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God Will

         So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

           My sister and her husband are going through a tough time, and this is the verse she’s holding on to. Each of us is facing at least one challenge. Even if life is  going well now, at some point, we’ll face difficulty. We each need to cling to this promise. God is nearby. God will strength, help, and uphold us. Sometimes, He will act directly. Often, He will use another person, place, or thing. Sometimes, He may even use you to strengthen and uphold you. This is part of the reason we need strong marriages, strong families, and strong church communities.

          Here’s another piece to this puzzle. Sometimes, we are tempted to fear other people or be dismayed over what is happening. Our concerns are over big things. They may be legitimate concerns, and God has promised to strengthen, help, and uphold us through these, but not to make them go away. But our greater danger lies closer to home. What is most likely to trip us up, and therefore to make us most need God to strengthen, help, and uphold us is our own sin, brokenness, and weakness.

 In fact, when I have found myself in situations where my personal strengths (like research!) would have been invaluable, I found myself incapable of looking anything up on the topic. I don’t know that any research I did would have helped, but I have to think that refusing to research was a means of denying the problem. But, while I tend to think I do a horrible job under those circumstances, God has given grace and brought me through.

And my sister is correct in choosing this verse. God will bring her and her husband through this time. It might not be in the way we want, but He will strengthen, help, and uphold them.

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