You Are Firmly Held By God

by Elizabeth Stewart

The enemy loves to torment us with worry, fear and anxiety when we are the most vulnerable. Let's face it, we're all a bit vulnerable right now. We are still in a worldwide pandemic that has affected our lives socially, emotionally, physically and financially. We are in the midst of a very contentious election season in our nation. There is civil and racial unrest in our nation and riots in many of our cities. Add to that all of the challenging circumstances that we experience living life on sin-sick planet earth, and yes, we are definitely vulnerable right now to satan's tricks. Thank God, that we have the Captain of the Lord of Hosts, Jesus Christ and His angel armies, fighting on our behalf. We also have the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, as our weapon to use against satan's lies.

The other night, I woke up in the middle of the night tormented by anxious thoughts about everything from the upcoming elections, to the future, to finances, to our children and grandchildren. I knew that my mind was under attack by the enemy and so I began to pray about each area I was feeling anxious about. (satan hates it when we do that, by the way. It's called resisting the devil. he flees when we do that.) Before long, I heard God's voice in my inner being say to me, "You are firmly held." I recognized those words from the song Get Your Hopes Up by Josh Baldwin. the words of the bridge of the song are:

Christ before me

Christ behind me

I am firmly held

In His mercy never ending

I'll remind myself

You can listen to the entire song here:

 https://youtu.be/e6FZzIy6VjA 

And then I recalled the words from one of my favorite verses, Hebrews 13:5 from the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition. 

"Let your character, or moral disposition, be free from the love of money, including greed, avarice, lust and craving for earthly possessions, and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have, for He, God Himself, has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not. I will not. I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let you down, relax my hold on you! Assuredly not!"  

The truth is, I'm not satisfied with my present circumstances and what I have. I want the pandemic to be over, I want financial security, I want a peaceful nation. Truth be told, I want a comfortable, trouble free life. (I have some work to do on that being satisfied part!) But, that's not what life is like living in a world tainted by sin. We have good times, hard times and sometimes we go through horrible times. In order to make it through whatever times we are facing we need to remember that God Himself, the One Who created the heavens and the earth, the One Who created us and redeemed us through the sacrifice of His only Son, has promised us that He will not fail us, give us up, leave us without support, leave us helpless, forsake us, let us down, or relax His hold on us. We are firmly held, friends. We need not fear.

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