October 17

“We must give up all care of our own by an absolute surrender to His keeping and by an implicit trust of our needs day by day.  If this is done and steadfastly persisted in, the peace of God will keep as in a garrison our hearts and minds.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 10/1

Hannah likens it to a child holding his mother’s hand.  It’s not his holding her hand, but her holding his hand that keeps him safe.  She used this illustration to help us see what kind of religion we have.  We are very good at “devising” our own gods for our purposes.  This keeps us in charge and therefore feels as though it’s up to us to hold God’s Hand.  Initially, we do need to put our hand in God’s Hand, but we’re not doing the “holding”.  God is.  In fact, once we put our hand in God’s, He is the One who keeps it there.  Even in those times that we feel as though we’ve taken our hand out of God’s Hand, He is still holding on to us.  This is how we fool ourselves into thinking we are back in control.  We may not feel as though our hand is in God’s, but that’s because it’s become numb.  If we would just look, we would see it’s still there.  I had a spinal block for the cesarean birth of my third child.  It was very strange not to be able to feel my body below my arms.  It was there--I could see it--but it did not feel as though it belonged to me--even when I was able to see my abdomen cut open in the reflection in the overhead light.  I even saw my child lifted out, but it did not feel as though he’d come from my body.  Our feelings cannot be trusted to always tell us the truth.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing.”  Jude 24