Backstory:

My Mom and I are currently memorizing the words of the song, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. I have loved this song for many years because I have sung it in many choirs. I looked up the backstory behind the words of the song. It was written by Isaac Watts and published in 1719. He used Psalm 23 as the backdrop to the words. During his work on this and other hymns, Watts suffered a prolonged illness. In gratitude for the sustaining help he received, he offered this song and others. His story resonated with me because I have an autoimmune disease that I struggle with every day. As I was thinking about writing this, I looked at a painting in my living room and it caught my eye. The painting is called Beside Still Waters by Greg Olsen. The story behind this painting is also Psalm 23. The fact that I looked at the painting while I was thinking about writing this story felt like a tender mercy for me. We all are so blessed in our lives. We just need to recognize our many blessings.

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His Beloved Sheep,

We should trust Him so much that if He were here with us we could fall into a deep sleep.

Imagine being with Jesus near a beautiful and tranquil stream,

Would it be so surreal to be with Him that it would feel like a dream?

The scene is so quiet and peaceful

That you have never felt it’s equal.

You feel at once that you can trust Jesus because of the loving spirit that surrounds Him,

And you feel like your soul will never again feel grim.

You sit down with Him under a shady tree with the sun shining down around you,

And even though you have only just met Him, in His presence you can’t feel blue.

You can feel His love for you right away,

And you know that you would follow Him any and every day.

You don’t ever want to leave His presence because of how He makes you feel,

And you can tell that His love for you is real.

You fall down at His feet near the stream and bathe His feet with your tears,

You thank Him for His example and His guidance through the years.

You thank Him with all of your heart,

For suffering for your sins and weaknesses and choosing to do the hard part.

As He leads you away back to your home,

You hope the peace you felt with Him will stay with you so you never feel alone.

The Takeaway: We can always rely on Jesus to be our Good Shepherd. We can trust Him to lead us to a place of peace, joy and rest. He always knows how we are feeling at any time and in any situation. Even though He isn’t here with us physically, we can always feel His presence and His warm embrace in our lives. He will never leave us alone. We can always count on that.

Backstory:

On an RVVL podcast episode I listened to, David Butler said something that has stayed with me. He said something like: there’s something about that story in the Bible that helps me trust Jesus today. Through all the hard things He went through, Jesus proved faithful in every moment. When He doubted, He proved faithful. When it was excruciating, He proved faithful. That gives me confidence that He will prove faithful now—especially when things are hard or excruciating for me. I believe He sits with me in those emotions even today. We often talk about how Jesus experienced our pains in the past, but I actually think He experiences them again. He’s the Prince of Empathy. He sits with us, and I think He feels our pain in the very moment we feel it. And He doesn’t give up. He will prove faithful to every promise He has made.

The Prince of Empathy

Jesus as the Prince of Empathy feels everything with us,

He understands all of our emotions and that for us is a big plus.

He feels our pains so deeply as if He were inside our experience too,

And He can help us feel better when we are feeling blue.

He experienced all of our pains and emotions when He was on the earth,

And He did this out of His amazing love for us so we could know our Divine Worth.

In the Garden, He felt all of the pains we would feel in this life,

And He didn’t shy away from experiencing all of the awful strife.

Even though it was excruciating and painful for Him,

He felt it all so that our lives wouldn’t seem so grim.

He proved faithful until the end,

So that in Him we could find our truest and best friend.

He feels our pains with us every day,

And He feels it more deeply than we could ever adequately say.

When we feel like crying, we can picture Him embracing us,

We can cry on His Loving Shoulder so that we don’t feel like making a big fuss.

Even when we feel all alone

And like our trials and struggles are to everyone unknown.

We can turn to Jesus to help our hearts heal from all of the painful moments we experience,

And with Him by our side, in our darkest times, we can feel more resilience.

The Takeaway: We as Christians often talk about the suffering Jesus endured on our behalf while He was on the earth. But I don’t think we can picture Him with us in our suffering that we go through on a daily basis. Jesus, as the Prince of Empathy experiences all of our emotions, even the painful and excruciating ones with us. He will sit by us in our darkest and hardest moments. We just need to reach out to Him and His arms will be open to receive us.

Backstory:

I watched a Chosen episode recently of when Simon Peter was called to follow Jesus. Simon was in a very desperate situation. He was heavily in debt and he could potentially lose everything and go to jail if he didn’t pay his debts soon. So he went fishing one last time to try to support his livelihood. Simon wasn’t a beginner fisherman. He was experienced, skilled and exhausted from a fruitless night of not catching anything. Jesus asked him to go back out, and not just anywhere-into the deep. Even though Simon didn’t know much about Jesus yet, he had to have faith. So he did as Jesus asked. Then a miracle occurred and there were so many fish in his net that Simon had to have assistance from his friends to help him bring the net up. Simon fell at Jesus’ feet and told him that he would do anything Jesus asked of him. After that, Jesus asked Simon to follow Him and He later became Jesus’ chief apostle. We can learn a lot from this story about faith and obedience, especially when we are in a desperate situation like Simon was.

Into the Deep

We all experience times in our lives when our situation might seem desperate,

And even though others can’t see into our souls, our worries are legitimate.

Our stress might come from medical issues or family drama,

Sometimes those things are out of our control but they could still cause us some inward trauma.

Or we might be worried about our inward state,

We might be barely holding it together and our souls might feel a big weight.

That’s when we might get desperate and cry out to our Savior for help,

For inside, our hearts might in pain yelp.

In that moment when our hearts seem to cause us so much worry,

That is when Jesus will come into our story.

He might ask us to trust in Him and we will need to do what he asks us to do

If we want to get over our heartache and no longer feel blue.

Jesus might ask us to cast our nets out into the deep,

And what He asks of us might seem kind of steep.

We just need to trust in Him that He knows what is best for us,

Even though inside we might want to make a big fuss.

We can trust in Jesus because He loves us very deeply,

If we want to feel better we will need to trust in Him completely.

Then like Simon Peter we would fall at Jesus’ feet,

For being His disciple would be a big treat.

The Takeaway: Sometimes we might go through very hard things and our situation might seem desperate. In those moments, we need to call out to our Savior for help. He might ask us to do something that might seem strange. But we need to trust in Him enough that He will work out all things for our good because He loves us very much. 

Backstory:

I was thinking about faith the other day, and the scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:7 came to my mind that says that we “walk by faith and not by sight.” I researched the meaning behind this scripture as well as the comparisons between using our eyes or walking by sight and walking by faith. In this scripture Paul reminds us that what we see now is not the whole story. And that life is temporary, but eternal life with God is real and sure.

Our sight allows us to see what is before our eyes,

We rely on light, distance, clarity and evidence as our prize.

Our eyes help us navigate daily life safely and practically

And they show us facts, circumstances, and outward appearances rapidly.

But we can only see what is right in front of us

Because our vision can be blocked or incomplete and this is not a plus.

What we see with our eyes isn’t always the full truth

Because appearances can deceive us, especially in our youth.

Walking by faith and not by sight

Can move our spiritual eyes to new heights.

With faith, we trust in our Maker even when we don’t know what is going to happen,

But that trust in the Being bigger than us should lead us to action.

When we have faith, we rely on God’s promises rather than our circumstances,

And we can see better with our new faith glasses.

Even though we can’t see the big picture in front of our eyes

We move forward despite uncertainty as our spirits start to rise.

Looking through eyes of faith, we can see hope when sight sees hardships coming closer,

We can see purpose when sight sees delays right near our shoulder.

Eyes show us the brushstrokes of life

When faith shows us the Artist free from strife.

The Takeaway: We use our eyes all day every day when we are awake. I, for one, am so grateful for all that my eyes help me to see. But our eyes limit us to what we only see in the moment. If we walk with eyes of faith then we will see the big picture instead of just the brushstrokes in front of our eyes. If we trust and have faith in our Loving Father in Heaven, then He can help us see with more spiritual eyes. His vision of our lives is beautiful and we need to trust that He has a plan for each one of us.

Backstory:

I was on a walk at the park with Mike and Coco and I noticed that there were a few trees that had roots that you could see above the surface of the soil. I mentioned this to Mike and he commented that a strong wind would knock those ones over easily. Later, I was pondering this experience and it made me wonder to myself, “how strong are the roots of my faith? Are they above the ground or under the surface? Could a strong wind of life uproot the roots of my faith? And what can I do to strengthen those roots?”

Deep Roots of Faith

Trees with visible, shallow roots may look established and strong,

But when strong winds come, they are vulnerable when something goes wrong.

If our faith roots are above the ground,

Then we are mostly built on outward things that can be found.

And when the strong winds of life come,

We won’t be able to tell where our faith comes from.

But if our faith has deep roots beneath the surface,

Then our lives will have more of a purpose.

Our trials in this life symbolize the strong winds that blow,

If our faith is rooted in our Savior, then we can go with the flow.

To deepen the roots of our faith

We need to make sure that we keep our thoughts straight.

Roots that grow deep take time,

And to grow faith that is strong requires a steep climb.

But with time and patience we can develop deep roots 

That will eventually yield to us delicious fruits.

To strengthen the roots of our faith tree,

We need to focus our minds and hearts on the One who calms the winds of the sea.

When Christ is our foundation, our roots may bend,

But we will know that on Jesus we can always depend.

The Takeaway: Just as a tree needs strong roots beneath the surface to withstand the strong winds that occasionally blow, our faith needs deep roots to withstand the trials that we face in this life. To be sufficiently strong, our faith needs to be anchored in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Then with Him by our side, we can withstand anything life throws at us.