Drawn Nearer Through the Storm

This past Saturday, I was in Garland, Texas, speaking at the memorial service of our dear departed friend and sister in Christ, Billie Mann.

Billie was a wonderful encourager, a servant-minded disciple who lived a joyful life of faith in the Lord. Finally, the progressive disease of Alzheimer’s disease took its toll, and she succumbed to the inevitable.

Sunday, Norma Jean and I worshiped with the Mann family and their church family, the Campbell Road Church of Christ. It was an inspiring, uplifting, Bible-centered experience. During the song service, the worship leader led us in the hymn “Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer,” composed by Margaret Becker and Keith Getty.

First, read and/or listen to the lyrics of this beautiful hymn, and consider these thoughts.

Verse 1
Jesus, draw me ever nearer
As I labour through the storm.
You have called me to this passage,
and I’ll follow, though I’m worn.

Verse 2
Jesus, guide me through the tempest;
Keep my spirit staid and sure.
When the midnight meets the morning,
Let me love You even more.

Verse 3
Let the treasures of the trial
Form within me as I go –
And at the end of this long passage,
Let me leave them at Your throne

Chorus
May this journey bring a blessing,
May I rise on wings of faith;
And at the end of my heart’s testing,
With Your likeness, let me wake.

It was difficult for me to sing without choking up and wiping away tears as I thought of the Mann family and reflected on their experiences in the final months and years of Billie’s life.

The storm?
The tempest?
The trial?
The testing?
The long passage?

The hymn reminds us that our Christian journey is not without hurt, heartache, and suffering. Jesus honestly told his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble” (Jn. 16:33). The ancient Patriarch Job reminds us of this sobering reality:

Man who is born of woman
Is of few days and full of trouble.
He comes forth like a flower and fades away;
He flees like a shadow and does not continue.
–Job 14:1

My reflections in the darkness of this early morning hour, listening to the hymn again, remind me of our own storms, tempests, and trials. Norma Jean and I both suffered untimely deaths in our families, my brother and two of her sisters. We have known of the hurt of seeing your parents suffering pain and the emptiness felt at their passing.

You, too, dear reader, no doubt have experienced a similar passage of life. The hymn speaks to each of us in our sorrow, sadness, and grief. But it also offers scriptural hope and a reminder that we are not alone, and suffering and death do not have the final word.

The journey we all travel can be a blessing when we turn trial into triumph. When we walk by faith and not by sight. When we hear Jesus’ words, “I have overcome the world.” When we rest in Paul’s promise: “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

Jesus will guide us through the storm if we will faithfully follow Him. We can successfully navigate the long passage of sickness and suffering, trial and temptation, adversity, affliction, and the arrows of our adversary, the Devil.

Grace will see us through tough times. We can rise on wings of faith. We can pass the test. Through the passage, we will emerge more like our Lord and, in retrospect, find a blessing in the journey that leads us to the throne of God.

May the testing of our faith produce perseverance. May our spirits be strengthened in times of physical or emotional weakness. And may we trust God through the storms to hold us safely and become an instrument of Divine nearness.

Jesus, draw me ever nearer.

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman