Let Praise be the Pulse of our heart

Emerald Solomon

01, January 2022

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” – Psalm 150:6

As I look back 2021, my heart is filled with thanksgiving for all that my Lord has done in my life this year through the ups and downs of life. Physical weakness struck me one after the other since 2020, especially right frozen shoulder which disabled my daily activities. Having taken all sorts of treatment, I found no relief. It made me get frustrated at times as I had to completely depend on others for all my activities and felt I was troubling all at home. The physical weakness revealed my spiritual weakness of not trusting God fully, impatience, anger and frustrations and God constantly convicted me that I need transformation from inside out. I also realised that doing things for God took away my time with God. During the period when most of them were affected by Covid, God gave us the grace to help a few of them, but it really broke our hearts to lose some of our precious dear ones. It made us realise the uncertainty of life and depend on God’s grace and His Faithfulness in spite of our unfaithfulness.

Finally, during the 1st week of October when the Covid cases was very low, Solomon and me tested positive and were quarantined. There was no fear in my heart initially as I thought we were vaccinated and nothing worse would happen to us. But my cough became very bad and when I did my chest scan, it revealed 30% of lung infection and some said I needed immediate hospitalisation. It was then that God made me realise that my trust in the vaccines is of nothing. I started worrying as to how I would go to hospital as Solomon was also infected and my daughter was alone at home. But then a doctor (Cousin) encouraged me saying not to fear but just take deep breaths and praise God by singing the old Keerthanai songs repeatedly. Though it was a means to treat my lungs, I took it seriously and spent the entire day praising and thanking God through hymns and songs. Many songs encouraged me personally to turn my focus to God and put my faith in Him completely.

Meanwhile I was also listening to a lot of sermons by my brother on “Union with Christ” and “Prayer – From duty to delight” . The sermons enabled me to surrender myself completely to God- Crucify myself with Christ , stop trying to earn righteousness by my Good deeds and allowing Christ to dwell in me and transform me to become more like Him and change my relationship with others and see the world with Christ’s eyes.

The devotions on Prayer using the psalms helped me search my heart to see areas of my life which need resetting/healing, to see the fears and anxieties in my heart and surrender it all to God in prayer.

As I spent time in Praise and Prayer, putting my faith completely on God for healing,
As I was meditating on Mt 9: 1-8 where the Lord first forgives the sins of the paralytic man and then makes him walk, I found spiritual healing first and then came the physical healing
I experienced a miraculous healing and my cough which was very severe, started subsiding.

God also sent help and advice through His loved ones , though we did not inform others that we were infected. God enabled my brother to come and take care of my old mother.

Though the loneliness during the covid- as each of us were quarantined in a room, made me feel very anxious and depressive, it turned into a restful time with my Lord and I thank God for giving me those days of time alone with Him. God in His grace helped me to grow in my Faith and exercise my Faith.

Suddenly I realised that my frozen shoulder had also healed and I could move my hand in all directions. I thank God for giving me a new life – spiritually and physically . All Glory and Praise be to my Lord alone.
Though there are still many challenging situations for which I praying for God’s redemption for past few years, along with the Psalmist in Psalm 119:65-72, I have learnt to say
“Lord I praise you because you are always GOOD and what you do is GOOD. I thank you for the afflictions you allow in my life which
• Brings me back to you when I go astray
• Make me obey your word and trust your commands
• Makes your word more precious to me and helps me to delight in it day and night
• And understand that it is good for me to be afflicted as I learn your decrees which transforms my life.
• In my afflictions, your unfailing love is my comfort, your compassions makes me live and your word is my delight”

So, as I enter 2022, I will enter with Praise and thanksgiving – not only for the times of blessings, but for every minute of my life, knowing that my Redeemer lives and will carry me every day of my life and I will serve Him with the life he has given me.