much At Home,
and you may remember the original prayer request for her nephew, Jonathan Stevens,
that I posted here last August.
I am sorry to say that Jonathan continues to have health issues and needs a lot of prayer.
I am sorry to say that Jonathan continues to have health issues and needs a lot of prayer.
Here is the updated information about his condition in Chris's own words.
"As you know, he (Jonathan) has been having trouble for quite some time now.
I know that you remember doing a prayer post for him before.
He has had his appendix and gallbladder removed.
He has had several lab tests.
He still has trouble with getting sick and vomiting after he eats.
I think the doctor did say that he has Barrett's Disease.
(In Barrett's esophagus, tissue in the tube connecting your mouth and stomach (esophagus) is replaced by tissue similar to the intestinal lining.)
However, that should not be causing all his trouble and sickness.
His blood work has been showing elevated liver enzymes, and today he had more blood work done. The doctor called him back while he was on the way home and told him that he needed a liver biopsy. This was very sudden and has caused much worry for him and our family.
I have no other information on the test results from today.
Please be in prayer that his biopsy will show nothing life threatening."
Please add Jonathan to your prayer lists and ask others to pray for him.
Pray for the answers he needs and for peace for him and his family.
Pray for our dear friend, sister in the Lord, and fellow blogger, Chris,
as we all know how hard it is to worry and feel such concern over a loved one who is ill.
We are looking for God to heal Jonathan and bring him through whatever lies ahead of him.
"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
Mark 9:23
******************************************************************
Next, I would like to ask you to please continue to pray for Baby Brody,
who still stands in much need of prayer.
I received this update from his grandmother, Debbie, this morning:
"We have Brody home, and it's been so nice having him here.
It has been a huge adjustment though...we all are still figuring out the best way to take care of him. We bought a two shelf rolling cart from Amazon to move equipment from his bedroom to the living room. We ordered another crib mattress to have him higher in the crib so it's easier to reach him better for the treatments. We've been working on these kinds of things every night. We put a toddler bed in the living room for him to lay in so he can be with the family and not just staying in his crib in the back bedroom. We want him near us throughout the day. He loves being with us and is so much happier to be at home, he smiles all the time now. We are all trying to be creative on his care, learning easier ways to move equipment, bathe him, doing his breathing treatments and most importantly, figuring out what makes him happy and more comfortable.
We have a nurse here during the day hours and it is helping some.
It does give Jenn a little time to shower and rest.
She has to do his treatments on Brody every 4 hours, and they can take up to four hours."
I can't even imagine how hard all of this is...on the family, and also on this precious baby boy!
The future must loom as an insurmountable challenge to this dear family,
and they would surely appreciate your continued prayers for them....
for strength, for peace, for healing for Brody, and for wisdom as to his care and future.
God bless them all and hold them ever close to His loving heart.
(To read previous posts about Brody, please click the follow links:
And, God bless all of you, dear readers, and hold you ever close, too.
I know many of you are battling your own hard trials.
Many of your crosses have become exceedingly heavy to carry,
and you feel that you will fall beneath your load.
I want to remind you that God is with you...
even in those moments that He feels a million miles away,
and it seems that He doesn't notice all you are going through.
His eye is upon you, and for purposes greater than you or I may ever know or understand,
He is allowing you to walk through this valley of heartache.
Please hold on to His nail-scarred hand, and know that He loves you so much!
His love for you goes deeper than you can even imagine,
and He does not permit your trials to come without purpose.
He is working in you "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:17,18
We must continue to press on and walk by faith, and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
One day, all of this will be over.
There will come a day when you will remember this no more.
For you will be with Him!
For eternity in Heaven!
Can you even imagine?
Until then, God bless you, dear one.
Look up, and be of good cheer!
Our Redemption draws very nigh!
I leave you with His precious words....being spoken now to you, my dear friend....
"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh."
Luke 21:28
and
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also."
John 14:1-3
and
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
John 16:33
And remember this....
If video doesn't load, click here.
