Hold My Hand

 I love it when I awaken to the birth of a new week on Mondays with a clear sense of my purpose and plans, eager to tackle the tasks at hand.  I look at my calendar app in my phone and see the appointments lined up, the times for preparation to teach or speak blocked out, the meetings that are scheduled, and I find a kind of comfort in that time map. 

This morning I felt neither eagerness nor comfort. It’s not sadness. I know what grief is from too much experience with it. What I felt at first light was more akin to the caution you feel when you step into a darkened room.  Life feels a lot less certain this morning than it usually does. Perhaps it was yesterday’s funeral for a man my age who died suddenly on Friday while on a walk in the park with his wife. Perhaps it is just left-over weariness from a non-stop weekend of ministry and meetings. God only knows, literally!  So, my prayer this morning was child-like – “Abba, please hold my hand.”

I meditated on the inspired wisdom of James, words that could be seen as bleak. Today it was my reminder that Someone knows my tomorrows. "Look here, you people who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15, NLT)

Preparation for the future, as much as we can anticipate it, is the course of the wise. The wisest will always remember that within the boundaries of the purposes of God, there is His gift to us of freedom. We are not adrift on the ocean of random chance nor are we locked into a course that makes us pawns in the hands of God. Our Heavenly Father does not find Himself trying to play catch up with a world that has outrun His plans. He is not surprised by the storms or the opportunities for He “knows my days before one of them came to be.”  Right alongside of that assurance is the reminder of responsibility “to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 (NIV)

As the sun rises higher in the sky, spilling light over the earth, it is a kind of metaphor for my morning. When I think of His promise to guide, of the eternal life in Christ Jesus that He has secured on my behalf, the uncertainties become less threatening, manageable even, because “I know Who holds my hand.”  I’m still praying “Abba, hold my hand” but not from fear. Instead, with His word in my mind and the Spirit in my heart, I am ready to say, “Lord, let’s do this.”  How about you?

Take this word from the Word with you today. Let the wisdom work deep into your being, forming a desire to walk with Him.

Psalm 1 (NKJV) --

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

_______________

Build My Life

(what or who is your foundation?)

Worthy of ev’ry song we could ever sing

Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

Jesus the name above ev’ry other name

Jesus the only one who could ever save

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

We live for You

Holy there is no one like You

There is none besides You

Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are

And fill me with Your heart

And lead me in Your love to those around me

I will build my life upon Your love

It is a firm foundation

I will put my trust in You alone

And I will not be shaken

Brett Younker | Karl Martin | Kirby Elizabeth Kaple | Matt Redman | Pat Barrett

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