Sometimes, life makes us bleed.
I’m not talking about the actual red stuff here…I’m talking about the kind of bleeding that comes from our hearts as we watch hopes and dreams blow away, relationships crumble, children’s lives fall apart, or hear words that scare us to death
There is a bleeding that can be invisible to the naked eye. It happens on the inside.
And we ask ourselves, “Does anyone see? Does anyone care? Is there a way through this crisis that won’t leave me drained of everything I love and hold to be true?”
The answer is yes. God sees. God cares. And there is a way through.
In “tourniquet moments,” as I call them, it can be hard to see through the part of your life that appears to be bleeding out. Physically, when our bodies are actually losing blood, we get weak, lightheaded, and it becomes difficult to think. It’s the same with a spiritual bleed out. So what is the Christian to do in these moments?
Rely on what she knows.
Ten years ago, when my children were almost 5 and 7 years old, we had a miscarriage. I’ve written a little about this in several books, including my latest, Praying Mom, but as you might imagine, it was something of a tourniquet moment for me and and my family. What made it particularly difficult was that it came on the heels of almost seven years of loss. In six years, my family lost six close relatives/friends, and then we lost a baby. I was bleeding inside.
During that time, I pulled inward. To be honest, the miscarriage felt like holy ground…too sacred to talk about with just anyone…only my husband, who walked with me through the whole thing, got to see and hear how much it hurt. My emotions were raw, my body physically hurt, and I had two young boys I still had to be mom to. Life goes on, right? Fair, or unfair, it just does. The only thing that helped me (and it took time to work) was reflecting on the truths of God’s word and character. I had to focus on what was true (whether I felt it at the time or not), and let that knowledge heal me from the inside out. Many times, I spoke God’s Word over my heart in the form of a silent prayer over and over until I could believe it again.
Christians have been doing this forever. In fact, the foundations of the Church are built on liturgy that brings comfort in the repetition. We repeat The Lord’s Prayer countless times throughout our lives because it connects us with other believers, reminds of our basic beliefs, and re-orients our hearts back to God.
There is no shame in praying words that someone else wrote, especially when you’re in the raw pain of a tourniquet moment.
That’s why I created Triage Prayers.
Triage Prayers is a new prayer series from me, brought to you by Million Praying Moms. It contains five days of “tourniquet prayers” designed to help slow the bleeding…on the inside.
{Triage Prayers} Day One: Lord, let me SEE Your hand.
{Triage Prayers} Day Two: Lord, help me HEAR Your voice.
{Triage Prayers} Day Three: Lord, I need to TASTE Your goodness.
{Triage Prayers} Day Four: Lord, help me TOUCH the hem of Your garment.
{Triage Prayers} Day Five: Lord, fill me with the SMELL of good things.
Each day of this prayer series will weave together several scriptures into one prayer. You might have noticed the prayers are based on the five senses—see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. The reason I did this is because when we’re bleeding out, in need of something to stop the pain, our ability to sense the reality of God’s presence, character, plan, and love becomes difficult. We need prayers that will cut through the fog, and bring us back. Those are the kinds of prayers I’ve tried to create.
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