Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to When Words Fail Devotional Family. I am so incredibly glad you chose to step away from the noise. and spend this time sitting down at the table with me today.
Speaker: wherever you are tuning in from right now. Maybe you're sitting in heavy traffic. folding endless mountains of laundry in a quiet house. or just lying in bed. staring up at the ceiling in the dark.
Speaker: I want you to know with absolute certainty. to a right where you were meant to be. We're stepping into a vital episode today. titled When your courage fades to dust.
Speaker: where we get to explore the heart, the struggles and the honest raw stories behind track three of the album. Jesus, stay new. I'm glad you found your way here. whatever heavy burdens brought you.
Speaker: I want to be completely real with you from the start. This one is tender. It's deeply personal. It's a song for anyone who has ever needed a reminder that you are not alone in the gate.
Speaker: Even when you feel comfortable. completely invisible to the world around you. Before we even pray. I want you to take a physical breath. Just drop your shoulders. If you're driving.
Speaker: Keep your eyes safely on the road. bullet the tension in your jaw girl If you're sitting at a kitchen table, or pacing a hospital waiting room. Just freeze for a second. We spend so much of our lives running from one fire to the next.
Speaker: reacting to the demands of everyone else. that we forget. what it feels like to just Peace. Today isn't about fixing all your problems in the time we have together.
Speaker: It's about creating a sanctuary. a quiet place of true fellowship. where you don't have to carry them all by yourself. Let us pray. Heavenly Father,
Speaker: We come to you just as we are today. Perhaps tired. overwhelmed, or holding on. to the last fraying edges of our strength. Lord be quiet our hearts in your presence right now.
Speaker: We ask that you would meet us in this exact space. Strip away our need to pretend that we have it all together. As we talk about your nearness today.
Speaker: Open our ears to hear your voice. and open our spirits to receive your comfort. Be near us now, Lord. and ground us in your unwavering love. In the mighty name of Jesus.
Speaker: Amen.
Speaker: I'm someone who knows exactly what it feels like to be completely lost. and what it means to be found by his grace. Today. I'm just sharing my raw thoughts. and feelings.
Speaker: about what it actually looks like to follow in his footsteps when life gets complicated. it. We're walking this road out together as equals. learning from the word together.
Speaker: Sometimes life doesn't just feel difficult. It feels like you're running out of breath. Not metaphorically. Absolutely. It's the kind of exhaustion where your body feels heavier than it should.
Speaker: or the simplest daily tasks require intense, exhausting negotiations with yourself. just to get out of bed. or you look at the day ahead and honestly wonder, If you have enough left in you to make it through until the evening.
Speaker: It's that precise moment when you realize your courage isn't infinite. It's freedom. like dust slipping through your fingers, no matter how tightly you try to hold on.
Speaker: Have you ever noticed how we try to minimize our own exhaustion? We look at ourselves and say, Well. I shouldn't be this tired. Other people have it so much worse.
Speaker: We look at the cancer patient. The Grieving Widow or the person facing sudden financial ruin. And we feel guilty for struggling with our own day -to -day burnout.
Speaker: But pain isn't a competition. God doesn't ration his grace based on who has the biggest crisis.
Speaker: Let's talk honestly. about the exhaustion of the Monday. The deep weariness. that comes from waking up every single morning. to face the exact same invisible mountain.
Speaker: Maybe it's a toxic work environment. You can't leave yet. because you have bills to pay and mouths to feed. Maybe it's a marriage that feels more like a cold roommate arrangement. where you haven't felt truly seen or known in years.
Speaker: Maybe it's just the relentless. compounding weight. of trying to stay strong for your kids. when your own interior world is completely fracturing. It is the exhaustion of holding up a wall.
Speaker: that feels like it's about to fall on top of you.
Speaker: When I sat down to write Jesus Stay Near Me, The first few chords on the piano. Didn't sound like a victory march. They didn't have that bright. triumphant reign.
Speaker: They sounded like a heavy. Broken sigh. Because sometimes. The holiest thing you can say to God. isn't a complex theological declaration.
Speaker: It's just. Lord. I am so incredibly tired. And I want you to know. that he doesn't look at your exhaustion. as a lack of spiritual discipline.
Speaker: or a failure of character. He looks at it. as an open invitation to find true rest in him. He doesn't command you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
Speaker: He invites you to collapse in his arms. This is exactly where the song, Jesus Stay Near Me, was born. I wrote it specifically for people living.
Speaker: right in that heavy suffocating space. When you think about songs that need writing for Christian albums, You might picture your triumphant anthems or celebration ballads.
Speaker: with huge courses. but this one came from somewhere much quieter. Somewhere far more honest. I wrote this for cancer patients. sitting in quiet waiting rooms.
Speaker: Watching the clock tick. Their bodies fighting battles their minds can barely comprehend. I wrote it for survivors. Learning to live again in a body that felt like it betrayed them.
Speaker: for caregivers. running completely on fumes. pouring out everything they have for someone they love. while watching their own health slip away in the process. But here's the thing.
Speaker: This song isn't only for them. Because there are so many invisible. quiet battles. happening that nobody ever sings about. It's for the person lying awake at 3 a .m.
Speaker: Their anxiety, loud and relentless. Listening to the silence of the house. That would be me. It's for the parent carrying the crushing weight of decisions. that feel too big to make.
Speaker: wondering if they are completely ruining their child's future. It's for the individual. struggling with depression. where every morning feels like waking up into a physical fight. you didn't ask for.
Speaker: It's for the grief that settles so deeply into your chest. that breathing itself feels like intense manual labor.
Speaker: This song. is for anyone. whose body or mind feels too heavy to carry alone. It's a song. that acknowledges the reality. of the dark without trying to put a cheap bow on top of it.
Speaker: And if that's you today, I need you to hear me You are not alone in the ache. Your isolation is a lie the enemy tells you to keep you from running to refuge.
Speaker: Here's something profound I learned while writing this track. You have to acknowledge the storm. before you can praise the one who calms it. We live in a culture, and unfortunately,
Speaker: sometimes inside the church. that rushes past the pain. We want the victory. without ever sitting in the valley. We want the resurrection without ever acknowledging the harsh, cold reality of the death.
Speaker: but faith that skips over the honest part. isn't really fake. It's just denial wearing a smile. It is a plastic version of Christianity. that doesn't hold up when real suffering hits your house.
Speaker: So, This song doesn't start with triumph. It starts directly with the weight. It starts with the honest admission that things are hard. The Psalms understands this language.
Speaker: better than almost any other part of scripture. When we turn to the Old Testament, In Psalm 142, verses 2 and 3. The psalmist writes,
Speaker: I pour out before him my complaint. Before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, He knows my way. David isn't hiding his despair here.
Speaker: He's not pretending to be fine for the sake of looking spiritual. He's pouring it out in front of God like water spilling from a cup. And notice what happened.
Speaker: God knows. He sees. He intimately understands the place where the spirit grows faint. He doesn't yell at David for complaining. That's the starting line of the song.
Speaker: It's you. in your total exhaustion. Finally admitting. I can't do this alone anymore. Let's look closer at Davis' reality when he wrote these exact words.
Speaker: He wasn't sitting in a comfortable palace writing poetry on fine parchment. with servants waiting on him. He was hiding in a dark, Damn cave. running for his life from King Saul.
Speaker: who was actively hunting him down like an animal. He was isolated. Haunted. and entirely stripped of comfort.
Speaker: When David says, When my spirit grows faint within me. He knows my way. He is acknowledging that God sees the path even when David's own vision is completely blurred by fear, sweat, and pain. tears.
Speaker: We have this dangerous narrative in modern culture. that if you just pray harder, read more chapters or smile bigger your faint spirit will instantly vanish.
Speaker: But the Bible is filled with exhausted giants. Elijah sat under a prune tree and asked God to take his life. because he was done. Moses.
Speaker: told God the burden of leading the people was too heavy for him to bear alone? and asked to be taken out. If you are experiencing a season where your faith feels fragile,
Speaker: where you are operating on that. almost belief? You are in highly holy company. God did not strike Elijah down for wanting to quit. He sent an angel to feed him and let him sleep.
Speaker: God didn't rebuke. desperate father in the New Testament. He met him right inside his plea. but exhaustion. doesn't just weaken your body. It weakens your ability to believe.
Speaker: When you're running on empty, Faith feels harder. The assurances that felt rock solid in easier seasons? Start to look thin. You want to trust.
Speaker: But when the night has been too long, Sometimes faith becomes something you... almost do. Almost trust. Almost believe. Almost, hold on.
Speaker: And here's where I think the church has sometimes gotten it wrong. We've made people feel ashamed of that. Almost. We suggest that real faith means never wavering. never doubting. never trembling.
Speaker: But scripture shows us people whose faith, trembles while they're asking for help anyway. we see this raw reality beautifully captured in the New Testament. in the Gospel of Mark.
Speaker: chapter 9 verse 24. where a desperate father cries out, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. Think about that.
Speaker: This father is standing in front of me. Jesus. desperate to save his son's life. He doesn't perform certainty. He doesn't give a polished speech. East size. I believe.
Speaker: And... I don't believe. Both are true at the exact same time. Jesus didn't turn him away for his doubt. He met him right inside of it. Faith doesn't require perfection.
Speaker: It requires raw. honesty. It is the small spark. of turning to him even when your hands are shaking.
Speaker: There's a shift that happens in this song. Not an immediate fix. but a presence. There's this tender lyric in the chorus. I hear you in the hallway saying, child, don't give up.
Speaker: This lyric always brings to mind the incredible true story. of a young man named Zach Dunlap. In 2007, Zach was involved in a horrific ATV accident.
Speaker: and was officially declared completely brain dead by medical staff. His brain scan showed zero blood flow. He was gone. His family was standing around his hospital bed.
Speaker: Weeping. entirely brokenhearted. preparing to sign his organ donation papers. But while the doctors were filling out the paperwork, Zach's family and friends refused to give up on him.
Speaker: They gathered tightly around that bed. fell to their knees and poured out. desperate, relentless prayers over his cold body. miraculously. just moments before the organ harvest surgery was scheduled to begin.
Speaker: Zach suddenly showed signs of life. He then went on to make a full recovery.
Speaker: But when reporters later asked Zach, what he remembered from that dark hospital room. He shared something that chills me to the bone. He said he was actually fully conscious.
Speaker: the entire time. He could hear his friends crying out to God in prayer. but his body was a completely dark. paralyzed prison. He could hear everything.
Speaker: but he could not move a single muscle. or blink an eye to let them know he was still alive and fine. He was entirely trapped in the absolute dark. unable to send a signal to the people who loved him.
Speaker: I think a lot of us live spiritual lives that look exactly like Zach's hospital room. We feel completely paralyzed by our anxiety. our depression. our trauma or our grief.
Speaker: We're trapped in a dark place where it feels like our faith has completely died. And we don't even possess the strength to raise a hand. whisper a word. or cry out for rescue.
Speaker: We hear the voices around us. We know the truth. but we are frozen. But notice what Jesus does in that exact moment. He doesn't wait for you to get out.
Speaker: Walk out of the hospital and prove you have perfect faith. He enters the room. He meets you while you are completely paralyzed on the bed. And when you have absolutely no strength left to pray for yourself,
Speaker: He honors the prayers of the family and community standing in the gap for you. He stands right in the hallway of that silent, terrifying suffering. And he whispers,
Speaker: child. Don't give up. Think about that profound. bone -chilling reality. Jesus was standing in that dark, paralyzed prisoner of a hospital room while Zach was complete. completely unable to move.
Speaker: Jesus didn't wait for the recovery to show up and validate his power. He was sitting in the dark. with him.
Speaker: If you're waiting for a miracle today, whether it's a medical report, a restored relationship, or just the lifting of a heavy depression. I want to shift your perspective.
Speaker: Don't look so far down the road for the rescue. that you miss the companion who is sitting next to you on the floor right now. The Greatest Miracle of the Christian Walk isn't always the fire gets put out.
Speaker: is that there is a savior walking around in the flames with you. He is holding your hand in the dark hallway of your life. reminding you that the story isn't over yet.
Speaker: when you're broken. analytical answers can feel like insults. but a voice in the dark saying, I'm here. I see you. Don't give up. That's a different kind of mercy entirely.
Speaker: When you trust Jesus as your personal Savior, You're standing in a secure, eternal foundation. Your salvation isn't a temporary contract.
Speaker: It's a blood. Bye. Promise. Once you are securely in his hands, Nothing. and pluck you out. And praise God this song doesn't end in the dark.
Speaker: There is a promise woven through it like a golden thread. His presence holds us steady even when our strength is entirely gone.
Speaker: we find this absolute assurance built directly into the prophetic promises of the Old Testament. In the book of Isaiah, Chapter 43. Verse 2 The Lord States.
Speaker: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. and through the rivers they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire. You will not be scorched. nor will the flame burn you.
Speaker: God doesn't promise that you won't face the deep waters or the fire. He promises His presence in them. That's the theology of the song. not rescue from the storm. but company inside it.
Speaker: We may bend. We may break. We may shake. But he doesn't leave. The breaking is never an abandonment or disqualification from God's love.
Speaker: salvation is a gift of grace. completely apart from human works. And it guarantees that he moves towards the broken. We see this anchored perfectly again in Psalm 34.
Speaker: Verse 18. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. and saves those who are crushed in spirit. we can lean into that unhurried peace completely.
Speaker: In the book of limitations. Chapter 3 Verses 22 and 23. The prophet reminds us. The Lord's... Loving kindnesses indeed never cease.
Speaker: for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. As we reflect on Zach's story in this song. Let's ask ourselves a few honest questions.
Speaker: Where do you feel the most weary right now? And have you truly brought that unfiltered place to God?
Speaker: Are you trying to carry a heavy burden completely alone? Or are you allowing family and friends to lift you up in prayer when your own voice has failed?
Speaker: This isn't a magical promise that our daily struggles will vanish. but it's a beautiful structural redirection towards the only source stable enough to hold the weight we have been trying to carry completely alone.
Speaker: Listen to how the music lets us step directly into that surrender.
Speaker: We may break. We made
Speaker: Sustain us.
Speaker: We won't make it through
Speaker: Toward the end of the track, The prayer shifts. It moves from singular to plural. From Jesus Stay Near Me. To Jesus stay near us.
Speaker: Because suffering can make you feel entirely isolated. but you actually belong to a global. Historic family of the exhausted. the struggling.
Speaker: and the miraculously still believing. You are part of a larger tapestry. There is a clear biblical mandate for this shared journey. In the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews chapter 10,
Speaker: Verses 24 and 25. We are instructed. to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. not forsaking our own assembling together,
Speaker: as is the habit of some. but encouraging one another. You are not alone in this struggle. Before we say goodbye today. Let's go. Cause right where we are.
Speaker: and bring all of our weary, exhausted spaces directly to the Lord in prayer.
Speaker: Lord Jesus. You are the one who walks with us through the waters and stands beside us in the fire. We thank you that our breaking never means your abandonment.
Speaker: Lord, thank you for the gift of community. For the friends and family who lift us up in prayer. when our own courage has faded to dust. And our faith is trembling almost.
Speaker: Hold on to us today. We pray for every single person listening right now who feel spiritually paralyzed in a dark room. Send your morning peace into their hearts.
Speaker: Let them hear you whispering in the hallways of their lives. reminding them to not give up. We ask all of this in your beautiful, permanent name. Amen.
Speaker: Thank you for listening. Please remember to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast. and please drop a comment below with your own suggestions questions or personal reflections if these words spoke to you today.
Speaker: I read every single one. and it helps us keep this circle of fellowship growing throughout the week. Next Thursday. The journey shifts dramatically as we dive into track four.
Speaker: brand new light. exploring the beautiful reality of what happens after the long night break. Your knees might not hold you up today. but his arms will. He's already in the hallway and he isn't leaving.
Speaker: God bless.
