Together

Now, in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Mark 1:35 NKJV

“This world is tricky and getting trickier every day. Man, sometimes it confuses me. Sometimes I lose my way in this world. Can ya’ll relate to that?”  I, for one, can relate to this statement by Grammy Award-winning Christian artist TobyMac (Toby McKeehan). During his concert in Colorado Springs last month, McKeehan shared about the challenges that he faced following the death of his son in 2019, and what he learned about God being there for him.

“What I’ve been hanging on to with everything in me for the last six-and-a-half years is this: God promises that if you have a relationship with him, he will never leave you or forsake you. It gets confusing when your heart gets broken, for all of us…You see, God didn’t promise us that we wouldn’t be hurt on this earth. He didn’t promise us that our hearts would not be broken. He didn’t promise us that we wouldn’t lose the ones that we love. What he promised is that he would never leave. And I can only tell you this from my own personal experience: He was there in the deepest of valleys.”  (Jessical Mouser, ChurchLeaders.com)

McKeehan, in the midst of his pain and sorrow, used his music as an avenue to express his deepest feelings as he journeyed through his loss. In his valley, he wrote the song “Help Is On the Way,” in which he expressed that the only way to survive was through Jesus.

I heard your heart
I see your pain
Out in the dark
Out in the rain
Feel so alone
Feel so afraid
I heard you pray in Jesus’ name

It may be midnight or midday
It’s never early, never late
He gon’ stand by what He claim
I’ve lived enough life to say (words from Help Is On The Way by TobyMac)

God is/will always be faithful in his promises to be with us, through days of bright light and most critical during the nights of deepest darkness. On this side of eternity, we will be faced with chapters of unexplainable events in our lives. We can trust that God will be there, even as we face unbearable pain. We find that there is only one place that will keep us sheltered: in God. We may still hurt, but He is there to prevent us from falling completely apart. James encourages us to “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:8a). “One of the best ways to prevent your heart from growing cold is to regularly talk with God.” (Henry Blackaby)

“The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer…We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. It is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.” (Oswald Chambers)

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” I Thessalonians 3:12-13)

Hopefully, we realize quickly that we need others to walk with us as an engaged prayer community. Trusting our deepest needs with those who will become “rope holders” to keep us from falling off the edge. A community of prayerful pilgrims who stand with us. I witnessed a powerful prayer community surrounding a little 16-month-old facing a life-threatening incident this past week. A community calling on God for healing and holding the ropes for her parents and grandparents.  “Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. Psalm 55:1 (NIV). What seemed impossible is now a place where a community and a family rejoice, as God has miraculously intervened.

What does a prayer community look like? One example given by John Michael Talbot is a great starting point.  “Prayer is the strength of our individual and community existence. It is through prayer that we find the heart of our love relationship with Jesus as individuals, and it is through the love relationship of Jesus working in individual lives that communities prosper in peace and unity. It is in the solitude of prayer that we find our true companion and thus learn to be better companions of others. It is in the inner silence of prayer that we hear the living word of God, and thus learn to speak words that flow from the love of God to one another.”

We do not always get the answer we expected, but we always have God’s presence to see us through every circumstance. We never give up because God never gives up. Whatever situation you or I may face, we have a Savior who provides a way. Together, may we find encouragement in this prayer of benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace – Numbers 6:24-26

God is great!