4-26-2015

        Good Morning All!!

           Jude 1:24; “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy”

       It would be long now.  Our granddaughter rolls over easily now and it won’t be long before she is up on all fours and crawling around and then those first teetering steps.   She will wobble and twist but soon she will be walking.  She will have incentive as she watches her big brother and she tries to keep up with him.  But those first few steps will be stumbling ones.  Her mother or father will hold her up and slowly move their hands away then they will coax her to take a step or two.  She will take those steps and her parents will be there to catch her to keep her from stumbling and falling.  They will guide her until she is steady enough to walk on her own and even then will catch her to keep her from stumbling and falling down.

    This is what God does for us as well.  He is there to keep us from stumbling.  He is there to lift us up and to keep us walking, moving forward in our life.  All of us go through many events in our life; events that can cause us to waver and tumble; events that can cause us to question or to worry or to fear what lies ahead.  We all face those events which can cause us to fall.  It might be something large, like the death of a close loved one or serious health issues.  All of us will deal with these.  We may think we are prepared but death still hurts; illnesses still cause us to worry about what lies ahead.  We lack the ability to do what we all crave; the ability to know what each event in our life means and how it “fits” in our life.  When we are unable to do this, we can stumble and waver, perhaps even fall down.

    Yet God has promised to be there for us to offer us the certainty of his grace, his ever present mercy.  We can cling to this as we go forward.  Just as a loving parent would never push an unsteady child down; neither will God cause us to stumble.  He will always lift us up.  We can either trust this truth and know that his love is always upon us or we can struggle through the battles of life uncertain of what is ahead.  We know that what is ahead of us is eternal life with Jesus; we know that what is ahead of us is the promise from God that his plans are to prosper us.  We are never abandoned even in the darkest of journeys through the deepest shadow of the valley of death.  We never need to fear; we never need to wonder what is ahead for ahead is; we only need to trust God’s promise and to remember that this promise is made to us and is given to us to give us hope and comfort.  Below is a prayer that we use in worship and other times where we pray for God’s guidance in our calling but it really can apply to our entire life’s journey.

For guidance in our calling

Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret