"More Than Ever"

 "From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher
than I."
Psalm 61:2

When I am going through hard trials, my dear Mom often comes to mind, along with the things she used to say and do to encourage me. She always had a way of snapping me out of discouragement and coaxing me to pull myself up by the bootstraps and keep pressing on. One of the main ways she did that was by quoting Scripture to me. If I had a dollar for every time Mom reminded me of the following three passages, among many others, I would have quite a nest egg.

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."
I Peter 4:12,13

"If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?"
Jeremiah 12:5

"If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."
Proverbs 24:10

Mom, like her Daddy, my Papaw, was one of the most faithful prayer warriors I have ever known. I will never forget how after Papaw died, Mom used to say how much she missed her Daddy's prayers. My heart went out to her, but the impact of her words never really sunk in until Mom passed away, and I realized just how much I miss her prayers. Every time I find myself longing to pick up the phone to call Mom for prayer, I think of Revelation 14:13. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."

To know that Mom's works—including the many prayers she prayed for me throughout my life are still "following her" and still being heard and answered by the dear Lord comforts me more than I can express.

Each time I am faced with a brand new trial, my typical first kneejerk reaction is usually to panic. No matter what God has done in the past or how many hard seasons He has pulled me through, a brand new trial is unfamiliar, unchartered territory. A fresh reminder that the future is unknown brings a sense of overwhelm that can quickly take over and plunge me into a spiral of debilitating fear. 

I believe that is the place from which many of the Psalms were written, and it was definitely the birthplace of my original song, "More than Ever." The lyrics are a heart-wrenched cry to God, not unlike David's anguished prayer in Psalm 69. The first two verses say, "Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me." What is most impactful to me about Psalm 69 is that it contains profound prophetic words about our dear Lord and Savior, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who endured the most intense sense of feeling abandoned by God ever known to mankind. I encourage you to read all 36 verses of Psalm 69 and delve deep into its correlation to what Jesus suffered.

Though my words fall miserably short of the eloquence and anointing of King David, the Psalmist, I doubt if there is a person alive who cannot relate to what I was feeling when I wrote the song "More than Ever." I've been wanting to get it recorded and uploaded to our Mountain Hope YouTube channel to hopefully bring comfort and serve as a sort of prayer for others to sing when they find themselves in overwhelming circumstances. 

Fast forward to when Kevin, Zach, and I were invited to spend this past weekend in a beautiful Airbnb with our dear friends, David and Wanda. As David and I played and sang together, I told him I wanted to share a new song with him. I kid you not, David had never heard a note of "More than Ever" before the moment I started singing it Saturday night. I intended to play and sing it for him, then see if he could learn and play it with me. Imagine my shock when from the first strum of my guitar, David was lockstep in sync, and he played the song like he had known and played it for years! This video is the very first time we ever played this song together.

I hope you will overlook my mistakes and the poor lighting and focus on David's talent and the words.

If you are going through a hard trial or filled with fear, I pray with all my heart that the words to this song will become your anthem to God. And as the words flow from your lips, I trust Him to hear you and bring a deep sense of settled peace to your troubled soul. There is nothing too hard for Him. What touches your life touches His heart. I pray you believe that today and cling to Him with all your might, as we all need Him now more than ever.