Very Present Help
A sister’s testimony of God working in afflictions
I am glad God doesn’t forget about us. It’s only by God’s “very present help,” (Psalm 46:1) moment by moment, that we can overcome our enemies. I am thankful that God never lets us down. The Lord has helped me to be able to teach this spring (except for a few days). In the last few weeks I have been sick twice with asthma. The first time I was brought very low—but the Lord’s grace each moment brought me through. After that I felt very afraid that I should come down sick again. I was glad for the Lord’s help through the trial but I felt like I couldn’t bear the same trial again (I usually only have about one or two bad attacks of asthma in a year). Well, I came down sick again. It looked very dark. Like the songwriter put it, “When the darkness seems to gather just as far as you can see.”*
That first evening, I believe, Daddy was going to call our pastor’s family for prayer (James 5:14-15). He asked me what I wanted them to pray for so everything would be clear for “the prayer of faith.” (James 5:15) All I could think about was that night before me, and I was afraid. I asked that they would pray that the fears would have to go. I found that I couldn’t pray “I’m putting my trust in You, Lord,” because the fears were too strong. The Lord then brought Brother David’s testimony to mind: “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4) That was my prayer.
And the Lord heard. My sister had been reading me a book to help me not think of and pity myself. In the book the scripture was quoted about the women who went to the sepulchre, “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.” (Mark 16:2-4) The Lord spoke to me and said—“Didn’t I roll away the stone—the “very great” stone for them? Trust me with tonight—with this trial. When you come to that place where it is rough going, I will roll away the stone.” And right then He made the fears go and I had peace. Isn’t the Lord good?
But that’s not all, the Lord enabled me to sleep most of the night without hindering the sleep of others who were preparing for a trip. Before, the muscles in my back had been so sore that I hadn’t been able to relax and sleep. The next night (If I remember right) I was able to sleep lying down in my bed. The Lord isn’t without compassion on our frame. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23) The Lord won’t give us one trial too much. I definitely couldn’t have made it safely through these trials without the Lord’s “very present help.” Praise Him!