Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  ~ Hebrews 4:14-16

Good Thursday morning,

Today, I could tell you that I woke up with my stomach in knots.  But, I didn’t.  I could tell you that I am worried sick over today’s events, but I’m not.  I could tell you that I’m freaking out inside over walking a familiar road – one I never wanted to walk again.  But, I won’t.

Today, a beloved family member is having surgery.  Surgery that makes my skin crawl and tempts me to throw hope out the window and only listen to statistics. Surgery that possesses the power to completely alter the future of our family.  I have a personal, deep-seeded hatred for the disease that necessitates this surgery.

How do we respond when life brings an unwanted package to our door?  We didn’t ask for it, order it or want it.  It sits at our door nonetheless, and no one is able to take it away.  It must be accepted.  It must be opened.  What do we do?

Well, we could deny its existence, but that doesn’t lessen the reality of it.  We could sit and stare at it, but that gets us nowhere.  We could try to discard it, but it’s too heavy to lift.  Dear Lord, what do we do?

What we won’t do is cave.  We won’t crumble under helplessness.  We won’t give in to worry.  We won’t admit defeat before the battle has barely begun.  We won’t hysterically throw our hands up in the air and lose our senses.  We won’t shake an angry fist at God saying, It’s all Your fault!

We pray.  Oh, I am not talking about the cliche Christian answer to life’s problems.  I’m talking about tapping into the Holy Spirit inside us to intercede on our loved one’s behalf (Romans 8:26).  We call on the authority in the name of Jesus Christ, to proclaim God’s sovereignty over our loved one (2 Corinthians 12:9).  We exercise our faith muscle knowing God sees all and is in all.  We call on Christ as our High Priest to intercede for her.  We, with boldness because of salvation and grace, approach the throne room of God and ask for the sparing our loved one’s life.

Our family’s strength and sanity is wrapped in the goodness of God despite the circumstances.  We know He is passionate about our loved one.  We know He never takes His eyes off of her.  More than coming up with feelgood statements, or reaching for some false hope that the world tries to wrap as truth, we stand on God’s Truth.  Real, solid, biblical Truth.

We’re praying Scripture over our loved one today.  If you’ve never done this before, it’s basically personalizing Scripture in the form of prayer.  It is not changing the context of the Scripture itself, rather it helps give us words when we can find none of our own.  Let’s go…