He Holds Us

February 5, 2022

Jesus, you are the cornerstone.

You are my friend when I’m alone

You’re the convictor when I’m wrong.

You are the peace within the storm.

You are the shelter from all harm.

I love it when you hold me in your arms.

Everything I need You are.

Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. You are truly an awesome, wonderful, beyond compare God and I truly want to say thank you. You are so many things to me, you’ve done so many things for me. And one of the things/moments I remember is being held by you many years ago. It served as a comfort on low days and a reminder that you care. That you are not some abstract, indifferent God who looks down your nose in disdain at us, but you care. You care when we hurt, when you’re happy and you desire the best for us. You delight in us. Thank you for another day, for waking me up and the promises you have made over my life.

You’ve got the whole world in your hand, because you are just that good. Thank you for your protection – from ourselves, from spiritual forces that are fighting everyday to overwhelm us. But you also hold us. Yahweh, I bring before you the leaders of this nation. I pray that they work together for the betterment and for the peace of the people and not just their friends. I pray that they be open to your voice and leading so that we would be healed as a nation, as a land. Let your will be done.

Thank you for your spirit that directs, connects and instructs. Help me to always know and follow when you are leading and to move in your timing, not mine. 

Isaiah 41:10 – Don’t be afraid because I am with you. Don’t be intimidated: I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will support you with my victorious right hand.

This text always calls to me. It always touched me to my core whenever I read it or remembered it. There’s so much wrapped up in this. We have no need to fear. This is something that you have repeated so many times throughout your word and for the first time in my life, I’m beginning to understand what it is to live without that fear. And it may be easy to think that it means to be reckless – it doesn’t. But it does mean that we have the insurance of your strength once we are following you. Thank you Yahweh for your strength. 

We often forget how great our God is. In local parlance: He ain’t no “namby Pamby” God and we don’t/shouldn’t be discouraged. That good god? He’s on my side. I always remember this line from a movie where the hero was being challenged: Who’s going to stop me? You and what army? And the hero confidently spoke: this army. And then the many others are revealed behind him. We need to have even greater confidence in you (after all they probably took that idea from the story of Elisha). Yahweh, I pray for that confidence in you: you have shown us that we can trust you.

COMMENTARY: Every truthful man feels he has a right to be believed and to say you have no faith in him is a reflection not on you but on the person whom you don’t believe. To say that you cannot believe God? It takes away the very Godhead from God, if God is not true, then he is not God. And if he’s not fit to be believed, neither is he fit to be God, for a God whom we cannot trust, you cannot worship. 

That is a powerful and humbling thought. How can you presume to worship God if you don’t trust him and believe him?

Psalm 89:13 – Your arm is mighty, your hand is strong. Your right hand is lifted high.

Your right hand always sounds so powerful, you don’t even need to use the other hand (that might be overkill). It signals that you always win. But I think one of the reasons I love the other scripture is because it shows your paradox – your strength and your gentleness. You hold us both to protect by your strength and to comfort with your support. Thank you for holding me

Psalm 139:8-10 – If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there. If I climb upward on the rays of the morning sun or land on the most distant shore of the sea where the sun sets, even there your hand will guide me and your right hand would hold on to me. 

Two things come to mind with the scripture. You never let go (a song by Positive) and you never will. I should only apply “nevers” to you. Such as, you will never leave me nor forsake me. Never. No matter where I find myself, you are there to guide, you are there holding me. 

Two: A lot of older Christians truly did a disservice to you and presented a God that does not exist. How many times have I heard that if you go so and so place, your angel cannot enter so you are unprotected? While it’s not prudent to just throw yourself in harm’s way, you never leave us. Yahweh, I pray for those who have been scarred because of that teaching: that you left us to our own destruction because we cross a threshold of a building. Heal them and I pray that they realise that you are a wonderful, powerful God who cares for us. I mean, sigh, you came and made the ultimate sacrifice for us but will leave us because we stepped into a bar? Really? Smh. Yahweh, I also ask forgiveness for those who taught such. I pray that hopefully it was genuine and that their hearts are yours. We all make mistakes. Help us Yahweh to truly represent you and to understand and remember what you have said. Thank you for your unconditional promises: you will never leave us. You hold us. You give the best hugs.