uphold me according to your promise, that i may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope! hold me up, that i may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually! [psalm 119:116-117]
when i sit and think about all of the things God has called us to in this life, it can get overwhelming. i think about my children, and how i’m called to raise them in the fear and instruction of the Lord. i think about marriage, and how we’re called to lay down our desires and preferences for one another. i think about marriages who have only one believing spouse, laboring in prayer for their husband or wife. teens who are growing up in unbelieving households, with no community in the Spirit at home. or someone who is called to make much of God’s glory through cancer, abuse, job loss, miscarriages, persecution. i think of just the day to day relationship with the Lord that we’re called to pursue and live out, forsaking worldliness, and growing in the fruit of the Spirit. is it too much? in our flesh, can we actually live the way we’re called to live? the obvious answer is no, we cannot.
left to ourselves, our children would all fall away, our marriages would crumble, our spouses, parents, and friends would remain in darkness. our trials would turn us inward, we ourselves would be overcome by lust for the world, and our relationship with our Maker would quickly grow cold.
but…
thanks be to God that HE is the one who upholds his covenant with us. [heb 6:17]
thanks be to God that HE is the author and perfecter of our faith! [heb 12:2]
thanks be to God that those whom HE chooses, HE also calls, justifies, and brings to glory. [rom 8:29-30]
thanks be to God that HE seals us by the Holy Spirit. [eph 1:13-14]
thanks be to God that HE puts his law within us by writing it on our hearts. [jer 31:33]
thanks be to God that HE is the keeper of our soul! [psalm 121:7]
we have no need for fear, because God himself will uphold us with his righteous right hand, according to his own promise. [isaiah 41:10] and he never fails to fulfill his own promises, because in his justice, he never fails to uphold his own good name. [isaiah 48:9-11] so church, let’s cry out in praise and thanksgiving to the God who fills us with hope of an eternity with him, and ask for him to uphold his promise to help us live out the life we already have in Jesus Christ!
so when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf [hebrews 6:17-20a]
~arwen eastman