“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus” (Rev. 14:12 ESV).

Perhaps Your answer to “how” is…”WHO?”

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?1

“For your steadfast love is before my eyes,
and I walk in your faithfulness” (Ps. 26:3 ESV).

There’s light for a look at the Savior…

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 Jn. 4:9 ESV).

“Love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8 ESV).

All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall…2

“For you meet him with rich blessings;
you place a crown of pure gold on his head” (Ps. 21:3 CSB).

bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all!

“His glory is great through your victory;
you confer majesty and splendor on him” (Ps. 21:5 CSB).

and life more abundant and free…

“that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Eph. 3:16 ESV)!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in his wonderful face…

and the things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of his glory and grace.

“God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11 ESV).

Perhaps Your answer to “how” is the gospel truth of “WHAT?”

Through death into life everlasting
he passed, and we follow him there…

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8 ESV).

Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget
the wormwood and the gall…

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8 ESV).

go, spread your trophies at his feet,
and crown him Lord of all!

over us sin no more hath dominion-
for more than conqu'rors we are…

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27 ESV)!

Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,
ye ransomed of the fall,
hail him who saves you by his grace,
and crown him Lord of all!

Perhaps Your answer to “how” is in Your Word’s truths to those in Christ!

His Word shall not fail you—he promised…

“For this I toil, struggling with all HIS energy that HE powerfully works WITHIN me” (Col. 1:29 ESV, emphasis added).

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (Jn. 17:17 ESV).

believe him, and all will be well…

“May the bolts of your gate be iron and bronze,
and your strength last as long as you live” (Deut. 33:25 CSB).

Perhaps Your answer to “how” is looking into my earthly “chronic” future with Your daily purpose for my life: “Now what, Jesus?”

Then go to a world that is dying,
his perfect salvation to tell!

“And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19 CSB).

Let ev’ry kindred, ev’ry tribe,
on this terrestrial ball,
to him all majesty ascribe,
and crown him Lord of all!

“Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength!
We will sing and praise YOUR power” (Ps. 21:13 ESV, emphasis added)!

Perhaps Your most glorious answer to “how” is by Your gift of sure hope in my eternal future, when my “chronic” will be no more!

O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall…

“Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you” (Ps. 33:22 ESV)…

we'll join the everlasting song,
and crown him Lord of all!

“Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven” (Ps. 148:13 ESV).

“Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!” (Ps. 72:19 ESV)

In my 35 years (so far) of suffering with various chronic illnesses, an incurable, life-threatening brainstem herniation, and much chronic pain, my “how” prayers have been continual, multiple times a day.

You too? I could not keep going like this without God’s living and active Word and His precious gifts of songs that echo the truth of His Word.

By His grace, in short bits, I recently wrote a fifth prayer book, “Praying God’s Blessings in Christ as We Suffer: Scripture Prayers for the Hardest Days.” It contains daily short prayers using these exact Scriptures (among hundreds of others), directly connected to other hymns and modern songs. I’m now shaping them into weekly playlist gifts for my suffering sisters in Christ to use just as I do.

This podcast is something I’ve sought in my own suffering, especially with disabling symptoms of dysautonomia and the severe pain of a Chiari malformation. It is a music therapy-inspired podcast with hymns and Scripture readings, intentionally designed to calm our autonomic nervous systems and enable our Lord’s healing endorphins to release. May God be greatly glorified in His healing work of all kinds, amid our chronic conditions.

With all my love and every breath He grants me on earth, I’m praying that our Lord will strengthen and encourage you through the nonprofit global ministry of Singing Christ’s Hope, with many more resources like these for those of us with ongoing and chronic suffering. Beloved, He will help us keep going like this…all the way home to Jesus!

It’s God’s blessing as He sanctifies me, using this illness and pain to make me more Christ-like

“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (Heb. 13:12 ESV).

“When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.”

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6 ESV).

“When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
my grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply!”

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Rom. 6:22 ESV).

“The flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.”

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Rom. 16:20 ESV).

My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;
for thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

When my body is sick, it’s God’s blessing in needing His soul-strengthening help more than ever

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name” (Ps. 91:14 ESV).

“Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed;
for I am your God, and will still give you aid…”

“I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.”

“For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (Jn. 16:27 ESV).

I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
and purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

God is blessing me to be held in the hands of my Savior because of this illness, for its end?

A supremely satisfying “long,” eternal life with my beloved Lord Jesus Christ!

“When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him” (Ps. 91:15 ESV).

I’ll love thee in life, I will love thee in death…

^“With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation” (Ps. 91:16 ESV).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn. 3:16-17 ESV).

and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath…

and say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow:
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13 ESV)…

“who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5 ESV).

I take, O cross, thy shadow
for my abiding place:
I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world go by,
to know no gain nor loss;
my sinful self my only shame,
my glory all the cross.

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9 ESV).

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright…

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely,

and may your whole spirit and soul

and body

be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful;

he will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:23-24 ESV)!

Hallelujah! In Jesus’ precious name, amen.

Beloved in Christ, our chronic illness and pain…is part of how He’s doing it all because He’s already purposed our deepest blessing, in His adopting, justifying, sanctifying, glorifying, covenant love for us in Christ.

Praying this encourages you too, as we bring our heart cries to Him, in this pain and suffering:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places!” (Eph. 1:3 ESV)

PAST TENSE!!

I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow:
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

As we breathe to these hymns and rest in our Lord’s Word to us in this calming, symptom-healing podcast, it’s my delight to share a new book resource for each of us who are living with chronic illness and pain….and are united with Christ.

Here’s the book description:

Amid chronic suffering, tribulation, or our life’s final days, where does a Christian find hope? This poignant and powerful book invites you to discover the unshakable blessings already yours in Christ, within your deepest suffering and pain.

Written during Lauri’s journey of severe, chronic physical affliction, this book weaves together short lament prayers, Biblically grounded hymns, and Scriptures about God’s unending favor toward His beloved in Christ. This 90-day devotional is a tender companion for anyone facing trials, offering a pathway to sing and pray of God’s past, present, and future blessings to those united with Jesus.

Whether you’re enduring chronic suffering, fearing future tribulation, or seeking peace in life’s final moments, Praying God’s Blessings in Christ as We Suffer is a healing balm for your soul. Let it lead you to cry, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2 ESV), as you rest in our faithful Lord’s continual blessings in Christ.

For many more resources to help Christian women find gospel hope through Scripture-saturated song in suffering, you can find my regular website at singchristhope.org

Praying into chronic.

Praying into 10/10 pain.

Praying into scary test results.

Wait…does Psalm 91 tell me that godly, mature, strong believers don’t get sick and die? But…they do! Help me understand what is true, Lord?

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Ps. 91:1 ESV).

“The eternal God is your dwelling place,
and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27 ESV).

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
leaning on the everlasting arms;
what a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
leaning on the everlasting arms.1

My Jesus, my soul’s refuge, my Most High fortress, my unchangeable hope, this illness causes me to lean on You

“I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust’” (Ps. 91:2 ESV)…

How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!2

“So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge

might have strong encouragement

to hold fast to the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:17-18 ESV).

What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

My Jesus, my Strong Deliverer, the Son of God!

You victoriously won every battle and “death-producing plague” of the deceiver’s crafty temptations to sin. Satan tried to keep You from saving me from my deserved eternal punishment and death for my sin, as he twisted Your Word with Psalm 91:

“and [Satan] said to [Jesus], ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ (Mt. 4:6 ESV). ‘For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence” (Ps. 91:3 ESV).

My Jesus, my soul is safe because You promise to faithfully bring my soul home to You, no matter what my body endures on earth

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things,

that through death he might DESTROY the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

and DELIVER all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:14-15 ESV, emphasis added)…

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21 ESV)!

"The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes!”

“IN ALL circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish ALL the flaming darts of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16 ESV, emphasis added).

“There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven” (Lk. 21:11 ESV).

“You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday” (Ps. 91:5-6 ESV).

Why? How?

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55 ESV).

“That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”

No matter what happens to my body, my risen and reigning Lord Jesus, You are with me. My soul is safe, now and forever. Never forsaken. Glory, glory to You alone! In Your exalted and powerful name, amen.

This month, our podcast aims to calm our symptoms of chronic illness and pain (and all the related anxiety we experience) as we breathe in time to the music therapy-inspired hymn playing and worship our Lord with these Scriptures. Let’s both look to Jesus and His victorious work on the cross in our place, as we battle the same tempter Jesus faced in spiritual warfare. Now? He can help us battle fear in chronic illness…or fear of death. Or anything scary going on in this fallen world. Beloved in Christ, let’s believe His Word’s promises to us. Our souls are safe, no matter what.

If you’d like more encouragement, you can find full playlist gifts at singchristhope.org.

And! This month, I’m also sharing about my new book releasing April 7, “Praying God’s Blessings in Christ as We Suffer: Scripture Prayers for the Hardest Days.” Would you like to join our launch team and start reading your advance reader copy today? If so, you can sign up here!

Here’s the book description:

Amid chronic suffering, tribulation, or our life’s final days, where does a Christian find hope? This poignant and powerful book invites you to discover the unshakable blessings already yours in Christ, within your deepest suffering and pain.

Written during Lauri’s journey of severe, chronic physical affliction, this book weaves together short lament prayers, Biblically grounded hymns, and Scriptures about God’s unending favor toward His beloved in Christ. This 90-day devotional is a tender companion for anyone facing trials, offering a pathway to sing and pray of God’s past, present, and future blessings to those united with Jesus.

Whether you’re enduring chronic suffering, fearing future tribulation, or seeking peace in life’s final moments, Praying God’s Blessings in Christ as We Suffer is a healing balm for your soul. Let it lead you to cry, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2 ESV), as you rest in our faithful Lord’s continual blessings in Christ.

“Behold, I freely give

the living water; thirsty one,

stoop down and drink, and live.”1

My Jesus,

I come today, too sick and weary to even find words to pray.

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1 ESV).

To form words.

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (Jn. 7:37 ESV).

To converse with You.

Where streams of living water flow
my ransomed soul he leadeth…2

To read Your Word.

and where the verdant pastures grow,
with food celestial feedeth.

To comprehend Your Word.

I heard the voice of Jesus singing to me in my sickbed

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

“Come unto me and rest…”

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Is. 55:1 ESV).

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the thirsty one come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Rev. 22:17 ESV).

“Lay down, O weary one, lay down

your head upon my breast.”

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (Jn. 6:63 ESV).

I heard my voice singing back to Jesus

It’s rhythmic. Melodic.

My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.3

A Suffering Song.

A sickness song.

It brings forth my words.

The King of love my Shepherd is,
whose goodness faileth never…

It improves my cognitive function.

I nothing lack if I am his
and he is mine forever!

It distracts me from worries.

I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
and purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.

My limbic system’s “negative” emotions lift.

Anxiety decreases.

In death’s dark vale I fear no ill
with thee, dear Lord, beside me…

Stress hormones regulate.

Thy rod and staff my comfort still…

My immune system fuels up with IgA.

Thy cross before to guide me.

Endorphins release!

Physical pain? Cascades of systemic symptoms in multiple chronic illnesses?

They’re better!

Could today’s sick day be a sung duet day with You, my beloved Jesus?

Singing aloud to You, even weakly, is Your healing gift to me, Lord Jesus!

It’s harmonic!

I’ll love thee in life, I will love thee in death;
and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath…

Singing aloud is unique.

Simultaneously affecting the

body,

“They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them” (Is. 49:10 ESV).

thoughts,

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:16-17 ESV).

emotions,

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (Jn. 7:38 ESV).

and soul!

“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish” (Jer. 31:25 ESV).

Powerfully holistic by God’s grand design.

I came to Jesus as I was,

weary and worn and sad;

I found in him a resting place,

and he has made me glad.

I can then enjoy You, even when I’m not enjoying how my body feels.

And so through all the length of days
thy goodness faileth never:
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
within thy house forever.

What’s a duet we could sing together on this worsened day?

I came to Jesus, and I drank

of that life-giving stream;

my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,

and now I live in him.

Glorifying and enjoying You, my Lord Jesus, on this sick day…

until the day I rest with You…

and adore You…

forever. Amen.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow:
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

A calming music therapy-inspired podcast of these Scriptures and hymns, to help ease our symptoms

Praising God that He has kept me alive for another day, living with incurable illnesses and chronic, sometimes intractable pain…and that my career as a music therapist, educator, and church musician has enabled me to share these podcasts with you. Singing aloud is “better,” but many of the music’s healing benefits come when we listen as well! What a gift from our Lord.

As you breathe in time with this podcast’s hymns, focus and sync up to its intentionally music-therapy-inspired rhythm.

Some instructions:

1. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Eliminate distraction. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with knees supported by a pillow.

2. Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3. As you begin to breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts.

4. The pulsing beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of about 8 inhalation beats, a short rest, and a slow exhale of about 6-8 beats. The exhale is the most healing aspect. Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the lyrics in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.

5. Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system and heal the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.

6. I’m joining you! I NEED this and use this! Please email me your feedback, and I will tweak our podcasts accordingly!

Sister in Christ, for more frequent encouragement and full playlists of a variety of hymns and modern suffering songs to sing to our Lord, you can receive them at singchristhope.org

To read more of my writing, you can also use my devotional Bible study lament prayer journals: Praying God’s Promises Into Suffering, or Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character as We Suffer, or Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering. In the Valleys of God’s Love is written for children aged 3-8, a perfect read for grandparents, parents, and children to share together, preparing them for suffering to come.

People wouldn’t even know I’m hurting inside. My invisible illnesses. My invisible pain. My daily loss upon loss.

Would my honest answer bring even more hurt? Burden them?

“I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning” (Ps. 38:6 ESV).

There “is a time to mourn” (Eccl. 3:4 ESV).

When they ask me how I am…is it that mourning time for me?

Give me wisdom in how to answer each of them, Lord.

Especially in this season of festivity.

Feasting.

Celebrating.

“The holidays…”

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land…1

How am I…laced with hope in Christ?

Perhaps my answer could be laced with hope, as one who mourns, but with hope in Christ?

With Jesus my Savior,
I’m a child of the King.2

In every conversation and encounter, help me first to see You, precious Savior, and then magnify You when I answer their questions.

In this sick body, in its losses, would you kindly use songs of this “holiday” season to help me answer?

How AM I?

How is my body, with hope in Christ?

“The LORD sustains him on his sickbed;
IN his illness, you restore him to full health” (Ps. 41:3 ESV, emphasis added).

I am weak, but thou art mighty;
hold me with thy pow’rful hand.

How is my heart, with hope in Christ?

Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more.

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings…3

“Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18 ESV).

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:8 ESV).

Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

How are my thoughts, with hope in Christ?

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10 ESV)!

strong Deliv’rer, strong Deliv’rer,
be thou still my strength and shield!

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15 ESV).

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil. 4:8 ESV).

How is my healed soul, with hope in Christ?

Open now the crystal fountain,
whence the healing stream doth flow…

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24 ESV).

let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through…

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
let all within us praise His holy name!4

How are they doing…really? Do they have hope in Christ?

Turn my eyes to You, Jesus.

Turn me outward in love for those asking how I’m doing.

Remind me WHOSE I am, as I both mourn and share Your hope in this special “holiday” season, even through truth-filled tears of loss.

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger;
in all our trials born to be our friend.
He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!

Because maybe? Their smiles hide their own losses, but they have no hope. Maybe they’re not a child of the King. So they’re scared…to death. They’re scared of loss. They’re scared of sickness. They’re scared of death.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside…

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus Christ] himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:14-15 ESV).

Death of death, and hell’s Destruction,
land me safe on Canaan’s side…

“to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified” (Is. 61:3 ESV).

songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever give to thee!

Jesus, You prayed to our Father for me, interceding for me in my suffering, before Your suffering, for me:

“All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them” (Jn. 17:10 ESV).

Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim…

“in order that

in everything

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 4:11 ESV).

A healing podcast for us to use when symptoms of chronic illness and pain worsen in this “holiday” season

How are you? If you’re like me, symptoms always increase at this time of the year. For me, part of it is the cold of winter, now that I have a metal plate holding my brain up. Yes, my answer to “how are you” cannot be “great” if I’m honest about my body. But can we both answer with His kind gifts of hope, from within our gratitude and sure hope that we’re now a beloved and reconciled child of the King? As we mourn losses in this fallen world?

This music therapy-inspired podcast reads these Scriptures and sings these songs into our hurting bodies, helping us to simultaneously think on these things…of our hope in Christ. And I’m praying it helps us feel better in the process.

My best advice? Tap on your body as you listen. Breathe in time to the music itself as it gradually triggers the release of God’s natural painkillers and calms the autonomic nervous system. The slower you exhale, the better. Ask Your great Jehovah to guide you as you sing His songs within, in praise to our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ll be having some surgery in December and then, prayerfully, will be spending some time helping our daughter with our new baby grandson in January! Have a beautiful celebration of our Lord’s incarnation, beloved child of the King, until we connect again here.

To read more of Lauri’s writing and receive weekly playlist gifts, visit her website.

You can also use her devotional Bible study lament prayer journals: Praying God’s Promises Into Suffering, or Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character as We Suffer, or Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering. In the Valleys of God’s Love is written for children aged 3-8, a perfect read for grandparents, parents, and children to share together, preparing them for suffering to come.

For Scripture devotionals, calming hymns, and encouragement from Lauri, you can also click here for YouTube channel.

Filling in every detail, lamenting particular moments.

Grieving losses.

Anticipatory grief over more losses.

Stresses abundant.

Waiting.

Hoping.

Calming.

Loved. I am His and He is mine, in my suffering body. So are you, precious believer in Christ. We may both be chronically ill. We may both be suffering from severe chronic pain, but we can sing the truth into our grief.

O this full and precious peace
from his presence all divine;
in a love that cannot cease,
I am his and he is mine!1

In our suffering bodies, I’m praying He will help us both “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13 ESV).

“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom. 8:25 ESV).

Underneath me, all around me,
is the current of thy love;
leading onward, leading homeward,
to thy glorious rest above.2

How can we wait for that glorious day in our suffering bodies?

Loved with everlasting love,
drawn by grace that love to know,
Spirit went from Christ above,
thou dost witness it is so.

How he watches o’er his loved ones,
died to call them all his own…

What is God’s will and purpose for us, in our suffering bodies?

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:28-29 ESV).

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free;
rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me!

In our suffering bodies, God is for us! These are past tense verbs!

^“And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30 ESV).

Taste the goodness of the Lord:
welcomed home to his embrace,
all his love as blood out-poured
seals the pardon of his grace.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Love of ev’ry love the best:
‘tis an ocean vast of blessing,
‘tis a haven sweet of rest.

In our suffering bodies, as those unified with Christ who suffered bodily…in our place…

^“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32 ESV)

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
‘tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me;
and it lifts me up to glory,
for it lifts me up to thee.

In our suffering bodies, God has already declared us righteous in Christ!

^“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Rom. 8:33 ESV).

Can I doubt his love for me,
when I trace that love’s design?
By the cross of Calvary
I am his and he is mine.

In our suffering bodies, Jesus is right now interceding for us!

^“Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34 ESV).

How for them he intercedeth,
watcheth o’er them from the throne.

In our suffering bodies, we are supremely and eternally beloved in Christ

^“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered’” (Rom. 8:35-36 ESV).

His forever, only his -
who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart.

In our suffering bodies…

^“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37 ESV)!

Heav’n and earth may fade and flee,
first-born light in gloom decline,
but while God and I shall be,
I am his and he is mine…

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread his praise from shore to shore;
how he loveth, ever loveth,
changeth never, nevermore!

Hallelujah! May this courage-into you today as He has me…in our suffering bodies. I’ve been having nerve pain treatments that help for about two months and then subside. Alongside multiple chronic illnesses, I knew I’d better record and share this before 10/10 intractable pain returns. I’m a retired music therapist, forever church musician, and music educator…praying this podcast helps you as much as it helps me!

A calming music therapy-inspired podcast of these Scriptures and hymns, to help ease our symptoms

DID YOU KNOW?

Researchers have discovered that our body and brain’s autonomic nervous system primarily synchronizes to music through the dimension of rhythm, even though we holistically process and experience music in its simultaneously multidimensional beauty. The “almost irresistible power of rhythm…serves both to entrain and coordinate movement.”3 God designed us to automatically entrain or sync up to rhythm, tapping beats, feeling the pulse, unconsciously breathing in time to what we hear. Our heart rates respond, and the resulting cascades of calming neurochemical reactions—God’s healing pain-reducers—fill our whole being.

TIP:

So, as you breathe in time with this podcast’s hymns, focus and sync up to its intentionally music-therapy-inspired rhythm.

Some instructions:

1. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Eliminate distraction. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with your knees supported by a pillow.

2. Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3. As you begin to breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts.

4. The pulsing beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of about 8 inhalation beats, a short rest, and a slow exhale of about 6-8 beats. Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the lyrics in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.

5. Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system and heal the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.

6. I’m joining you! I NEED this! Please email me your feedback, and I will tweak our podcasts accordingly!

Sister in Christ, you can find more resources of Scripture, song, and prayer as we suffer, including weekly playlist gifts (honest lament of Christ-exalting Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for us to sing to Him in our pain) at singchristhope.org.

To read more of Lauri’s writing, you can also use her devotional Bible study lament prayer journals: Praying God’s Promises Into Suffering, or Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character as We Suffer, or Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering. In the Valleys of God’s Love is written for children aged 3-8, a perfect read for grandparents, parents, and children to share together, preparing them for suffering to come.

My body hurts…but…

None, zilch, nada!

In my body’s suffering, I’m so tempted to condemn myself. To believe the accuser who wants me to think it’s my lack of faith or my sin that’s caused this chronic illness and pain.

That’s simply a lie, but I’m also so easily tempted to blame, pridefully. To judge. To seek others’ approval. To hide how I feel, afraid of what they’ll think. On the flipside, I’m tempted to believe it’s my righteous thoughts and good works that earn Your approval of me as I suffer.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.1

But…I’m set free in Christ Jesus, for You’ve done it all for me! I’m suffering, but You sent Your Son to take on a hurting body. He always fulfilled all Your righteous requirements of the law, in His perfect life.

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.2

Now, I’m hurting, but I live according to His Spirit who dwells in me!

Set my mind, in this suffering body

Set my mind on the Spirit as I hurt…for this is life and peace.

“Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:9-10 ESV).

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

Set my mind on Your power, in my body’s suffering

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11 ESV).

By Your indwelling Spirit, You can put to death any sin. As I suffer with these chronic and incurable things, set my mind on Your abundant gifts of grace, on Christ’s atoning work in my place, on His righteousness, on Your love.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

Set my mind on my true identity, not a chronic pain identity

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.3

^“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14 ESV).

Set my mind on You, Abba Father, as Your adopted daughter in Christ. My fixed position! I no longer need to be afraid of any condemnation, any punishment!

And when, before the throne,
I stand in Him complete,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
My lips shall still repeat:

Jesus paid it all!

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16 ESV)…

Bold shall I stand in thy great day;
for who aught to my charge shall lay?
fully absolved through these I am
from sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

Set my mind on Jesus’ suffering with me, in my suffering body

“and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17 ESV).

Set my mind on Jesus’ suffering in my place so that I’d become a fellow heir with Him, Christ in me, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27)!

Jesus, be endless praise to thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for me -
for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.

My body’s suffering isn’t worth comparing to the glory that You’re going to reveal to me! The whole creation has been groaning together, waiting, eagerly longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.

Your whole creation is groaning for the day when it’s set free from its bondage to sin’s corruption. And resulting sufferings on earth. Your whole creation, this whole fallen world, looks with hope for that glorious day!

“And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23 ESV).

As I groan, set my mind on the hope You’ve given me in Christ, the redemption of my body!

When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
ev’n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.

His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
all other ground is sinking sand.

In the name of my Rock and my Redeemer, amen!

Soothing our body’s symptoms with Romans 8 and music

As we both listen to this month’s podcast, hearing the first half of Romans 8 and these hymns pouring into our minds, I’m praying He will soothe symptoms as we breathe in time with the music therapy-inspired recording.

I’m praying it can be something we can both use in the middle of the night when we can’t sleep, when pain is 10/10 overwhelming, when waiting and groaning are intense. When depression, spiritual depression, and anxiety threaten to take hold. I’m praying it will be God’s precious gospel gift of our very real hope when things feel hope-less.

And next month, can you hear the victorious crescendo of Romans 8? Stay tuned! Sister in Christ, you can find more resources of Scripture, song, and prayer as we suffer, at singchristhope.org.

To read more of Lauri’s writing, you can also use her devotional Bible study lament prayer journals: Praying God’s Promises Into Suffering, or Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character as We Suffer, or Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering. In the Valleys of God’s Love is written for children aged 3-8, a perfect read for grandparents, parents, and children to share together, preparing them for suffering to come.

Your encouragement consoles and strengthens.

Your grace upon grace is unending.

As I groan with the losses of chronic illness and pain,

as I grieve the loss of a body that changed many years ago.

“For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor. 5:2 ESV)…

I grieve with Your soul-strengthened gift.

In this body, in chronic pain, within ongoing collections of chronic illnesses and labels.

“In this body” is my “reality-prefix.”

It comes before each sentence and truth of Your living and active Word.

In this body, this is true:

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3 ESV).

In this hurting body?

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3 ESV).

“Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (Ps. 119:89 ESV).

My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;
for thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.1

In this body, I am beloved in Christ

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared;

but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:1-2 ESV).

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
'midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.2

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (Jn. 3:16-17 ESV).

“I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies” (Sgs. 6:3 ESV).

I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree.
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

In this body, I can obey Your command to love You and others

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 1:20-21 ESV).

“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16 ESV)

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13 ESV).

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8 ESV).

I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death;
and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath;
and say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow:
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

How? In this broken body, I can put on Your righteous clothes of love, Lord Jesus

“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:12-14 ESV).

“The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12 ESV).

“And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3:9 ESV).

Jesus, be endless praise to thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for me -
for me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid.

In this body for now, looking with hope to a resurrection body with You, Lord!

How? In this body, setting my mind on my risen and reigning Lord and Savior Christ Jesus!

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:1-4 ESV)!!!!!

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Cor. 15:54 ESV)!!!!!

When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my mansion in the skies,
ev'n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died,

for me!

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18 ESV).

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow:
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

Amen!

This music therapy-inspired podcast carries these Scriptures and hymns to our hearts and minds, in this body we’re both living in.

Beloved in Christ, I pray that He brings a calming of your autonomic nervous system, lessening your symptoms as you listen and breathe in time to the music. That He will soothe your soul with His Word as He reminds you of His love and purpose for you…now and forever. That your song of adoration to Jesus Christ will be a time of beautiful worship, on the sickbed, in the wheelchair, in the chemo chair, in this body wracked with pain.

May singing Christ’s hope be His joy within me and you this month.

Keep me from sinning against You as I grieve so many losses.

Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin.1

Crying to You who holds every tear.

Telling You my honest complaint.

Lamenting.

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
O LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive

to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” (Ps. 130:1-2 ESV)

Needs.

Asking.

Just as Jesus did, by Your empowering Spirit.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.2

Help me to bring every pain to You to squelch sin’s temptations

Grumbling.

Murmuring.

Fixation on the thorn.

Fixation on self.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith,

knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Pet. 5:6-9 ESV).

Sin and despair like the sea waves cold,
threaten the soul with infinite loss;
grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
points to the Refuge, the mighty cross.

Help me to grieve with hope

Turn my eyes upon Jesus a thousand times today.

Eternal hope in each moment.

Death to self, life in His love.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 5:10-11 ESV).

I know not why God's wondrous grace
to me he has made known,
nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
redeemed me for his own!3

Change my thoughts until my emotions are then refreshed.

Comfort for my wounded heart and losses.

Into the grief over my wounded body.

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

Help me to worship only You, my Lord

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:2-4 ESV)!

Protecting my heart from bitterness, hardness.

Fresh pools of Your love for me in Christ, my living water.

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14 CSB).

Grace upon grace, overflowing, always sufficient.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured,
there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Walking forward, held up by Your Word’s truth, grieving with my hope in Christ

I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me,
of weary ways or golden days,
before his face I see.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,

and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2 ESV)!

I know not how the Spirit moves,
convincing men of sin,
revealing Jesus through the Word,
creating faith in him!

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

“So that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thess. 3:13 ESV)!

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20-21 ESV)!

I know not when my Lord may come,
at night or noonday fair,
nor if I'll walk the vale with him,
or "meet him in the air!"

“You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (Jas. 5:8 ESV).

Grace and peace. Knowing. Known. Belief. Trust. Beloved. In My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

I know not how this saving faith
to me he did impart,
nor how believing in his Word
wrought peace within my heart.

But "I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day!"

By Your grace alone, through the faith You’ve given to me, in Jesus’ glorious name, amen!

This month’s podcast shares these Scriptures and hymns, woven together in a way that helps our autonomic nervous systems calm and God’s naturally pain-relieving endorphins increase, while we fill our minds with God’s truth. And hope, as we grieve the losses of our chronic illness and pain.

Here are some tips for using the music therapy-inspired podcast. I’m using it too when my chronic pain and fatigue take over. May our God of peace bring His healing balm to you with this podcast.

1. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Eliminate distraction. Keep the volume as low as you can hear it. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with knees supported by a pillow.

2. Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3. As you breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts. You might put the other hand on one of your body’s painful or flaring-up spots as you pray.

4. The beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of inhalations of about eight beats, a short resting there, and a slow exhale of about 6-8 beats. The lengthened exhale as you belly-breathe will help to trigger the calming portion of your autonomic nervous system while releasing natural endorphins or painkillers! Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the hymns in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.

5. Use the entire podcast, setting aside enough time, because God’s gift of the inherently healing dimensions of music is gradual throughout.

6. Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system and calm the beautifully complex body He’s created for us. It would be such a sweet grace if He helped you relax enough to fall asleep!

7. Please send me your feedback, and I will tweak our podcasts accordingly! Do you have any favorite hymns you’d like to see included? Is the length about right?

I have few spoons today.

Limited energy. Limited abilities.

Physically, emotionally, and cognitively spoon-less.

Stewarding spoons

Please help me to steward the spoons wisely today.

What is Your will for today’s spoons…

“so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Pet. 4:2 ESV)?

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,

pilgrim through this barren land;

I am weak, but thou art mighty;

hold me with thy pow'rful hand;

Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,

feed me till I want no more.1

Spoons to gather Your Word’s manna?

“Give us this day our daily bread” (Mt. 6:11 KJV).

“My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word!” (Ps. 119:28 ESV)

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Is. 55:10-11 ESV).

Prioritize the spoons You’ve given me, to pursue Your will for today.

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10 KJV).

Spending spoons as You desire for today

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food” (Is. 55:2 ESV).

Oh Father, it’s so easy to hoard spoons out of fear.

Just in case I might run out entirely.

Jesus leads me further in seeking Your will for this spoon-less day.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Mt. 6:19 ESV).

Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness,

make thy way plain before my face.

For it is thou, Lord, thou, Lord only,

that makest me dwell in safety.2

“but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Mt. 6:20 ESV).

I hear the Savior say,

"Thy strength indeed is small,

Child of weakness, watch and pray,

Find in Me thine all in all."

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow!3

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt. 6:21 ESV).

Am I coveting more spoons?

“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22 ESV).

Lead me in Your righteousness. Give me pure thoughts about the spoons You’ve appointed for me today, in Your love for me.

And shall we then forever live

at this poor dying rate?

Our love, so faint, so cold to you,

and yours to us so great!4

Am I wanting something I don’t have?

Comparing my spoons with others today?

“Spoon-depletion bragging” to others?

Help me, Lord! Guide me, Lord!

“but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Mk. 4:19 ESV).

Tempted to self-pity? Envy?

Come, Holy Spirit, heav'nly Dove,

with all Thy quick'ning pow'rs;

kindle a flame of sacred love

in these cold hearts of ours.

Spring up Your built-up spoons of faith, within my spoon-less days, weeks, months, years

Help me to love You and others today, as Your spoon-fulls of faith!

“So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Rom. 14:19 ESV).

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1 ESV).

“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24 ESV).

Are today’s spoons Your gift to bring a new spoon-full of peace?

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Lk. 12:22 ESV).

“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace.

The mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Is. 55:12 ESV).

Come, Holy Spirit, heav'nly Dove,

with all your quick'ning pow'rs;

come, shed abroad a Savior’s love

and that shall kindle ours.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8-9 ESV).

In the compassionate name of my Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, amen.

Is today a spoon-less day today? I’ve had a huge setback in brain surgery recovery and this “spoonie prayer” is hourly these days.

So, this month’s music therapy-inspired podcast is created with these hymns and Scriptures to help our bodies literally energize, using the inherent dimensions of music itself! As you rest quietly with our Lord and breathe in time to the music, hearing God’s Word and renewing your mind, I pray it helps to fill up your empty spoons (as it is mine) on the hardest days, so we might then love Him and others with more spoon-full moments.

With love and prayer, from this suffering sister in Christ who can only share from her own spoon-less days, glory to God alone.

Striving for a calendarized date. Clamoring for help.

Leave to your God to order and provide;
in ev'ry change he faithful will remain.

(“Be Still, My Soul,” von Schegel, K., 1752)

Jungled maze of parking, cavernous hallways, buzzing lights…camera…action.

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on your side…

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deut. 31:6 ESV).

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Is. 41:10 ESV).

The waiting room

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Wondering.

Hollow eyes of illness and pain waiting alongside, meeting empathetic gazes.

Exhausted mutual knowing.

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain…

“O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble” (Is. 33:2 ESV).

Paper.

Computers.

Systemic chaos.

Quotas.

Money. Business.

Waiting. Waiting.

Be still, my soul: your best, your heav'nly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

The vitals

Statistics of what is “vital?”

Labeling.

Hoping for clues. For help from the doctor. Is this “vital” today, Lord?

Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

The doctors

Medical professionals, humans.

Stressed-out, hurting sinners by nature.

Fixating on flaws…our un-health.

Am I flawed? Broken? Weak?

Keeping track. List of possible symptoms, treatments, unsolvable problems.

Shame?

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place…

“Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2 ESV).

Subtle blaming.

“Un-health” fault-finding.

Guilt? My fault? My doing? Not doing?

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1-2 ESV).

Condemned, He stood!

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Back to the waiting room

Arrogant dismissal.

Hurried rush to judgment.

Whisked out.

Injustice.

Un-health un-helped.

Hurt.

Silent tears and screams.

Un-loved.

Angry.

“My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” (Ps. 119:28 ESV)

Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below!

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Col. 2:9-10 ESV).

Medical appointments become sanctifying appointments

“I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt. 5:44-45 ESV).

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13 ESV).

Be still, my soul: your Jesus can repay
from his own fullness all he takes away.

“Whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 4:11 ESV).

Medical appointments become divine appointments

“But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress” (Ps. 59:16 ESV).

Then shall you better know his love, his heart,
Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears.

“To love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mk. 12:33 ESV).

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10 ESV).

“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one” (2 Thess. 3:3 ESV).

Still soul, strong soul, safe soul, saved soul..

In Christ alone.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hast'ning on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin

but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb. 9:27-28 ESV).

Hope, within our Father’s divinely set…

Medical appointments!

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

A music therapy-inspired podcast gift to use when chronic illness and pain symptoms are strong.

This podcast is filled with hymns and Scriptures. Music therapy-inspired, with my professional work experience (retired now!), I’m using it too, needing God’s calming and pain-relieving endorphins the music helps to produce. Dealing with ongoing neurological symptoms and disabling pain after my second brain surgery, it’s one of His many gifts to use when chronic pain ramps up. Praying God helps you too, cognitively, physically, emotionally, and spiritually! See the podcast show notes for tips to use it, with love from this sister in Christ who understands chronic pain and illness.

You know how this feels. You experienced it, for me.

You took on a human body.

Pain. Fatigue. Dehydration. Hunger. Bleeding. Thorns.

Physical inability to carry Your own cross all the way.

You tell us to take up our cross and follow You.

Daily.

In pain, with symptoms, this alone feels like cross-bearing.

How can I follow You in it? All the way?

Following You in simple and tiny works

Works? What could I possibly “do” today? Release me from my own guilt-works-earning-shaming-righteousness as one who is clothed already in Yours.

My simple works may feel insignificant. Tiny. But they are Your creation for me…in this body.

Show me, Lord…

By Your Spirit, by Your grace, by Your work within, please show me Your personalized “following,” “walking in them” way for me today.

Thank You for giving me this rest as I carry this difficult cross.

Encouraging another one hurting?

To share the food of Your Word?

“Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him” (Is. 58:7 ESV).

The joyous covering of Your righteousness?

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…. ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Mt. 25:34, 40 CSB, emphasis added).

Sharing that we have no shame in our chronic earthly life-long?

Hope in Christ alone? Safety and eternal security?

Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on his gentle breast,
There by his love o'ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.

(Crosby, F., 1868)

A prayer from my sickbed?

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:30 ESV).

Jesus, keep me near the cross;
there a precious fountain,
free to all — a healing stream —
flows from Calv'ry's mountain.

(Crosby, F., 1869)

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1 ESV)… “to loose the bonds of wickedness” (Is. 58:6 ESV).

Warm water, cleansing a dirty dish, the only house chore I can manage today? Your precious gospel gift!

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (Jn. 7:38 ESV, emphasis added).

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22 ESV).

Not pretending? A true heart?

“And not to hide yourself from your own flesh” (Is. 58:7 ESV)?

Not…

· Pretending my symptoms aren’t there.

· Thinking I don’t need help to carry this cross.

· Hiding myself from what’s happening in my body.

· Deflecting, gritting through, blaming, demanding, accusing, refusing, hardening.

· Hiding myself from my sin, but quickly bringing it into Your healing light.

Not ever pretending with You, my Suffering Servant and Savior.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,
love and mercy found me;
there the Bright and Morning Star
shed its beams around me.

Your healing within today’s cross-carrying

“Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily” (Is. 58:8 ESV).

Jesus, my heart's dear Refuge,
Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages
Ever my trust shall be.

Your healing in Your glorious, righteous, enfolding work of the gospel. Safe, guided.

Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe from corroding care…

“Your righteousness shall go before you” (Is. 58:8 ESV).

Safe from the world's temptations,
Sin cannot harm me there.

Your healing: Protected, held, freed with eternal hope!

^“This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day….For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn. 6:35, 40 ESV).

In the cross, in the cross,
be my glory ever;
till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river.

“The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard” (Is. 58:8 ESV).

Free from the blight of sorrow,
Free from my doubts and fears,
Only a few more trials,
Only a few more tears.

Your healing as I yoke to You alone, Lord Jesus, for You…

“Undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke” (Is. 58:6 ESV).

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
bring its scenes before me…

“If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness” (Is. 58:9 ESV).

help me walk from day to day
with its shadow o'er me.

Your healing in giving me Your personalized way, sustaining and restoring me in today’s symptoms

“Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am’” (Is. 58:9 ESV).

“The LORD sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health” (Ps. 41:3 ESV).

Here let me wait with patience,
Wait till the night is o'er,
Wait till I see the morning
Break on the golden shore.

“And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail” (Is. 58:11 ESV).

Near the cross I'll watch and wait,
hoping, trusting ever,
till I reach the golden strand
just beyond the river.

Lord, please water today and every day of this chronic cross-bearing in my body. May each be a day of Your satisfying, strengthening, sustaining, and restoring grace until the day I see You face to face! In Your eternal name, Jesus Christ, amen.

Tips for using this music therapy-inspired podcast

I thank God for the prolific hymn writer Fanny Crosby. She understood the discouragements of chronic illness, suffering from blindness, taking up her cross, and following Jesus. Playing two of her hymns in this month’s podcast, her lyrics wash over my suffering heart. Hearing the Scriptures is a balm to my soul in my own chronic pain and various chronic illnesses, now 16 months after a brain surgery treatment. Sometimes, it’s physically hard to read God’s Word!

I need this podcast as much as you do! It’s inspired by principles of music therapy, but with lots of Scripture.

Some instructions:

1. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Eliminate distraction. Keep the volume as low as you can hear it. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with knees supported by a pillow.

2. Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3. As you breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts. You might put the other hand on one of your body’s painful or flaring-up spots as you pray.

4. The beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of inhalations of about eight heats, a short resting there, and a slow exhale of about 6-8 beats. The lengthened exhale as you belly-breathe will help to trigger the calming portion of your autonomic nervous system while releasing natural endorphins or painkillers! Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the hymns in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.

5. Use the entire podcast, setting aside about 30 minutes, for God’s gift of the inherently healing dimensions of music is gradual throughout.

6. Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system and calm the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.

7. Please send me your feedback, and I will tweak our podcasts accordingly! What are some of your favorite hymns?

I’m scheduled to serve, to love You and others in my church.

I agreed to it. Planned. Prepared.

In Your grace, symptoms a bit lessened in the preparation.

But I awake on the day, symptoms flaring.

Screaming.

Threatening to wipe out plans.

Letting others down.

Letting me down.

Would it let You down?

What do I do? Stay home? Go?

What is Your desire?

For me, for those I’m supposed to be with.

What is Your plan, for Your always-good purposes?

How can I? Should I try?

I need Thee ev’ry hour,
In joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide,
Or life is vain.

(Hawkes, A. S., 1872)

Your gift in today’s “one chapter a day” Bible reading plan.

2 Corinthians 12, providentially ordered in Your perfect plan.

Today.

Abiding love. Compassionate mercy.

A thorn in the flesh

“A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan” (2 Cor. 12:7 CSB).

Thorns.

Constant torment.

Pain-full.

Sometimes worse, sometimes easier to tolerate.

Can’t get a thorn out.

Stuck in the flesh.

Draining energy.

Chronic.

So sad. Grief.

Kerplunking “what if” thoughts. “Woe is me” thoughts. “I can’t keep going” thoughts.

“I” thoughts. Tempting thoughts.

From Satan.

Your good purpose?

“So that I would not exalt myself” (2 Cor. 12:7 CSB).

Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus,

deeper than the mighty rolling sea,

higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,

all-sufficient grace for even me;

broader than the scope of my transgressions, sing it!

greater far than all my sin and shame.

O magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise his name!

(Lillenas, H., 1918)

“But he gives more grace.

Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (Jas. 4:6 ESV, emphasis added).

My pleading, so humbled and needy…please take it away if this is Your will

“I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me” (2 Cor. 12:8 CSB).

I need Thee ev’ry hour,
Teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises
In me fulfill.

(Hawks, A. S., 1872)

Tears of Your comfort. Your empowering gift of grace.

Oh, Father, Your favor and blessing, Your gift to me in simply being Your beloved in Christ, so needy. Your sustaining and forever lovingkindness.

Grace.

It is sufficient, enabling me to bear the evil, possessing Your unfailing and power-full strength by Your Spirit.

“Made perfect?”

Oh, precious Savior, my Lord Jesus Christ!

It is the same word of Your cry on the cross, having drunk the entire cup of punishment for my sin, such grace and gift to me as Your beloved!

Tetelestai.

“It is finished” (Jn. 19:30 ESV).

So, You are perfecting.

Accomplishing.

Finishing.

Fulfilling Your kingdom plan, working through Your weak and dependent vessels of clay.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary’s mount out-poured–
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!

(Johnston, J. H., 1910)

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3 ESV).

That Christ’s power may reside in me, content and satisfied in Your presence

My weakness? Your power.

My thorn? Your strength.

My sin? Your cleansing.

My going, being “with,” but “with” symptoms?

Grace upon grace upon grace.

All hail the pow'r of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall…

(Perronet, E., 1790)

“Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me” (2 Cor. 12:9 CSB).

“So I take pleasure in weaknesses…hardships…difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10 CSB).

bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all!

“Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Eph. 5:18-19 ESV).

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9 ESV).

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me

(Iverson, D., 1926)

Yes, Lord, today? I will go as the thorn digs in, asking for help from others

“If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom. 8:31 CSB, emphasis added)

Ye seed of Israel's chosen race,
ye ransomed of the fall,
hail him who saves you by his grace,
and crown him Lord of all!

(Perronet, E., 1790)

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37 CSB, emphasis added).

Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget
the wormwood and the gall,
go, spread your trophies at his feet,
and crown him Lord of all!

(Perronet, E., 1790)

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39 ESV).

In His glorious name, the One who is accomplishing all we as His beloved need, to the praise of His glorious grace alone, Jesus Christ, amen and amen.

A podcast to help with our “thorny” symptoms

In case you’re wondering, our Lord did enable and empower me to sit up and play the piano for our church service that January morning! Glory to our Lord and King! Now, 15 months after my second brain surgery and continuing nerve pain and intracranial pressure, it is His immense gift of grace that I am even alive and able to play a tiny bit again. I’ll soon share the story of what He did last Sunday as I seek to love and glorify Him through music in our local church. I’ll bet you have many stories of God’s abundant grace to you, too, in your own “doing” and not “doing.”

In moments of battling symptoms, for whatever He is calling you to “do” in this earthly life, I’m praying the music therapy-inspired podcast of these Scriptures and hymns will be God’s healing gift of grace to you. To help you “do” as He alone desires for you right now.

See instructions in the podcast show notes about breathing to the music and how it can help your body rest as your soul and mind rest. I’m using these regularly, for they are actively helping me to sit up and “be with” others! And to battle the 10/10 pain when it fires up. Glory to our God!

Battles unceasing.

Years of looking normal and healthy.

“You look great!”

But collapsing into Your strength.

Fighting inside, invisible symptoms.

Nerve synapses on fire.

Cells attacking each other.

Cycles of exhaustion and bravely trying.

Spiritual warfare.

Guide my thoughts according to Your Word!

Am I supposed to be at war with my decaying body, a “chronic illness warrior?”

The body You created for me?

War?

Or peace?

War and peace?

“Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:14-15 ESV).

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,

To the cross where Thou hast died;

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,

To Thy precious, bleeding side.

(Crosby, F., 1875)

Peace in submission to You as Your beloved in Christ, not war in rebellion against You

When peace like a river attendeth my way…

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk. 22:42 ESV).

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

"It is well, it is well with my soul.”

(Spafford, H. G., 1873)

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7 ESV).

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

let this blest assurance control:

that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

and has shed his own blood for my soul!

Remind me of my identity in Christ, not chronic illness and pain!

All to Jesus I surrender,

all to him I freely give;

may I ever love and trust him,

in his presence daily live.

(Van DeVenter, J. W., 1896)

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,

By the pow’r of grace divine;

Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,

And my will be lost in Thine.

“In all circumstances

take up the shield of faith,

with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16 ESV).

“For we are his workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand,

that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10 ESV)!

Your grace-filled gift of personal worship as my “good work”…into the spiritual warfare chronic illness and pain can bring

I may need to worship You alone, unable to be with others.

Not alone, but with You.

Flat in bed.

Resting.

“By the mercies of God…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:1-2 ESV).

Change my thoughts as I rest with You, Lord Jesus! Transform, renew, stay my mind according to Your perfect will, as You intercede for me!

All to Jesus I surrender,

make me, Savior, wholly thine:

may thy Holy Spirit fill me,

may I know thy pow'r divine.

Holy Spirit, bring Your offensive weapon, Your Word, to mind when I’m physically unable to read it…

“and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17 ESV)…

“and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7 ESV).

All to Jesus I surrender,

Lord, I give myself to thee;

fill me with thy love and power,

let thy blessing fall on me.

War against self-pity, a “prayer warrior” replacing a “chronic illness warrior” identity

Father, today, I declare war on any fixation on myself as a chronic illness warrior.

Sin’s temptation rises within this false identity and narrative of my life.

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6 ESV).

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

my sin, not in part, but the whole,

is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;

praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

By Your grace, please, please make me a prayer warrior instead!

“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18 ESV).

Oh, the pure delight of a single hour

That before Thy throne I spend,

When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,

I commune as friend with friend!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:10-11 ESV).

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!

that calls me from a world of care,

and bids me at my Father's throne

make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief,

my soul has often found relief,

and oft escaped the tempter's snare

by thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

(Walford, W. W., 1845)

Glorifying You in this body’s spiritual warfare, resting in Your grace to endure to the end

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8 CSB).

There are depths of love that I cannot know

Till I cross the narrow sea;

There are heights of joy that I may not reach

Till I rest in peace with Thee.

“Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Pet. 5:9 CSB).

O Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;

even so, it is well with my soul.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

will himself

restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 5:10-11 CSB)!

A music therapy-inspired podcast of these Scriptures and hymns, to help with our pain and symptom flares

In moments of battling symptoms, I’m praying the music therapy-inspired podcast of these Scriptures and hymns will be God’s healing gift of grace to you. I've had much nerve pain lately, and thank God that He gave me some 1-2 pain scale moments to create this podcast! See instructions in the podcast show notes about breathing to the music and how it can help your body rest as your soul and mind also rest. I’m joining you!

Visions of sugar plums danced in head.

Christmas Eve almost over and still she was ill.

Nothing had given relief, not one pill.

She was missing Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year.

She was missing Christmas, her holiday treasured so dear.

The anger, the pain, the sadness so deep…

Her family kissed her gently, “Please sleep”

as they left for church to worship the Babe.

And her heart filled with tears, beginning to weep.

She was missing Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year.

She was missing Christmas, her holiday treasured so dear.

The radio at bedside had forced jolly tunes

Of Santa and snow and “Christmas comes soon.”

With foggy head, in the pained, dizzy spin,

She could not sit up; it was torture and rude.

She was missing Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year.

She was missing Christmas, her holiday treasured so dear.

Then the DJ shared from his heart,

“Christmas is Jesus, His humanly start.

He came to earth as Emmanuel love”

and they played “Silent Night” wrapped in a jazz chart.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14 ESV).

Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love's pure light,
radiant beams from thy holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

(“Silent Night,” Mohr, J., 1818)

“Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us’” (Mt. 1:22-23 ESV).

O come, O come, Emmanuel

You’re not missing Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year.

You’re not missing Christmas.

Beloved, I am right here.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny,
From depths of hell, Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave.

(“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” 12^th c., Neale, J. M, trans., 1851)

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20 ESV).

Jesus held her hand, stroked her sweaty hair,

And they sang, “Hallelujah,” and worship filled the air.

Silent night! Holy night!
wondrous star, lend thy light;
with the angels let us sing
alleluias to our King;
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Christ, the Savior, is born!

Help me to behold You, Lord Jesus

“For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I am the one who helps you’” (Is. 41:13 ESV).

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend.
He knows our need — to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!

(“O Holy Night,” Cappeau, P., 1847)

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7 ESV).

Please comfort me, for I feel afraid, sad, and alone

You can worship and love Me from here or anywhere.

Beloved, I am right here.

Beloved, do not fear.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4 ESV).

O come, thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Beloved, I am right here.

Beloved, I am right here.

(“Missing Christmas,” copyright 12-25-03, Lauri A. Hogle)

Missing Christmas? So, I rest with You. I worship and adore You, my Savior, and my hope

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11 ESV).

O, holy night! the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

“For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17 ESV).

A thrill of hope—the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

I may “miss Christmas” with others as I desire, but You are with me, holding me in and through every moment. Help me to rest with You, abiding in Your hope and love in a fresh way in whatever this Christmas brings. In Your holy name, Lord Jesus Christ, my Emmanuel, amen.

A podcast of Scripture and Christmas hymns to help us with symptoms

I remember the year I felt like I was missing Christmas. I remember tears in my sickbed producing this song. It’s as if it were yesterday. Beloved, I’m praying that this Christmas will be a uniquely special and memorable one for both of us precisely because we’re suffering from chronic illness and pain right now.

Are you fearing you might be “missing Christmas” this year? Will you have to rest away from loved ones? Will you possibly be hospitalized? Bed-ridden? With too many symptoms to enjoy celebrations?

I’ve created this month’s podcast of Scripture and Christmas hymns to help with our symptoms if they flare up. I pray it will calm our autonomic nervous system and release God’s natural endorphins in our bodies so we might not “miss Christmas” quite so much, by His great grace and design.

I’ll use it frequently, for I desire to be with our adult children and little grandchildren this year. See podcast program notes for tips on using it.

May the great gift of our Emmanuel be His love song this year, even if we “miss Christmas” as we had planned.

Beloved in Christ, Jesus is right here with us. Have a beautiful Christmas as we celebrate His first coming.

In the aftermath of epidemic illnesses, death, pain, and abounding grief,

he penned this song in the midst:

Now thank we all our God
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things hath done,
in whom his world rejoices.1

Oh Lord, into my own uptick of illness symptoms, help me to give You my thankful praise. For I hate that I woke up with ungratefulness.

Fill me with Your Spirit, illuminate Your Word to me, bring humbled gratitude to You in my desperate need.

I need Thee, every hour.2

Help me to:

Take my heart, a heart You’ve already made alive in Christ when I was dead in sin (Eph. 2:5).

Take my hands, ever decaying, and let them move at the impulse of Your love.

Take my voice as I weakly sing my gratitude to You, who alone is my strength.

I WILL give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I WILL recount all of your wonderful deeds (Ps. 9:1 ESV, emphasis added).

What wondrous things!

For Lord, You have done wondrous things in this world You created.

Seeing Your created beauty in nature stirs my heart to behold Your glory (Rom. 1:19-20).

But what is most wondrous of all Your good and perfect gifts to me (Jas. 1:17)???

Making me a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17)!

But thanks be to God,

who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession…

Who from our mothers' arms,
hath blessed us on our way…

and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere (2 Cor. 2:14 ESV).

with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works

but because of his own purpose and grace,

which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus,

who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:9-10 ESV).

Thank You for Your presence with me, leading me through every moment of this fallen world’s journeys of suffering

It’s wondrously mysterious. My body is decaying on earth.

For sure.

But my reality is simultaneously…

[You have] raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6 ESV).

In my suffering journey now, I’m in union with Jesus Himself!

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us…

Take my life once again.

Let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.3

As Your signed, sealed, delivered, adopted daughter in Christ (Eph. 1:5).

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, 

were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,

to the praise of his glory (Eph. 1:13-14 ESV).

Thank You for Your joy, Your peace, for giving me the fruit of Your indwelling Spirit. My gratitude as I suffer? It’s all through You!

With ever-joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us…

Through him then

let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name (Heb. 13:15 ESV).

Thank You for Your freeing guidance as I ask You for help and wisdom on how to manage

And keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed…

Singing Your songs helps me manage, echoing Your Word and reminding me of Your gospel of grace, Your bountiful gifts all-encompassing!

Thank You, God!

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Col. 3:16 ESV).

and free us from all ills
in this world and the next.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

He who calls you is faithful; 

he will surely do it (1 Thess. 5:23-24 ESV)!

Thank You for Your faithful keeping, sanctifying, “holding me up,” ongoing grace in my ongoing illnesses and pain

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (Rev. 1:5 ESV)…

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven–
the one eternal God,
whom earth and heav'n adore…

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13 ESV)

Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Friend! 4

Thank You for my hope, the eternal inheritance You’ve gifted to me, for the glorified and resurrected body that awaits me!

This wonderful work of God in my earthly life of chronic illness and pain?

for thus it was, is now!

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 Jn. 3:2 ESV)!

and shall be evermore!

to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6 ESV).

In the name of my beloved Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, amen.

This month’s podcast mingles these Scriptures with music therapy-inspired playing of the hymns quoted in this writing. It’s created for times when our symptoms are flaring, and we need God’s help to manage physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Praise God for healing us through His good gift of music and how it uniquely helps our bodies and brains! I was recently hospitalized (again) with a follow-up procedure for nerve pain, and He helped me breathe through it all as I used these recordings once again. What a compassionate Healer we have!

See podcast show notes for suggestions on how to use it when your symptoms flare, beloved in Christ.

For other resources of our ministry for suffering Christian women, you can find them at singchristhope.org

My body feels rather worth-less.

Of little value to others.

Unable to love in ways I once could.

More like black coal than precious treasure.

Please remind me of what is true, as I treasure Jesus right now.

Jesus, priceless treasure,
source of purest pleasure,
truest Friend to me:
ah, how long in anguish
shall my spirit languish,
yearning, Lord, for thee?

(“Jesus, Priceless Treasure,” Franck, J., 1653, trans. C. Winkworth)

God’s chosen treasure, in Christ

“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth” (Deut. 7:6 ESV)…

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:4 ESV).

Hence, all fear and sadness!
For the Lord of gladness,
Jesus, enters in…

“heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17 ESV).

Those who love the Father,
Though the storms may gather,
Still have peace within.

Yea, whate'er I here must bear,
thou art still my purest pleasure,
Jesus, priceless treasure.

Father, You treasure Jesus, so You protect me as Your treasured possession, Your beloved in Christ

In thine arms I rest me;
foes who would molest me
cannot reach me here…

 “and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Col. 2:10 ESV).

Though the earth be shaking,
ev'ry heart be quaking,
Jesus calms my fear.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17 ESV).

Lightnings flash and thunders crash;
yet, though sin and hell assail me,
Jesus will not fail me.

Shining the treasure of Jesus TO me, my symptoms as the context for spiritual warfare

A deepened faith.

A mature and strengthened faith.

The shiniest treasure…

“so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:7 ESV).

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Lk. 12:34 ESV).

Satan, I defy thee;
death, I now decry thee;
fear, I bid thee cease.

Holy Spirit, as the fires burn, sparkle Christ’s reflection to me today.

His glorious worth.

His excellence and majesty.

His holy and reigning perfection.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3 ESV).

His compassionate and tender care for me, as His pained treasure.

My Jesus who bore all my sin, in His pain.

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory” (Mt. 12:20 ESV).

World, thou shalt not harm me
nor thy threats alarm me
while I sing of peace.

Shining the treasure of my precious Jesus THROUGH me, my symptoms as the context

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

For it stands in Scripture:

‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’

So the honor is for you who believe” (1 Pet. 2:4-7 ESV).

Hence with earthly treasure!
Thou art all my pleasure,
Jesus, all my choice.
Hence, thou empty glory!
Naught to me thy story,
told with tempting voice.
Pain or loss or shame or cross
shall not from my Savior move me,
since he deigns to love me.

I treasure You in this broken body, Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, broken for me

“Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. ‘They shall be mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘in the day when I make up my treasured possession’” (Mal. 3:16-17 ESV).

“But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life” (Rev. 21:27 ESV).

Thine I am, O spotless Lamb!
I will suffer naught to hide thee,
naught I ask beside thee.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory“ (Col. 3:1-4 ESV).

God's great pow'r guards ev'ry hour;
earth and all its depths adore him,
silent bow before him.

All the glory to You as I silently bow before You today, with gratitude, in the name of my priceless treasure, Jesus Christ, amen.

DID YOU KNOW?

“Changing your breathing... is one of the quickest ways to change your emotional state. Breathing affects the brain through signals carried by the vagus nerve. It also carries signals up into the brain stem. Vagus nerve signaling is important in activating circuits for resting and relaxation, known as the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic system is the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the fight-or-flight instinct. Slow breathing increases activity in the vagus nerve and pushes the brain toward parasympathetic activity. So slow, deep breathing calms you down. By contrast, rapid breathing deactivates the parasympathetic nervous system and activates the sympathetic nervous system. When you are anxious, excited, or scared, you breathe quickly. But it's also true that if you breathe quickly, you're more likely to feel those feelings. Fast breathing can make you more nervous” (Korb, 2015, pp. 147-148).^[1]

Using slow, deep breathing as we listen to music? Combine this with songs of praise and gratitude to our Lord? We have a healing gift from Him, built into our bodies and brains!

TIP:

Although singing music aloud is even more powerful, simply breathing in time to music will activate our parasympathetic nervous system, the part of our autonomic nervous system that needs “resetting” when we suffer from chronic illness and pain.

Most people think they should just put ethereal, non-rhythmic music on and hope that it somehow infuses calm. But in chronic pain, illness, anxiety, or depression, our bodies and brains usually need to be more actively engaged as we breathe to its pulse. Try tapping to the beat and gradually letting your exhalation elongate to 4 beats…6 beats…8 beats.

Our new podcast will help us do so, taking us from shallow and fast breathing to deeper and slower breathing, easing our pain and anxiety. As you hear the Scriptures in this month’s writing, may Jesus, our priceless treasure, help you to focus on His Word and bring healing to your symptoms as you breathe to the beat of the music. I’m at singchristhope.org if you’d like more information.

^[1] Korb, A. (2015). The upward spiral: Using neuroscience to reverse the course of depression, one small change at a time. New Harbinger Publications.

Noticing, scanning my body’s cries.

Symptoms flaring.

Lord, I’m giving You my long list of ailments.

My Great Physician.

But my thoughts quickly creep into self-treating. Self-diagnosing. Self-problem-solving. Google frantic-antics.

Did I do too much?

Did I eat something I shouldn’t have?

Did I cause this flare-up, somehow?

Your song fills my scurrying thoughts.

🎶 My great Physician heals the sick,

The lost He came to save.

🎶 I need no other argument, I need no other plea,

It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me.

My Great Physician, please heal my sickness

I am indeed…

🎶 weak and wounded, sick and sore.

My sickness, much invisible to others, even doctors.

But You see.

You know.

My omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Physician.

🎶 I will arise and go to Jesus.

He will embrace me in His arms.

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end” (Lam. 3:22 ESV).

🎶 Full of wisdom, love, and power.

Forgive me, Lord.

For my sin of: it is not enough that Jesus died for me.

Of thinking You are not enough, in begging others to notice.

In clinging to my plans for today.

In frantic self-ness.

In prayer-less expectation of something You’ve not promised.

For You are indeed full of all wisdom, love and power, dearest Savior.

Please help me. Mercifully, bring some relief from these symptoms today.

My Great Physician, You saved me. I am Yours, body, mind, soul

🎶 Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within!

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7 ESV).

🎶 I once was lost, and now am found!

My Great Physician, is it enough?

To be…

🎶 cleansed within.

But with a body wracked with pain.

Inabilities.

Incurables.

In my flaring, be my enough

For I can’t problem-solve out of this.

I am not enough for this broken body.

Jesus, You are enough, Your body broken for me.

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12 ESV)

Release me from problem-solving into Your hands, Great Physician.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases” (Ps. 103:2-3 ESV).

Heal my sin-sickness of discontent.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want (Ps. 23:1 ESV).

Of any clinging to an identity as a sick and suffering person.

My Great Physician, heal my sickness as I refuge in You, my “enough”

“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” (Ps. 147:5 ESV).

Be my enough, Lord.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1 ESV).

Be my enough, Lord.

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,

for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,

till the storms of destruction pass by” (Ps. 57:1 ESV).

Be my enough, Lord.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy” (Ps. 103:2, 4 ESV).

As this flareup becomes a day of walking in Your Spirit, embraced in the refuging arms of Christ,

Heal my sickness, for You are indeed….

My enough, Christ Jesus.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30 ESV).

My life.

My trust.

My Savior. My Lord.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake” (Ps. 23:2-3 ESV).

Rest me, lead me, restore me, quieted in today’s flare.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Ps. 23:6 ESV).

In Your shepherding name, my great Physician who heals the sick, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.

Did you know…

In chronic pain, chronic illness, chronic stress, and accompanying depression and anxiety, our body’s natural endorphins are depleted? It’s one pain-full cycle. Endorphin depletion is critical because God designed endorphins to act as natural opioid painkillers or sedatives.

But, as we use music to help with symptoms (singing aloud is best), endorphins are released, and we feel less pain!

Tips for using podcast:

As a retired music therapist and forever church musician and educator, it’s my joy (and suffering need) to share music therapy-inspired podcasts of Scripture and hymns to help each of us who are “weak and wounded, sick and sore.”

It’s for the flaring times, but it helps me to regularly “practice” using it when I’m not in the worst flares. I’m finding these to be even preventative in nature, calming my autonomic nervous system and fostering endorphin release.

Hallelujah to our Great Physician!

Some instructions:

1.     Use noise-cancelling headphones. Eliminate distraction. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with knees supported by a pillow.

2.     Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3.     As you begin to breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts.

4.     The beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of inhalations of about 6 beats, a short resting there, and a slow exhale of about 6 beats. Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the hymns in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.

5.     Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system, releases His pain-reducing endorphins, and heals the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.

Great God,

I sing, “Great is Thy faithfulness”

And tears fall as I sing-pray.

“My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” (Ps. 119:28 ESV)

Day One: Strength for today—How Firm a Foundation

My broken body and overwhelming sadness need “strength for today.”

“Fear not, for I am with you;

be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you,

I will help you,

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Is. 41:10 ESV emphasis added).

It’s been years and years. I’m tired, Father. Thank You for Your promises to me.

“Strength…

For…

Today.”

“Give us

this day

our daily

bread” (Mt. 6:11 ESV).

Manna.

For today.

In simply resting and praying, in and out of sleep, unable to accomplish.

Any strength I ever have? It comes from You.

Your gift, in any measure.

“As one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 4:11 ESV, emphasis added).

Today, my resting is serving You, Lord. Why? That You may be glorified, just as Jesus did. Hallowing You.

“Our Father in heaven. Hallowed be your name” (Mt. 6:9 ESV).

Selah, I’m pausing and calmly thinking about that.

Ah! Now You’re giving me “strength for today” by reminding me of how You

gave me strength

yesterday.

And the day before that.

And the month before that.

For years and years.

Day Two: Your strength, in every yesterday

I sing, “Morning by morning,

New mercies I see.

All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided!”

Yes! So, you will provide

Today

Every strength I need for any task

You

Have planned for me. Or not. Maybe it’s not “tasks” today.

Maybe, it’s…

Every strength to endure symptoms in Your always-sufficient grace.

In every pain-full moment.

Every dizzy whirl.

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength” (Is. 40:29 ESV).

Every exhausted cloud.

“My flesh and my heart may fail…”

Every GI mess I face, with every bite.

“But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:26 ESV).

Every lonely attack and temptation to be discontented.

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10 ESV).

“Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”

Day Three: Strength in Your presence

Doctors can only subdue symptoms (sort of and sometimes).

Whack-a-mole treatments.

But You are with me.

Today is a day to worship You and rest in Your strong and refuging presence, with a safe and sheltered soul as Your beloved in Christ.

This IS my strength! My serving and glorifying You! This is Your “victory” in this tempting battle with sin…within my context…an illness life on earth.

“But I will sing of

your strength;

I will sing aloud of

your steadfast love

in the morning.

For you have been to me

a fortress

and a refuge

in the day of my distress” (Ps. 59:16 ESV).

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth…” 

“Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide!”

Day Four: Strength in my salvation!

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 ESV).

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23 ESV).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16 ESV).

“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress!”

“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12 ESV).

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2 ESV).

Jesus, You pray to our Father…for me…

Remind me of gospel truths today, when I fall weary.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33 ESV).

Remind me of Jesus and the righteousness You’ve given me, His alone. You are the source, You are the saving refuge for me, from beginning to end.

“The LORD is my strength and my shield;

in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;

my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed” (Ps. 28:7-8 ESV).

I feel so weak, so faith-less, but You are the One who gave me faith, who is giving me faith, and who will continue to give me faith.

“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (Ps. 118:14 ESV).

“Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

Day Five: “Bright hope for tomorrow!”

Do I believe that one day, my broken body will be made whole in Your forever presence?

“All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (Jn. 6:37 ESV).

Do I assuredly know I will live with You eternally?

“[He] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (2 Cor. 1:8 ESV).

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12 ESV).

Maybe today is a day for me to rejoice in my hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ…

Constant in prayer…

Helping me to be patient in tribulation.

When I’m peering into tomorrow,

Wondering if I’ll be able to “do” anything,

Imagining worsened symptoms.

I’m fixating on everything but reality…a “bright hope for tomorrow.”

Keep me focused on what You’ve done for me in Christ, powerful God.

“Blessings all mine, and ten thousand beside!”

Tomorrow will hold blessings too.

Ones of Your strengthening work within me, no matter what tomorrow brings to my body.

“God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Ps. 46:1-3 ESV).

“Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

In the name of Jesus, my refuge and strength, my glorious hope forever, amen.

A gift of therapeutic music! Did you know?

God designed endorphins to act as natural opioid painkillers or sedatives “by sending a neural signal to reduce pain and provide anxiety relief.”1

Guess what increases endorphins?! Particular uses of music! Singing helps the most, but even listening can help. The podcast is designed for this exact purpose, with this post’s hymns and Scriptures.

Tips for using podcast:

1. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Eliminate distraction. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with knees supported by a pillow.

2. Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3. As you begin to breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts.

4. The pulsing beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of inhalations of about 8 heats, a short resting there, and a slow exhale of about 6-8 beats. Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the lyrics in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to rest and worship Him.

5. Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system and heal the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.

6. I’m joining you! I NEED this! Any favorite hymns you’d love to use for future podcasts? Any tweaks you’d like?

   Leave a comment

What is the nature of chronic illness?

Chronic pain?

Well…it’s chronic.

So, “how long” will my symptoms last?

I must accept that it may be for the rest of my earthly life.

Doctors say so.

So many don’t want to believe this could be part of Your perfect plan for me.

For it shatters my planned tasks for any given hour.

It brings a host of troubles on every front.

And worse, a tumble of temptations to think things about You that are untrue.

Help me, my God.

Please remind me of what is true when symptoms tempt me to forget.

Lord, You are with me in my cries

I know You are with me, for I am “in Jesus Christ” who also cried in agony.

For me.

You have not forgotten me.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Is. 49:15-16 ESV).

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13-14 ESV).

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on your side;

bear patiently the cross of grief or pain…

(“Be Still, My Soul,” von Schlegel, K., 1855)

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4 ESV).

Be still, my soul: your best, your heav'nly Friend

through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Faithful Father, give me a proper sense of “time”

Leave to your God to order and provide;

in every change, he faithful will remain.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17 ESV).

This illness and pain feel chronic…forever.

But forever? It is Your “eternity” time.

“With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8 ESV).

Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Whatever is happening to my body, it is preparing me for a particularly, specifically, glorious eternal reward when I see You!

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

there is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;

as Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

(“Great is Thy Faithfulness,” Chisholm, T. O., 1923)

Help me release my fixation on “timing” and “chronic” into Your eternal time.

How?

Releasing, morning by morning, into Your faithful love for me in Christ, providing all I need to endure chronic illness and pain

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23 ESV).

Morning by morning new mercies I see!

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9 ESV).

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided…

“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one” (2 Thess. 3:3 ESV).

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

“But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt. 24:13 ESV).

Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:27-30 ESV).

“He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:24 ESV).

Be still, my soul: your God will undertake

to guide the future as he has the past.

Releasing symptom flares into worship and adoration, instead…

Oh Father, when my body flares up, and I can hardly breathe, release me to exhale love songs to You, instead…

Instead of clenched and tight cries in my mind of “How long?”

Instead of fearing You don’t love me.

Instead of fixating on feeling lonely and misunderstood.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hast'ning on

when we shall be forever with the Lord,

when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.

Help me to adore Jesus as I fix my eyes on something other than the pain. It is there; one day, you promise, it will be gone.

How long, O Lord?

Forever!

So, for now? Hour by hour? Morning by morning?

Your love is within me, in it. Help me through a song…of love. Prepare me for the next flare-up with Your songs of love for me and my songs of love for You.

This is my prayer when my body screams, “How long….”

“According to the riches of Your glory, grant me to be strengthened with power through Your Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith—that I, being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19 ESV).

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow:

blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,

all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

In the name of my beloved Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, amen.

Did you know?

The regions of our brain that “light up” when symptoms are strong cause stress hormones and neurochemical anxiety symptoms to increase while lessening our ability to focus. By God’s design of our brains, focusing on truths of His Word, enabled by songs that echo His Word, can help us physically endure flare-ups!

Tips for using podcast, to help us do this!

As you breathe in time to this podcast’s hymns, focus and sync to its intentional music therapy-inspired rhythm.

Some instructions:

1. Use noise-cancelling headphones. Keep the volume low but audible. Eliminate distraction. Close your eyes. Put your body in a comfortable position, ideally lying flat with knees supported by a pillow.

2. Tap on your body if it’s still hard to focus on the sound.

3. As you begin to breathe to the music, put one hand on your belly and notice its rise and fall. Fill your belly with air as each Scripture and hymn fills your thoughts.

4. The pulsing beat of the music intentionally offers you musical phrases of inhalations of about eight heats, a short resting there, and a slow exhale of about 6-8 beats. Ask God to help you breathe in time to the music and “sing” the lyrics in your thoughts, using this set-apart time to worship and adore Him.

5. Practice as He helps reset your autonomic nervous system and heal the beautifully complex body He’s created for us.

6. I’m joining you! I NEED this! I use these podcasts when the pain is intense! Please email me your feedback, and I will tweak our podcasts accordingly!