Friday's Faith - Lord, my heart's a PTSD mess...

Friday's Faith

Lord, my heart's a PTSD mess...

Lord, my heart's a PTSD mess

Underneath Death's duress. 

Please set my heart and mind on You;

Only You can get me through...

It seems I have knee-jerk reactions

To such minor infractions...

Rest my heart and soul and mind in You;

Cleanse and touch with Love anew.

Teach me when nerves are frayed

To trust in You when I'm afraid.

Thou wilt keep in perfect peace

her whose mind is stayed

on You,

Because she trusts in You.

Isaiah 26:3 (NIV, adapted)

~~~

After I meditated on this verse, I read the rest of Isaiah 26, and wept as I read of God's deep love for us as He poignantly speaks to us child-loss grievers in these verses:

Isaiah 26:16-21

LORD, they came to you in their distress;

when You disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer.

As a woman with child and about to give birth 

writhes and cries out in her pain,

so were we in Your presence, O LORD.

We were with child,

we writhed in pain,

but we gave birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the earth;

we have not given birth to people of the world.

(And He says back:)

But your dead will live;

their bodies will rise.

You who dwell in the dust,

wake up and shout for joy.

Your dew is like the dew of the morning;

the earth will give birth to her dead.

Go, My people, enter your rooms

and shut the doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until His wrath has passed by.

See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling

to punish the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;

she will conceal her slain no longer.

Poem - Lord, my heart's a PTSD mess - Angie Bennett Prince - 09/13/2012