Please Pray
For those of you who have been following Ryan and Rachel's story, today is the day little Joshua will enter this world, and in all likelihood leave it as well.
Please pray for the Sutherland family as Rachel is scheduled to be induced this morning. We believe in a God who is powerful enough to heal and to save, who loves us as his children, who is gracious and merciful, who delights in our requests and comforts us in our sorrows, and who is wise enough to lead us precisely where we need to go in our journey towards a better place.
So we trust in this God, and we ask him to be with our friends - for Ryan and Rachel as they go through this very difficult time, for their little boy Bridger who is too young to understand very much yet can surely tell that something is amis, and especially for baby Joshua who can do nothing but rest in his Creator's wisdom and love.
Pray that all four of them may know God's grace in an amazing way today...
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed...
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities,
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him...
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children.
-from Psalm 103
Please pray to this God for our friends today.
posted by Pilgrim in Progress @ 6:21 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Just a heads up. I talked to Ryan, they've been in the hospital for 24 hrs and things are progressing slower than the doctors would like. Please pray that Rachel will dialate and that the process will accelerate so they don't have to do a C-section. I'll post more when I know it.
I just had a message from Ryan a few minutes ago. About an hour after I posted last night, Rachel was completely dialated and able to give birth naturally (so thank you for praying about that!). Little Joshua was born at about 10:50 PM, but sadly he did not survive the trauma of birth. Both Ryan and Rachel are now at home, doing well but trying to sleep.
I would just like thank those of you who have been praying for them, and encourage you to continue to do so in the coming hours, days, and weeks. Grief is not predictable (it often comes when we least expect it), and it's not something that can (or should) be set aside easily.
Scripture tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep. And right now, Ryan and Rachel are in one of those wierd strange place where you feel both of those things simultaneously - sorrow, because they've just lost a child, and yet joy, because we can have confidence that he is nevertheless alive with Christ.
Little Joshua lives, because Christ himself lives, and because Ryan and Rachel are united to this living Christ; we have great hope and joy that Christ will save Joshua because God is a convenantal God who shows steadfast love and faithfulness to his children and to their children - and he continues to demonstrate his faithfulness to Ryan and Rachel.
So let's rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, and please continue to pray for the Sutherland family as they are united to Christ through these difficult times.
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