Bloody nose and burning eyes
Raised in laughter to the skies
I’ve been in trouble but I’m ok
Been through the wringer but I’m ok
Walls are falling and I’m ok
Under the mercy and I’m ok
~ Bruce Cockburn, Fascist Architecture
“Chazak! Chazak! Venitchazek!”
(“Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened!”)
~ Jewish traditional chant ending the reading of a book of the Torah
And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee;
he will be with thee,
he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee:
fear not,
neither be dismayed.
~ Deuteronomy 31:8
~ Deuteronomy 31:8
Surely, beloved, there are days when we are going through it. The temptation is to reach for dismay like a blanket, or to default to fear.
The answer here is simple. Don’t.
And, for sure, don’t try to maintain some stance of not being fearful on your own. Even the Jews who were all about rules and laws and doing the right thing to get righteous enough before G_d, understood one thing: Strength comes from G_d alone.
All of it is under His control. Now – right now – in moments like these, is the time to trust Him completely. We can trust that He will show and do His will. And that it will be for His glory and our good.
He is our strength. We have but to stand in it.
“Chazak! Chazak! Venitchazek!”
“I never remember, in all my Christian course, a period now (in March, 1895) of sixty-nine years and four months, that I ever SINCERELY and PATIENTLY sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been ALWAYS directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes.
~ George Mueller
I know what Mueller meant and I agree with him.