Hang In There

There are times that I feel a bit overwhelmed, perhaps because I am not trusting God enough. It is in times like these that I am even more overwhelmed by His grace... almost like He has His arms around me saying, "Hang in there. You can trust Me. I'm not finished." He often speaks to me in this way through His word. I was reading Psalm 94 this evening.

If I should say, "My foot has slipped," Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up. When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.

We used to go to Colorado every summer and dad spoke at Summit Ministries. This verse brings back a memory from one of those days in Colorado. Every 2 weeks, they do a "manly hike" early one morning up Red Mountain. It's only about a mile or so, but it's a steep mile. On the way down, several of us run down. There is loose gravel so it is almost like you are jumping and sliding... jumping and sliding all the way down. It's a blast. The one thing that always makes it more exciting is when the loose gravel ends and the sharp rock section begins. It had been raining and I slipped on one of these rocks going almost full speed and kind of ate it face first into more rocks. You know that feeling right before you fall... that feeling of... "This is going to hurt." It is in those very times (in the spiritual sense) that God is right there to hold me up. When there is not a thing I can do to save myself and by all fleshly feelings, I am done for. He will take hold of me with that strong Fatherly grip that never slips.

It is in this confidence that I can have great delight. He robs sin and death of their victory and claims it for His own. Isn't it amazing that those last moments before death, when hope is gone and you "give up"... that is when He wins the ultimate battle in us... completely purifying us and bringing us into His presence? This experience of Him gaining the victory in the completion of our sanctification isn't a unique experience. He is holding us now. When we don't know where our foot is going to land... we just know it's in the air and hope that it lands in a solid place... that is the moment that we must trust the Lord. Actually, there is never a moment that we may stop trusting Him, but especially when we don't know what will happen next. It is such a God glorifying thing to trust Him when we can't even fathom what He will do. God, give me that kind of dependence on You.