Week Twenty-One - In Christ Alone

How can I describe this upcoming week? On Friday, we will be saying farewell to a little family member who only joined us for a week of her precious life. There is great sadness, but there is also the precious hope of heaven sustaining our family. 

By Thursday, the appeal will have been filed with the Border Agency about our sponsorship license. And again, that leaves us waiting to hear the outcome and walking the path of the unknown. We are totally in God's hands, and what better place to be!

As Tom and I read our devotion yesterday morning, we rejoiced in the confidence we can have in such a position, a position where our only hope is in God.

Let me share some portions with you. Spurgeon took Psalm 138:8 as his text. "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." The whole Psalm is a beautiful praise on how God works on behalf of His children. But Spurgeon began talking about divine confidence saying, 

"If we indulge in any confidence which is not grounded on the Rock of ages, our confidence is worse than a dream...The Psalmist was wise, and he rested upon nothing short of the Lord's work. It is the Lord who has begun the good work within us; it is He who has carried it on...He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do...If we had to navigate our frail vessels over so rough a sea all by ourselves, we might well give up the voyage in despair; but, thanks be to God, He will fulfil His purpose for us, and bring us to the desired haven."

Oh, how we rejoiced in being reminded that it is the Lord's work. We are simply His tools, His servants. He will be the one who decides the outcome. Ours is but to wait and trust, to cast ourselves upon His faithfulness and wisdom. He will bring us to the desired haven, and that is not the haven of our design. It is not the place we have carved out for ourselves or connived to attain. It is the haven of His desire, His design, His plan and purpose.

When we cast ourselves totally upon the Lord, not only in times of bereavement and uncertainty, but at all times and in every case of life, we can rest assured the Lord is on our side. He will fight the battles for us. He will, as Psalm 138 says, revive, strengthen, and answer. Then we can sing with all the saints of old,

In Christ alone, my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand