Soul Scientist

My heart has been especially heavy in and with prayers for some dear friends of mine living in hard and unrelenting circumstances. Circumstances that take their breath (and mine) in the sheer weight of standing up under them, much less walking through them. Situations that are overwhelming in requiring far more than what I can do for them, outside pleading for hope and help for them from our Father God.

And I do plead for them.

I pray morning, noon, and night. And in the empty spaces of hours between those markers of making it through another 24 hours of suffering in ways I know and ways I wish they weren’t learning.

Hours full of holding up hands and words and sighs and groans.

Hours empty of easy answers and simple solutions.

Minutes ticking into eternity seemingly without progress past this pressing and persistent and painful darkness.

Tears trickling down their faces and mine mirroring our hearts and heads bowed in worship.

A worship with doubts of our own strength and abilities propped up by the knowing that His strength will not fail or falter, end or evolve, decay or decline, no matter how long the grief.

I rest only in the truth God is with my friends as He is with me. And neither sorrow nor situation nor sin can separate any of us from His sacrificial love for all of us (see Romans 8:38-39).

Only Jesus knows and understands all the not-said that seeps from our souls.

And still, He loves us.

He is our Righteous Rock and Redeemer God Who reigns in all ways for all days.

He is our Sovereign Savior well-acquainted with grief and goodness and glory.

He is our Conquering Christ without change and with much compassion and consolation.

Dear Father God,

Thank You for listening for and to our requests, in words, tears, and groans. Thank You that You alone are always faithful to each and every one of Your promises to each and every one of us.

We are trying our best to faithfully follow You. Please remember my friends and I are but dust. You have formed us as we are for Your glory and the good of Your people.

Please speak strength to our souls and hope to our hearts. Please grace us with courage, joy, and unwavering dedication to stay the course in Your good plan for good. Please open our hearts and minds to receive Your wisdom and Your leading. And then to do the same again tomorrow and every day after that until You come again.

We are weary but we know You are here.

Please, Lord Jesus, have mercy, have mercy on my friends. They need You to lift their heads right now.

Please, come, Lord Jesus, come! Only You are greater than he who is in the world and the fears trying to choke us with each passing moment.

in the strong Name of Jesus our Christ,

Amen.

“Prayer is not just reacting to the seen. It’s responding to the unseen [of our Good God].” (A. Neely, West Jackson Baptist Church sermon, 8/24/25, Jackson, TN)

Revelation 22:20 GNT He who gives his testimony to all this says, “Yes indeed! I am coming soon!” So be it. Come, Lord Jesus!

written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2025.