Tag: faith

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A few weeks ago, I lost something dear to me. It’s trivial really, I lost my gym locker token which I’ve had for ten years. Despite not being worth much in monetary value, it has great sentimental value as it supports a charity that is local to where I live and has connections with my children. I was quite annoyed that it had disappeared and was surprised to feel sad about it. I searched everywhere but couldn’t find it, and eventually I became resigned to the fact that it was gone.  

This morning, I got in the car to drive to work and as I put my bag down on the the passenger seat, I could see something metallic poking out from the back of the seat: there nestled in the crease was my token! I’ve no idea how it got there; the last time I saw it was on the counter in my kitchen.  

As I picked the token and put it back in my purse, I felt the Lord say that what has been lost or stolen from my life will be restored to me; even things that seem insignificant or too small to be important will come back to me in time. Having been through decades of unexpected loss, this gave me great hope that the Lord is in the process of bringing change and restoration.  

I then saw a picture of two number eights next to each other. Biblically the number eight means new life, and two of them signifies double new life. I immediately thought of Job 42:10 (NIV): 

“After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.”  

In the Old Testament, Job experienced great loss: he lost his health, wealth and children but he never lost his love for God and his willingness to follow him not matter how hard his life circumstances were. Job’s character was tested when his friends didn’t understand or help him; even God was angry with the way his friends lacked hope for his situation. However, Job had faith that God would restore his life and at the end of the book we’re told that when Job prayed for his friends, God restored everything he had lost by double the amount.  

I sense that many of us are coming to the end of hard seasons and trials. We may have lost a lot, but we have learnt plenty that will be useful for the season ahead. The Lord will restore double what we have lost and use what we have learnt to bring good in both our and others lives. The key to this double restoration is that we pray for those who have hurt us and forgive them. As we release these people and situations to the Lord, change will occur in unusual ways. Just as the token somehow made its way to my car, restoration will occur through people and places that we haven’t expected.  

As this season draws to a close, it’s time get our houses in order, release those who have wronged us and prepare ourselves for the double restoration that is coming to us. What was lost will be found again! 

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Painting: Breakthrough by Helen Sanderson-White (Copyright 2025 Helen Sanderson-White. Do not reproduce without permission). 

At some point in our lives, we all need breakthrough in a situation. A new beginning, season or provision for projects and plans. Whatever the circumstance, there comes a breaking point where things must change so that life can move on and grow. There are various situations that I have prayed about for years and in some cases decades. Back in 1997, God made me some promises about things to come in my life and over the last 28 years I have seen various parts of these promises come into fruition.  

Promises unfold slowly over time through regular prayer and holding into what God has said. If he said it, it will happen in his timing. But that’s the key: timing. God’s timing is different than our own, and requires patience and a willingness to partner with him in the process of breakthrough. He longs for relationship with us, and this is more important than receiving breakthrough. The journey is more important than the destination because of our growth and development come from knowing God more deeply.  

“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24 

Hope is the route to breakthrough, and breakthrough breeds more hope. The two are inextricably linked together and intertwine to become powerful. If you are waiting for a breakthrough, it can feel like waiting for a wall to crack or a barrier to come down. It can feel like there is partition blocking the way ahead; you know the end result, but you don’t know how to get there. Only God can make the way ahead possible.  

A while ago I had a picture of a glass ceiling shattering to reveal the rainbow colours of God’s promise breaking through. The different size dots representing the hopes both large and small that we carry through life, and also his long term promises to me. This greatly encouraged me that breakthrough is on the way and that God’s plan for my life is happening. The rainbow colours also express God’s love for us and the beauty of his promises which blossom throughout our lives. Only God’s love for us can shatter obstacles and bring the hope and amelioration we require.  

Breakthrough can be continuous rather than a one-off event. Sometimes we need the big moment of change that ushers in a season of smaller breakthrough moments, whilst in other seasons the changes are smaller but they bring momentum that accelerates change. The answers to our prayers can be unexpected and leftfield because God’s knowledge of how to bring our situations in line with his will is far greater than our own. 

If we keep moving forward with God, trusting him and his plans for us, he will bring the moments of breakthrough, small, big, quiet and loud when we least expect it. The breakthroughs are great testimonies to tell others, and as we share the stories, God’s glory is shown to others around us.  

The painting is acrylic on canvas and was exhibited in the Destination Hope art exhibition at Gold Hill Baptist Church in April 2025. I am currently working on a piece of music to accompany this painting. Check my website for details of when this piece will be released.  

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Sketch: Breakthrough by Helen Sanderson-White (Copyright 2023 Helen Sanderson-White. Do not reproduce without permission). 

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So 2 years ago, I painted a melting snow scene entitled Thaw. This was for an art exhibition that took place at Gold Hill Baptist Church in April 2023. However, the idea of a “thawing” season originally started out as a piece of music in December 2022. At the time, the piece of music didn’t go too far until a friend gave me a word that confirmed this idea; he could see a picture of a snow scene thawing out and a bright, colourful garden of joy appearing from underneath the ice. This friend is sadly no longer with us, but I’m very thankful that he stepped out and gave me that word; later that year my life changed and I moved into a new season.  

So why didn’t finish the piece of music so that I could exhibit it with the painting? There are so many reasons for this, mainly that at the time only the painting seemed appropriate for the art exhibition. I also was strapped for time to complete the painting, so I priortised the artwork. However, nothing is ever wasted, and sometimes projects are delayed so that they are released in Jesus’ timing and not ours. This never makes sense to our human minds, but Jesus always has an appointed time when the work he does through us is most effective.  

In the middle of February 2025, I was working on a different piece of music and stumbled across the Thaw piece on my hard drive. I realised that it wasn’t that far from being finished and just needed a few tweaks here and there. 26 months on from when I started composing the piece, it seems that now is the right time to release it. And that’s the thing with prophecy and prophetic art, sometimes you must wait until the right time to release it. Waiting can be hard, but the right timing brings the greatest impact. Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us that God 

…has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

If you’re going through a season when everything is on hold and it seems to be going on for longer than you think, then this piece of music is for you. Prophetic words tend to unfold over a period of time so that they grow with stability and lasting, deep roots. There is a season for everything and eventually the ice will begin to thaw and a new spring will appear.  

To read the blog about the painting Thaw, click here.

You can listen to and download the song here.

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How often do we pray for a situation and the results of that prayer seem elusive? It seems as though nothing is happening nothing is changing, and we are stuck in difficulty. There are other times when we pray, and the situation seems to worsen, and we wonder whether God has heard us at all. The reality is that conflict happens when we pray. We might not be able to see it, or understand what is happening, but our prayers are powerful and precious to God, and this attracts spiritual opposition. The enemy does not want us to receive the goodness of God and uses tactics to put us off praying. We know that prayer is so powerful that it attracts antagonism. 

Praying to God was made illegal. In Daniel 6, we learn that praying to God was outlawed and that you could only pray to the King. If you were caught, the act was punishable by death notably in the lions’ den. But let’s think about this for a moment: praying was so powerful that it was made illegal. The effect of those prayers was bringing an outcome different to human agenda, and it was noticed by those who wanted to keep control of society and they attempted to block it. Most of us don’t realise how effective our petitions are, and that we can change the course of history through just one heartfelt conversation with God. But in Daniel’s era, the government knew what a relationship with God could do on earth, so they tried to get rid of it.  Because the Lord wanted to bring glory to his name, he placed an angel in the lions’ den with Daniel, and as a result Daniel was unharmed and the edict to stop prayer was overturned. There are occasions when we make prayer illegal in our own lives. We can shut down our communication with God because we believe that we can solve the problem ourselves. We refuse to deal with our sin and unforgiveness and as a result our prayer life and walk with God becomes weak. There are also times when we believe that God isn’t all powerful and can’t fix the situation, and we sink into despair that he has abandoned us and that the situation won’t change.  

Prayer can be delayed. The opposition can delay the answer. In Daniel 10, the answer to prayer is delayed by 21 days as the angel is detained by spiritual opposition. Daniel’s prayer was so powerful that the enemy tried to stop it, but it didn’t work. No matter how bad our situation is, the answer to our prayer is always on the way, it can’t be blocked or held back for long as God is more powerful than any obstacle. This should encourage us to keep praying and seeking God’s answer! It is quite incredible to think that a small prayer could cause conflict in the unseen spiritual world; it’s almost beyond our comprehension. Sometimes that conflict is visible to us as we experience pain and difficulty in our situations, other times it is happening behind the scenes and we can’t see it.  

All of these things are direct assaults on our communication with God. All designed to induce fear, weariness and to stop us from praying. The Biblical passages tell us that none of the attacks succeeded in stopping prayer; God was victorious every time.  If we can learn anything from these passages, it’s that our conversations with God are so effective that the enemy wants to take them out.  Prayer is to be highly valued and protected; we should make the most of it at every opportunity. Why would satan attack something that is ineffective? There would be no point in doing that. We can take hope in knowing that we are taking part in petitions that are making waves, bringing change and inspiring hope.  

The waiting time before the answer arrives may test our faith and resolve, but we become stronger from seeing the creative ways that the Lord answers our requests. And the Lord always answers us; it may be yes, no or wait, but he always answers. The sign of conflict in our situations should give us a clue to the size of the blessing on the other side of our prayer. If our prayers are being contested, that should encourage us that we are on the right lines and to keep going. In the passages from Daniel, the Lord always shows himself strong and is victorious on every occasion. One of the best ways to remind yourself of past victories with God, is to keep a prayer journal and note the answers you receive. When we remind ourselves of what God has done, we are encouraged to keep going and pursue God more. So don’t be alarmed by the way that a circumstance looks, or the opposition you are receiving to your prayers, or if you feel like quitting. Rest assured that God is at work to bring solutions to your life. Just keep praying.  

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Have you ever felt like you were being pushed onto a new path, but you didn’t know what the next step would be? An unexpected event comes along and changes your situation, and you have to learn to adapt quickly. For many of us the pandemic has changed all aspects of our lives, from the way we work to entertaining friends and family.  A few years ago, my life changed and I had to take my hands off the wheel and walk by faith not knowing what each day would bring. I went from having a grand plan to having to take each day as it comes; no great plan to ponder, and I felt like I was blundering around in the dark. I can remember thinking “how am I going to continue to be creative with all this mess around me?” and I feared that the days of making music, art and writing were over. I had to reaffirm my commitment to journey with God in whatever season I found myself in, and that started with trusting that he would guide me step by step. 

One of the first things I had to let go of was planning. I literally had to abandon it, because no matter what I planned, it wouldn’t happen. At first this was frustrating, and I began to think that I had done something wrong, that maybe I had made a mistake and was missing what God had said. It took me some time to work out that walking step by step each day wasn’t a bad thing, but that it would bring me greater freedom as I trusted God for his guidance and provision. This wasn’t punishment, it was a time to travel a new path so I could learn new skills; in one sense it was promotion as I graduated to a new season. I soon found that by giving into the new flow of life and going with it, God brought several opportunities to me that would never have normally crossed my path. The key was trusting that God would bring the right opportunities at the right time even though I couldn’t see further ahead with the plan.  

With abandoning the planning, I also threw out the measuring and analysing of success that had drained my life and made it laborious. There was no immediate plan for me to set as the ideal and nothing for me to measure against. This felt daunting and at times I felt lost as there seemed to be no direction, yet I learnt to see the value of what God was asking me to do regardless of what anyone else thought. We get obsessed with planning, achieving and succeeding, and by doing this we miss so much of what God has for us. I learnt that success is doing what we he asks us to do.  

In the process, I learnt a lot about God’s ways, and I discovered a whole new side to me; skills and characteristics that I didn’t know that I had.  Through trusting for the daily steps, I was able to develop myself without the pressure; there was no more confinement. I found more of God and in turn, more of me. By daring to ask God what he wanted me to do, I could become the artist and person that he wanted me to be. Ironically in the wilderness period of my life, I have created and achieved far more than in previous seasons. By being open to the Spirit’s leading and being obedient, I thrived in the middle of a famine and wilderness. 

When we look at the life of Joseph, we know that he had a vision of the far off future, however for thirteen years as a slave and a prisoner, he lived on a day by day basis. He could only see as far as his next task, meal or sleep, yet he trusted that each day would bring him to his divine destination. Strangely the day to day grind of the thirteen year period was a fast track training session in learning the Egyptian language and culture; Joseph also developed the character needed to work with Pharaoh. 

The crux of what I’m saying here is that obedience brings blessing and enlargement in our lives. Obedience is never easy and involves a high degree of trust on our part. If we choose to obey, we can experience so much more than what God has for us. Often his choice involves an acceleration of experience and skills that we feel unequipped for, however this is his way of preparing us for greater things to come. If we want to be unique and reach our full potential, we need to dare to obey and step out into the unknown. It’s not so much that our faith is blind, more that we trust that God can see where he is taking us. Our dependence on God’s plan will lead us to his glorious vision for our lives.  

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I always knew that I would be a songwriter and artist right from a very young age. And I think, if I’m honest with myself, I always knew that I probably wouldn’t have an easy life because of that calling to artistry and creativity. Artists generally experience life at a deeper emotional level than others, and this informs and guides our work. Our hearts gets broken and we pour the emotions into our work. But is there any other purpose to this?

Every artist dreams of profoundly connecting with their audience, being able to move someone is a great privilege, and if it helps them on their healing journey, even better. I learnt that the greatest way to connect with my audience was through compassion, if I understand what someone has been going through, I am then able to express these emotions better in my work. 

A long time ago, I asked God why I was suffering so much in life. A series of devastating events had taken over my life, rejection, discrimination, abandonment, rape, domestic abuse, unemployment, debt, housing insecurity, divorce; it never seemed to stop. It was at this point, the Lord was clear with me that he didn’t make those things happen to me, but he allowed me to learn compassion and to soften my heart towards others in the process of dealing with these situations. Learning to be a better artist meant learning how others felt and walking the same path as them. If I wanted to connect with my audience on a deeper level, I had to experience that deeper level. I am not in anyway advocating going out and getting your heart broken to improve your work, but what I am saying is that there is more than one purpose in the pain. 

But God does not leave things there in the ashes. He treats our lives as works of art. Whatever has been broken or stolen from us, is eventually restored to us. If we can walk with others and give them hope, we take them further than just identifying with their pain. God creates a beautiful story out of a desperate situation. Whether we have received restitution or are still waiting for it, the Lord always completes our story. Everything happens for his glory, so that he can reveal his love and compassion for us through our lives. 

And this is why artists often go through more challenging times than others; we’re being prepared to create greater works that reach much further than we have gone before. We are to reflect the glory of God through our work. It is important to share the pain as well as the triumphs with our audiences. Christian life and also the artistic life, isn’t all successes and victories; often the best work is born out of painful journeys. Even if you’re not an artist, there is purpose in every life situation that you face. A failure sometimes has more value than a success because we gain so much through learning how to navigate through the disaster. 

And by the way of example, I wrote You’re So Hard On Me when I was facing opposition as a single mother, I painted Walking Into The Light when I was emerging from the nightmare of domestic abuse and I wrote If That’s The Way when after a miscarriage. None of these projects were easy to create but they connected with my audience in a profound way and were cathartic for me as well. 

So when your heart is broken, remember that there is purpose in the pain. You may not see it yet, but you might produce some of your best work and also help others along the way. We never fully know the impression that our work leaves on someone, but if we handle our creativity well, our calling to be an artist might just save someone’s life…

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One of the questions I have asked over the years is “why isn’t God answering my prayers?”. There have been many occasions where God has asked me to pray for someone and yet I’ve never seen the results of those petitions. Sometimes I wonder why God would ask me to be involved in prayer for situations that are seemingly impossible to change. 

A few years ago the Lord asked me to pray for someone that had fallen away from their faith. It was a gut-wrenching situation watching a friend change and become someone different to the Christian I knew. At first, I met this prayer challenge with gusto and great hope that God would do great things. The years past by and my prayers began to wane as the task became harder, I could see no result to my requests and I lost contact with my friend. Doubt was creeping in: had God really asked me to pray for this person and is he going to do as he said he would? After a couple of years of praying, the Lord gave me a Bible verse that is a promise of an expected good outcome to this situation. It renewed my passion for prayer and reminded me that God is in control of the situation. 

However, a few more years past, and the Lord started to give me specific information on what to pray. These nuggets of information would challenge me to look at what the Bible says and line up my prayers with God’s word. However, one day I kept having a picture of this person in a wheelchair, it made me panic-stricken that this person was going to have a serious accident. Was God asking me to pray for protection? The Lord reassured me that this was not the case, but the picture persisted for awhile so I began to ask the Lord what he wanted to me learn from this picture and what was its meaning. 

One night after I had put my kids to bed, I crashed out in the armchair, picked up my Bible and came across the story in Mark 2 of the friends who carried a paralysed man to Jesus. They were so persistent in their request for an audience that they tore open the roof of the house Jesus was in and lowered their friend down right in front of Jesus’ face. I can remember being stunned as I immediately knew why I was seeing my friend in a wheelchair, when the reality was quite different. Jesus was indicating that my friend was spiritually sick because they had fallen away and that my prayers were bringing this person to him on a regular basis. Jesus was hearing my persistence and he honoured it in the following verse (Mark 2:5): 

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, “son your sins are forgiven”. 

When Jesus saw my faith, he reminded me that he would indeed answer those prayers in his timing and in his way. The actual phrase he gave me was “because you believe” and because I believe that he can work wonders in this situation, he will move in power through the stirring of my prayers. It is often in our weakness and doubt that God send us a gem that inspires us and spurs us on to pray his will. 

Interestingly if we look at Mark 2:3, Mark mentions the friends before the paralysed man. The friends aren’t insignificant in this story, they are the lynch-pin and central characters to the message that Mark wants to get across. In other gospel accounts of the story, the friends are also mentioned first; this  is about bringing our friends and family to the Lord in prayer with diligence. It’s about the importance of intercession and more than anything, it’s about belief and faith in what God can do even when things look bleak. I always think that verse 12 gives us hope that God’s glory will be displayed in our situations, as the crowd exclaim “we have never seen anything like this.” 

The friends weren’t worried about being seen the paralysed man, they got their hands dirty and publicly carried him to the Lord. They tore down the structure that was getting in the way of them reaching Jesus, and we should repeat the same through prayer, asking the Lord to remove everything that is stopping our loved ones seeing the Lord’s face. It’s never our place to judge the people who God calls us to prayer for, but its our responsibility to carry them to God in prayer and leave the outcome to him. It’s likely that those prayers will change us before they change the person we’re praying for, certainly the friends had to develop faith an belief for their request to be granted. 

So be encouraged today, that God is lifting our situations up and moving in ways that we cannot see. The paralysed man could not bring himself to Jesus, his friends had to do that for him, a true indicator that we should do this for those who are blind to God or cannot do this for themselves. Our prayers move the heart of God and he will answer in the best way, when the timing is right. But more than anything, he will answer them because we believe. 

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Well here’s the song I didn’t expect to release: Tomorrow’s Brighter. During the last four months of lockdown, we’ve all needed some hope to get through this very strange and unexpected season. I think the lyrics of this song sum up that everyday we are indeed moving forward to the end of lockdown and a day nearer to the end of the virus. Something to think about as we slowly press ahead…

Three years ago I wrote this song quickly one evening so that I could try out a new piece of software. It seemed quite catchy and lent itself to harmonies, so I landed up using it for a singing workshop I was leading a few months later. I didn’t imagine relasing it as a single. However at the beginning of the lockdown, I found a an a cappella recording of the song and started playing around with it and voilà, a new song!

Welcome to the cartoon version of me! I wanted to do something different for the video, something with a lighter tone than I had used before. A cartoon seemed the obvious way forward and I even got to create a cartoon version of me. An official date will be set soon, but as usual, you are the first to hear the song and see the video!

The song is available on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and many other places! Download the single here.

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It has been said that it takes a crisis for people to see what they truly value. Never has this been more evident in our generation than through the COVID-19 crisis. The national lockdown may have brought people to a stand still but also to a place of deep introspection on personal and national level. We are continually in awe at the NHS response to coronavirus, and as a nation, I think we can see how deeply passionate we are about keeping our uniquely funded National Health Service. In the past key workers have been treated with a lack of respect, however, their true value has now been seen: the least have become the greatest. 

We’ve also realised how complicated our lives have become and discovered that simplicity can lead to contentment. The fact we can’t go out or see our families and friends has lead us to rethink what is important in our lives. We’ve discovered that the internet is not luxury but a necessity in life; everything from schooling, work, business, and relationships has been diverted into online formats. I do believe that something good comes out of every situation. Sometimes it takes us a long time to see it but something good always pushes the ashes. In our crisis situation, a new world order is forming and to be fair, it is long overdue. 

The lockdown has hit the arts sector hard; most arts practitioners are self employed and the work has dried up overnight. The government has put together a package for self employed workers who currently are unable to work and the arts community has come together to support each other and provide new ways of connecting people together for projects. There has been a mixed reaction to this government deal, but to be fair an offer of financial help is better than no offer at all, even if it doesn’t come as quickly as we would like it to. I also speak from a very different point of view, in the last 13 years, I have had two major low points where my business collapsed and the circumstances that surrounded these low points were totally out of my control. There was no government help, no union support and a lot of colleagues fled. For me, the good that came out of it was a resigned resilience and I learnt who was really for me. It left me with a small but extremely committed group of friends and colleagues which is better than what I had before. If you’re going to work in the arts, you need to be resilient, focused and flexible. 

It was during these low points that I began to pray that things would change in the self employed and arts sectors. I do believe that the crisis we are currently in lead us to a new way of working and will also open the door for artists and musicians to campaign for a better working conditions and deals. The plight of artists has been publicly acknowledged and this platform will help to campaign for better working conditions and employment deals in the future. 

The necessity for the arts and its role in society has been brought to people’s attention during the lockdown. How many of us has listened to some music, read a book or watch a film or TV show during this time? Yep all of us. Without the arts, life would be dull, lack colour and also insight. Not only are the arts part of our entertainment, but they are also essential for good mental health, understanding concepts and culture, and provoking thought and conversation. The arts are often seen as frivolous and expendable, however they need to be protected for their philosophical and spiritual values. At some point everyday, we reach for something creative to inspire and motivate us. 

In recent years, the financial and management sides of the creative industry have been abused and ripped apart. Much of this is being exposed and brought to light; we’ve watched as major figures have fallen from grace and organisations have collapsed. Artists have had to work for free, and I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been asked to perform for free or to give my music away. Creative enterprises have been devalued to zero. Maybe this period of introspection will bring a realisation that this can’t continue; we have to build an industry that is sustainable and fair for artists. There’s an opportunity to raise up pioneers who are passionate about encouraging and developing a wide range of genres disciplines and creating new platforms. Whatever we feel about this dark season, it won’t last forever. The temporary cessation is harmful to the arts industry in the short term, but in the long term it could actually bring about good for creatives. 

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This a short devotion I wrote for a local church on the subject of Mary’s promise for Jesus’ life…

When we are called to God’s service, we have an expectation of how it will look and pan out. In Luke 1, the angel gives Mary a message that her son “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High”. How shocked she must have been when she laid her newborn son in a cattle trough! God’s message to Mary was of greater things to come, a promise to hold onto when life seemed to be going in the opposite way.

Often we have an idea of how God wants us to serve him, but the reality doesn’t always match our expectations. We become disillusioned and thoughts of quitting roam our minds. It is in these seasons that God reminds us to hold on to the vision he has given us; food for the journey for when the road seems long. God’s plans look different to our own, but we can be sure that his promises always come to pass. If you are following God’s dream for your life, the Lord will see you through the desert to the promised land. As for Mary, her baby may have had a rocky start, but he went on to a glorious ending.