Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Good morning, everybody. We’re going to go into some worship this morning. Lord, we just thank you for this time we have to worship you. We thank you for who you are and how accessible you are to us, Lord. We just use this time to honor you and thank you for everything you’ve done for us and everything you’re willing to do for us with this time.
Pastor Ginny…
For some time, Pastor Folu has been trying to get me to come up and to share what’s on my heart. I struggled this morning as I put my thoughts together to try to figure out how to say all the things in a very short period of time. But I feel like I need to kind of preface what’s on my heart and what I’ve been dealing with by giving you a little bit of a history.
In 2021, I was diagnosed with sepsis. I spent two weeks seeking medical treatment for severe pain in my joints, not really knowing what it was. The doctors didn’t know. I later discovered that sepsis infection had been eating away at the soft tissues in my joints.
I also learned later what a miracle it was to have gone two weeks and have sepsis progressed that far and have survived. And those of you in the medical field know what I’m talking about. I spent the next nine weeks in the hospital being told by all the experts… seven specialists on my case… that I may not survive.
I left the hospital on dialysis having to learn how to walk again and in so much pain in most of my body. While I was on dialysis in the hospital, the head of the dialysis team used to stop by my room to visit us. I think he had heard what we were believing. But he came and tried to console us that I would be on dialysis for the rest of my life because of the multi-organ failure that was happening in my body.
I will never forget my husband sitting there and talking to him about what we believed and what we were standing on. And he just threw up his hands and said, “Well, you know, in all the years I’ve been doing this, I’m very seldom surprised. But I’ll be okay if you surprise me.” Two weeks after I left the hospital, I came off dialysis.
Sometimes life is hard…
and that might be hard to hear a pastor say that, but it’s true. It’s also easy to look at another person and think they don’t have it as hard as you do. We all do it. We hear someone giving us advice and we think if only they knew what I was dealing with. We all have stuff. Your stuff looks different than my stuff. I would like to be able to say that when my stuff gets big, I’m immediately on top of it. If it were not for the body of Christ and those standing and believing while I was in the hospital, I don’t know if I would’ve survived. Because many times I was just existing. I know the Word. I graduated from Bible school. I’ve had a lot of life experiences, some pretty tough ones. And I’ve experienced miracles over the years. The type of miracles, as I said, that defy doctors’ opinions, experts in their field.
In the process of recovery…
there were so many things I had to do. A lot of physical things. Occupational therapy, physical therapy. I had to drink enough water. I had to rest enough. I had to get the proper food to support my struggling muscles. I’m a doer. I’m a fixer. By nature, that’s just what I am. And as you can imagine, my experience with sepsis recovery threw me full force into that personality trait.
Take my yoke upon you…
Several weeks ago, I was speaking with my oldest daughter, and I was telling her that I’m struggling to get back to before sepsis. Not necessarily just physically, but spiritually. So many things happen when you go through a crisis. Her response kind of threw me a little bit. And she said, “Maybe you aren’t supposed to.” I am still on a journey to discover what that statement means and why it resonated so deeply in my heart. One day while looking for a sermon that I had missed that Pastor Jim had preached, I discovered an older series that he had taught called “The Rhythms of Grace.”
As I began to listen to this series, it really opened up a lot of things with what I was struggling with at the moment. And I want to read this scripture to you. It comes from Matthew 11:28–30. And it says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and our heavy laden. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
We’ve all heard that scripture so many times. He read it out of the Message Bible, and this is the version that really resonated with me.
“Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me, and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
We still get to do the things, whether it’s family, whether it’s ministry, whether it’s recovery, but it’s so much better to do it yoked with Him. I’ve been meditating on that scripture a lot lately. As a doer, I’ve been meditating on just being with Jesus in the midst of all the doing. The more I yield to that, the easier it gets. I really rely on this scripture a lot.
When Pastor Jim preached the message, he had a yoke on the stage. And he talked about how the Big Ox, which is Jesus, helped the little ox, which is me, to go where they were supposed to go, to do what they needed to do. We are yoked with Jesus in life and in ministry, even in prayer. In the doing of life in ministry, there is no doubt that a work needs to be done, especially in this day. But He’s calling all of us to get in the yoke with Him, to move when He moves, to listen when He speaks, to do when He does.
Be yoked with Jesus…
When we first entered, they were singing, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Even in the presence of my enemy, you prepare a table.” The only way to recover, to survive, to accomplish is to do that yoked with Jesus.
Pastor Folu…
Don’t go yet, sister. Will all the pastors in the room please come forward. And as you come forward, we’re going to pray for our dear sister. Let’s start praying for our dear sister.
[Pastors prayed…]
Thank you, pastors, for coming up here and standing with our dear sister.
How God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with strength and ability and power. Saints, we are seeing that right now. The strength of the Lord for our sister, for our brother, for their family. We’re seeing His ability. We are seeing His power in demonstration right before our very eyes.
So how about you? How about those of you online? Would you receive this word for yourself, for your loved ones? Will you let what our dear sister just go deep down and says if God can do for her? Let hope arise again. Yes, the doctors might have said this, they might have said that. But let the example of what our sister just shared. Let it resonate deep down in your heart and know that God is a God that makes a way where there seems to be no way.
And this Jesus that we’re talking about how He went about doing good for our dear sister, for her family. When nobody else was thinking about her, the Lord Jesus was thinking about her. He was in the room when the doctors were saying what they were saying, He was saying, “You don’t know what you’re saying, doctor. Thank you for what you’re doing, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Because I am the great physician.”
Saints, how He went about doing good and in particular caring for all who were harassed. The enemy was trying to harass our sister. He was trying to oppress her. But God said, “No, not here, not today, not this one, not this family. Thank you so much.”
Sister, thank you for your boldness in sharing. What you have just done today, it’s going to affect so many people for generations to come. And I thank you for saying yes to coming up here.
