Are you also suffering with chronic illnesses? With pain that interrupts your ability to sleep? Are exhaustion and depletion becoming a “numbed” depression? Blankly existing? Is an onslaught of simultaneous relational or financial suffering making you feel numb?
“Numbness is an incredibly strong emotion, an emotion so strong that it basically drowns out everything else… a flood, a torrent of overwhelmedness. It’s just too much to take in.”1
Terrors are turned upon me…And now my soul is poured out within me;
days of affliction have taken hold of me.
The night racks my bones,
and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest (Job 30:15-17 ESV).
When Job’s words echo our own, overwhelmed numbness can make it difficult to come to our Lord. To pray. To read anything, let alone God’s Word. It’s all invisible. Like Job, we try to connect with others, but they simply can’t understand.
Heal us, Immanuel, for You alone understand
“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch” (Mk. 14:34 ESV).
Our faith is feeble, we confess;
We faintly trust thy word;
But wilt thou pity us the less?
Be that far from thee, Lord.
(“I Am the Lord that Healeth Thee,” Cowper, W., 1779)
Precious Lord Jesus,
“Sympathize” means that You are suffering with us. You understand how easy it is to be so numb and blank that we have no energy to “do” anything. So, we just come to You, drawing near to You, receiving Your compassion and finding Your grace to help us, over and over and over.
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
and drives away his fear.
(“How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds,” Newton, J., 1779)
This is Your healing within this numbing overwhelm of suffering.
So, here we are.
Heal us, Immanuel, with songs of others who also suffered
Heal us, Immanuel, here we are,
Waiting to feel thy touch…
Deep-wounded souls to thee repair,
And, Saviour, we are such.
Singing Christ’s hope in the hands of our Lord Jesus who heals us
Jesus, my Shepherd, Brother, Friend,
my Prophet, Priest, and King,
my Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
accept the praise I bring.
Dear Name! the rock on which I build,
my shield and hiding place,
my never-failing treasury filled
with boundless stores of grace…
In this way, You are delivering us out of the many afflictions! Each hour of our need, this is Your strong deliverance, Your healing grace, Your steadfast and unchanging covenant love for us in Christ.
Within all the tribulation…
we are more than conquerors through [You] who loved us.
By Your grace, through Your Word, through songs that echo Your truth to our hurting bodies, emotions, and souls, heal us all to be…
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. 8:37-38 ESV).
Thank You. In Your name, our Healer, our Immanuel, our Savior, amen.
A playlist gift to sing to Jesus when we’re numb, singing Christ’s hope
I’m praying this week’s music therapy-inspired worship music playlist will be our Lord’s healing balm of grace to you. As with Biblical laments, this playlist helps us to sing our pain to Jesus and sing Scriptural, gospel truth to our hurting brains, bodies, and souls. Various dimensions of music can help with our authentic expression as we pray-sing to our Lord.
We need this, especially when we feel emotionally numb in overwhelming suffering.
It’s crafted so it might even give us a bit more physical energy!
Can we praise Jesus, our Immanuel, always with us as we suffer? Suffering along with us?
Indeed, we can. And I often wonder…maybe it’s here that we most need to?
If this would bless you, sign up here and it will come to your email, along with access to a resource library of many playlists that help with both depression and anxiety.
To read more of Lauri’s writing, you can 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, click here for YouTube podcast
For regular music therapy-inspired podcasts of Scripture and hymns, to help ease symptoms of chronic pain and illness, click here
- Groves, A. (2023, February 1). When you feel numb [Audio podcast episode]. In Where life and Scripture meet. CCEF, the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. https://www.ccef.org/podcast/when-you-feel-numb ↩︎
