OUR LORD WHO HOLDS OUR HANDS
There are few things as tender as the sight of fathers holding the hands of their little children walking down the street.
The little ones are guided through traffic and pathway hazards by someone who can see the terrain from a higher vantage point than they can and someone who has navigated the paths many times before.
Isaiah 41 verse 13 reveals our Father in heaven as one who holds our hands when we are in need. It says this:
For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
Sometimes we find ourselves in desperate circumstances and Mark 5 verse 41 graphically illustrates such a time saying this:
Taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).
Here, the predicament being faced was death and our Lord took the young girl by the hand and raised her from the dead.
Another desperate situation that needed the hand of God is recorded in Mathew 14 verse 28 - 31 when Peter was attempting to walk on water and began to sink and cried out to be saved. The passage goes like this;
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
Peter, in a time of fear, is grasped by the hand of God and lifted out of the water.
The astonishing effects of being held by the hand by our Lord are conferred to those who believe in Him so that they too can reach their hands out to other people and grab them by the hand to help them.
An example of this is reported in the book of Acts chapter 3 where Peter was entering the temple area and came across a lame beggar who asked for some money. The text reads this way;
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.
Here, Peter, who had himself been grabbed by the hand of Jesus to save him from his predicament in the water, was now able to take someone else's hand and lift them up.
This is the expectation of those who serve in the kingdom of God. We, having been lifted by our God, lift others up by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Praise His holy name.
Amen.
Reference Resource: bible.knowing-jesus.com
OUR LORD WHO IS GRACIOUS TO US
Psalm 145 verse 8 clearly speaks of the gracious nature of God that is alongside His merciful nature. The verse goes like this;
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Graciousness is an allowance or provision of margins by which a new or struggling believer can operate within and still find favour with God.
Joel 2 verse 13 also links graciousness with mercy and frames graciousness as the allowance of some latitude that we, as children of God, have within which we can grow in Him confident in His steadfast love for us.
And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
The apostle Paul, in Romans 5 verses 20-21 writes of the direct relation between sin and grace whereby as sin increases, grace also increases because grace takes over the jurisdiction in believer's lives that sin once controlled under the rules of death. Grace then gains controlling interest in the lives of the redeemed who can then be lead to eternal life via righteousness. The passage says it this way:
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 30 verse 18, that the Lord waits to be gracious to us which He is able to do when He extends His mercy to we who wait for Him. The passage says it this way;
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
How awesome is our God who gives abundant grace to us.
Bless His holy name.
Amen.
OUR LORD SUPPLIES ALL OUR NEEDS
The apostle Paul in Philippians 4 verse 18 - 19, writes that the people of the church at Philippi were sending him the things that he needed and that he was well supplied. He mentioned that the effort that was expended to provide for Him was pleasing to God. The passage says it this way:
But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
The passage ends with the confident assertion that his ( Paul's ) God would supply all their needs according to His ( Jesus' ) riches in glory.
The implication is that undertaking to supply the servants of the Lord with what they need as they do the work of the kingdom of God positions us to be recipients of God's riches in glory.
This provisioning of the Lord's servants gives us the opportunity to be participants in the work of the kingdom and to share in the harvest.
Bless the Lord our God.
Amen.
OUR LORD PROVIDES US WITH KNOWLEDGE
1 Corinthians 13 verse 13 says;
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
As we grow towards love, which is the greatest of virtues as defined by the apostle Paul, we who are believers in Jesus Christ go through a progression of attainments listed in 2 Peter 1 verse 5 - 7.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
Starting out, once we believe through faith, we move to the pursuit of goodness where we start exercising our desire to separate ourselves from the things of the flesh we used to do.
Clearing away the clutter of worldly desires, then creates a hunger for knowledge of things of the God and of the Spirit. All knowledge is under the purview of God and those who seek Him fervently will have godly knowledge revealed to them.
Once we receive knowledge, we gain self-control as knowledge provides us with the correct understanding of ourselves, the realm of the spirit, the nature of our adversary and the authority and power of our God. As well, we are given knowledge of the mysteries hidden away for us by our Lord to give us advantage in navigating the things of this world when we require them.
With self-control, we can then move into perseverance; then godliness; then mutual affection; then to love.
Because so much of our growth in the spirit is hinged on this continuum, the apostle Paul urges us to make every effort to reach the milestones on the path and the third milestone of gaining knowledge is an eye-opening station of revelation and greater understanding provided for by our Lord.
Bless the name of the Lord.
Amen.
Reference Resource: dailyverses.net
OUR LORD WHO CLEANSES US
The Lord, in Ezekiel 36 verse 25 - 27 says;
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
The Lord undertakes to cleanse us from impurities and complete the work of sanctification He began in us.
Bless the Lord our God.
Amen.
REFERENCE RESOURCE: thelife.com
OUR LORD WHO IS STEADFAST
As we approach the end of the year, let us think gratefully upon the steadfastness of our Lord who stands by us undettered by our fecklessness.
He graciously remains unwavering in restoring our souls and teaching us the ways of His kingdom.
The book of Lamentations 3 verse 22 - 23 gives these comforting words;
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Psalm 117 verse 1 - 2 also says this;
Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!
The constancy of our God gives us a foundation of confidence in the One who will never leave us nor forsake us because His love for us is enduring.
Psalm 86 verse 15 underlines the steadfastness of God by adding that He is slow to respond to our vexatious ways which allows us room to reflect on and correct our attitudes and behaviours when we pass judgement on ourselves.
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Let us follow our Lord's example and reciprocate His steadfastness towards us by exercising our own steadfastness in the pursuit of Him and the service of His kingdom.
As Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58:
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Bless the Lord who never wavers from the work He began in us which He is faithful to complete in the end.
Amen.
Reference resource: biblical.com, openbible.info