Shoes of Dependency

How do I pray for someone

who must endure chemotherapy treatments?

I have never walked that path

and cannot imagine my way into her shoes.

Although her loving family and dear friends

Are by her side as much as they can possibly be,

she must taste and see

the depths of this valley alone.

If I cannot wear her shoes,

What shoes must she wear?

How can I offer her courage for this journey?

“Stand firm therefore…

having shod your feet

with the preparation

of the Gospel of peace…”

~Ephesians 6:14,15

God’s Word reminds me that

I don’t know how to pray as I should,

and that the Holy Spirit Himself

intercedes for me with groaning

too deep for words. (Romans 8:26)

But I asked the Lord

to teach me His heart in this matter.

The words to an old familiar song

Began playing its comforting message in my mind

with rocking chair tempo

and lilting melody…

"I come to the garden alone

while the dew is still on the roses.

And the voice I hear

falling on my ear,

the Son of God disclosed.

"And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

and He tells me I am His own;

and the joy we share as we tarry there

none other has ever known.

"He speaks, and the sound of His voice

is so sweet the birds hush their singing;

and the melody that He gave to me

within my heart is ringing.

"And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

and He tells me I am His own;

and the joy we share as we tarry there

none other has ever known.

"I’d stay in the garden with Him

though the night around me be falling;

but He bids me go through the voice of woe,

His voice to me is calling.

"And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

and He tells me I am His own;

and the joy we share as we tarry there

none other has ever known.

~Text & Music by C. Austin Miles, 1940