PRAISE THE LORD (PART 4)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In that day you will say:

“I will praise You, Lord. The Lord, the Lord Himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.”

Isaiah 12:1a-2b

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The last several days, my wife and I have had the pleasure of visiting with my daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren in Georgia. It has been our second trip since they returned from being stationed overseas and this time we have had a little more time to spend with them. It’s been a joyous time and my one big takeaway from our visit is that parents sure have their hands full in raising their children. This is nothing new of course as parents throughout the ages have had to expend copious amounts of energy and effort to ensure their kids grew up with a decent lease on life as adults. But after you have stopped being a parent for awhile, I have found you lose sight about how much you invested each day in helping your children grow up, that is until you get to the point where you have grandchildren and are reminded.

The bottom line is that parenting is just plain hard work when we do it right. It requires a ton of dedication and perseverance and strength, strength we so often find hard to come by. It’s during those times that we can turn to the Lord and know He is ever ready to give us what we need in the proper measure. We should praise Him for that as we have praised Him for His mercy, grace, and forgiveness, His salvation, and His assurance and protection that takes away the fear of life so we need not be afraid of anything the world brings our way. The prophet Isaiah predicted there would be a day where we would give thanks to God for His strength and defense and indeed those days come and go with regularity. Look at his words again here:

In that day you will say:

“I will praise You, Lord. The Lord, the Lord Himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.”  Isaiah 12:1a-2b

The Lord Himself is our strength. We cannot find the strength to make it through life anywhere else. You can try and do it. Many people have done so and failed, and I would count myself among that number, but in the end, we will all find ourselves coming back to the Lord and discovering that through Him and through Him alone, we can do all things by His strength within us (Philippians 4:13). Paul certainly wrote that it was this discovery that allowed him to be content no matter his circumstances and when we figure it out in our own lives, we’ll reach the same conclusion (Philippians 4:11-12).

A woman in the Sunday School class I teach has modeled Paul’s mindset for some time now and has been a real inspiration to myself and so many others. She has lived for years with failed kidneys, having to undergo consistent dialysis treatments to ensure she can stay alive, the machines doing what her body could not do. We have been in constant prayer for her, asking God to bring forth a transplant candidate. She has remained patient and steadfast in her faith that God would provide, and just a few weeks ago, her faith was rewarded. A donor has been identified and all the testing showed it was a match. One final determination by a transplant board made it all happen and today, she has a new lease on life as she recovers from her surgery and her body has accepted the new organ. It’s nothing short of a miracle but the road to it was paved with trust and a belief that God’s promises are true, that He does work things out for the good of those who love Him. It was not an easy road to travel. Much strength was needed. But this woman never walked away from her faith and sought the strength she needed to persevere from the Lord. Obviously, He delivered.

Maybe you have your own testimony to share, a testimony about how God’s strength helped you through a time of difficulty, past or present. Feel free to post it and bless others with your story, right after you join me in giving God all the praise, honor, and glory for the strength He grants for us to make it through this thing called life. One thing’s for sure, we can’t do it without Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com