I write best late at night. The house is quiet, the kids are sleeping, it’s dark outside. And the creative juices start flowing in a way that is not interrupted the way it is in the daylight hours.
In the nighttime, my thoughts can meander and my heart can ponder the deeply felt things I am carrying inside. The unhindered mingling of these two parts of me can then form links that my fingers put to paper. It’s similar to what author Cheri Gregory calls “pray-cessing," a form of prayerful processing going on inside the soul.
At the end of last week’s counseling sessions, I listened to The Blessing on repeat. It was my way of “pray-cessing” the hard things I had heard and held space for, lifting up my clients and their ache-filled, sacred stories before the Lord.
I sang, I worshipped, and I pictured myself putting each of them into the Lord’s hands. The part that exploded in my heart was the line, “He is for you…”
The entire song is beautiful, but these lyrics became the prayer I symbolically sang over each of their souls…unbeknownst to them, of course…
May His presence go before you And behind you, and beside you All around you, and within you He is with you, He is with you
In the morning, in the evening In your coming, and your going In your weeping, and rejoicing He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you He is for you, He is for you He is for you, He is for you
If I could share one “felt” truth with them, it would be “He is for you.” Not in those words, not in a canned scripture verse, but in a way that is deeper than language.
In the midst of all the hardship, pain, loss, & loneliness, I would wish that they could feel God’s heart beating this soothing rhythm, “I am for you.”
I would wish that they could feel this truth in their bones. That was the essence of my prayer.
So my friend, because we ALL have broken parts of us, because we all have difficult parts to our stories, if you need to be reminded, here it is:
God is for you. He really is for you. Deeply, emphatically, lovingly FOR you.
May you feel & believe this in such a way that it carries you through whatever you are facing in this season.
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