My memories of last fall’s months are fading. Slipping in and out of consciousness, overcome by constant intractable pain and extra bouts of electric shocks, dealing with weakening side effects of treatment…well, it’s God’s mercy that I’m forgetting much of it now. Praise to our loving, powerfully healing, compassionate God!
My days were spent mainly under blankets in our red recliner.
A protective cocoon, with all I needed around me, easier and safer than in my “up-the-stairs” bedroom.
Within a sunroom, bathed in dim light entering walls of windows on cloudy, grey days.
What I remember most is being held safe in the SON, in that sunroom and red recliner.
In the love of Jesus.
I remember how our Lord showered my thoughts with Scripture and love songs. I remember the abiding love of Jesus, tangible, experienced, felt, cherished, held, suffering…with Him.
Bringing every agony and fear of more pain to Him, He helped me release outcomes to His perfect love for me.
He answered my agonizing prayers! His quieting, Scriptural “love songs” in my mind continually calmed and sustained me. May we both never forget God’s steadfast love for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ when we suffer.
“Love songs” TO our beloved Savior, as we suffer
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.
(“My Jesus, I Love Thee,” attr. Featherston & Duffell, 1862)
“Love songs” ABOUT our loving God, as we suffer
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.
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 (Eph. 2:4-5 ESV).
Safely loved in life and death, as those who trust in our beloved Savior
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 deathdew lies cold on my brow:
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.
No, in ALL these things we are more than conquerors
through him
who loved us.
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. 8:37-39 ESV, emphasis added).
“Love songs,” WITH our beloved Savior, now and forever
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.
Playlist to sing our adoration to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
Oh, sister in Christ, this is His “love song”…to sing adoration to Jesus as we suffer. You may be living through something that feels very unsafe right now, too. I am so sorry.
What are His “love songs” to you? What “love songs” can you sing back to Him during your personal worship times, as you abide in Him?
This is my prayer…for both of us.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, 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 you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19 ESV, emphasis added).
I’ve made a playlist gift of some of the songs He gave me to adore Him, with that constant soundtrack of His love in my thoughts as I sat in the Son, in His safe presence, in the sunroom. If this might encourage you in your suffering right now, sign up here, and it will come to your email, with my love. Or perhaps other resources below might be more helpful?
To hear Scripture devotional with calming hymn playing, click here for YouTube podcast.
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