Healing Rays of Righteousness

All The Way My Savior Leads Me

Read Psalm 37:23-24

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.”

I’m quite certain that you, like me, have those days when you feel like throwing in the towel. It seems troubles and difficulties keep piling on you and no one seems to care, not even God.   You feel wiped out, exhausted, crushed, devastated, and emptied of hope.

The apostle Paul tells of a time when there was so much opposition against him that he not only felt worn out, but so exhausted and discouraged by what was happening to him that he wished he were dead.  “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.  We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.  Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.”  (2Cor. 1:8-9)

Most of us have felt this kind of weariness during difficult times in our life.  It happens when we are experiencing opposition from others, or suffer from a prolonged injury or illness. Our emotional and spiritual strengths and resolve seem to slowly erode until there is very little energy left in us to face another day of suffering.

It is at these times in our lives that we find it most difficult to see or imagine God’s long range plan of guidance for our life.  But it is also during such times that we most need to reach out and grasp God’s hand and be encouraged by his promises.

We can begin reaching out by remembering that we are not alone.  God has promised to always be present with us and to guide our every step, one at a time.  “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.”  (Ps. 37:23-24).  Then, having stretched out our hand, we are encouraged to allow God’s strong hand grasp our hand and lead us out of despair and into hope.

God also promised, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”  (Ps. 32:8).  I remember a bus company’s advertisement, “Take the bus and leave the driving to us.”  In a similar but much grander way, God invites us to let him take the steering wheel and do the driving for us in our life journey.

I like to think of my living through difficult experiences as similar to driving my car through the darkness of night.  I can see only as far as my headlights pierce the darkness, but I keep driving forward and the headlights keep piercing the darkness with a pathway of light.  And I complete the whole trip through the darkness, trusting my headlights to keep showing me the way forward.

Yes, my forward progress may be slowed down when my headlights make visible an accident or road construction and detours.  Also, a dangerous storm of wind, rain, or snow may delay my travel.  And yes, these unexpected delays can cause me frustration and possibly elevate my fear and stress, but my headlights will continue to show me a pathway of light, leading to my destination.  I like to think of God’s Holy Spirit being that headlight shining a pathway of light through these times of darkness in my life’s journey.

Yes, there are many times I wish I could see further ahead into the next week, month or year, but that is not how God promises to guide us.  His promise is to guide us one step at a time, and we take that step forward by faith, believing that his presence and his light will continue to show us the way through the darkness that surrounds us.

Fanny Crosby wrote the words to the hymn, “All The Way My Savior Leads Me,” as her praise to God for his leading in her life.  Being physically blind, she knew the importance being guided by another. She was keenly aware of the uncertainty and possible stumbling in every pathway she would take.  The hymn was first published in 1875, and remains a favorite for many of us.

“All the way my Savior leads me – What have I to ask beside?  Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my guide?    Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell!  For I know, what-e’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. 

All the way my Savior leads me – Cheers each winding path I tread.   Gives me grace for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread.   Though my weary steps may falter  And my soul a-thirst may be,  Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.

Yes, all the way, “the Lord upholds him (her) with his hand.”  God’s presence and light will always pierce the darkness and say to you, “This is the way, walk in it.”  (Isa. 30:21).

I Need Not Be Afraid

Psalm 27:1-6, 11-14

All sorts of human troubles, despair and fears are recounted throughout the book of Psalms, nevertheless, the psalms also keep coming back to affirming the sure confidence we can have in knowing that God is with us through all the frightening dark valleys of life.  Repeatedly we hear the psalms declaring that because of God’s presence and power, we have no need to be afraid.

Medical science confirms FEAR to be the greatest threat to mental, physical and spiritual health – first we think it, then we feel it, and slowly our trust in God weakens and we believe our fears to be true.  And so, it would seem logical to conclude that the remedy for quieting our fears begins with deliberate action toward strengthening our spiritual relationship with God.

Psalm 27 was written by King David, and is a declaration of faith by which he has learned how to deal with his fears.  Verse 1 opens with an exuberant “the Lord is” and his intensely personal faith is reflected in the use of the possessive pronoun “my”.

“The Lord is my light and salvation – whom shall I fear?                                                                The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”                                     …….    “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;                                                                              though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.”

The Hebrew word for “confident” means to “feel secure, be unconcerned.”  For King David, this sense of security comes from the Lord, which he declares to be his “light and salvation.”  His confidence is that “…in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle.” (27:5).

King David had discovered through his many difficult and frightening life experiences that, even though God does not always remove the causes of fear, he always does give us the inward resources to confront and deal with them. Too often we are tempted to become so focused on the fear-causing threat that we forget about the power available to us in confronting and calming our fear.  We so easily forget that God is bigger – much bigger than any difficulty or threatening situation facing us.

The psalmist’s opening question, “of whom shall I be afraid?”  is echoed in Apostle Paul’s question “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Paul’s answer declares that no one and no thing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:31).

This is the essence of our faith, and such faith makes it possible to quiet our fears, not because we “have faith” or the threats we face aren’t real, but because faith connects us with a much greater reality – a sovereign, all-powerful God who is much bigger than any and all of our fears.

We choose either faith or fear.  These are our only two options in response to difficult and threatening circumstances.  Either we can know and relate to the living God as our “light, salvation, and stronghold,” or we are destined to live in worry, anguish, and fear through every troublesome situation.

The psalmist then closes with this encouragement, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”  The ability to calm the soul and wait before God is most likely one of the most difficult tasks in a Christian’s life.  At least I find it so, as I tend to be impatient, wanting God to act now.  I frequently need to reclaim for myself the confidence in God as expressed by the psalmist in this and the following scriptures.

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.  My salvation and my honor depend on God, he is my mighty rock, my refuge.  Trust in him at all times, O People; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.  Selah.”  (Ps. 62:5-8).

And so we say with the psalmist, “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?

A Song of Confidence

Read Psalm 23

For my times of suffering, I have found much comfort and encouragement in Psalm 23, and as a chaplain have shared this psalm with many others in their times of suffering.  I think this psalm portrays an excellent summary of the Christian perspective for all of life, including suffering.

Psalm 23 is probably the best-known and most quoted passage from the Bible.  Even those who seldom read the Bible can quote at least a line or two from it, because they’ve heard it so often spoken at funerals. It is appropriately used there and is most often a comforting passage to mourners. But if you think of Psalm 23 as being only an appropriate funeral text, you can miss the fact that this Psalm is mostly about living, not dying.  In fact, only one verse references death, while the other five verses speak about good, abundant living.

Although many of us are used to hearing the King James version of verse 4 as “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death …,” the underlying Hebrew words can also mean simply “place of deep darkness.”  And so, the New International version, which I prefer, reads “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, (of hurt, pain, suffering and loss) I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff they comfort me.”

Psalm 23:4 candidly faces the inevitable experience of suffering and fear.  It does not say “If I walk” but it says “Even though I walk through the darkest valley ….”  The comforting power of Psalm 23 comes from its use of these two key words: “though” and “through” – the same word except for the single letter “r.”  That one little letter makes all the difference in the world.  It is the letter that turns your “though” into a “through.”  Valleys are not resting places, but passageways.

This then is a statement about God’s shepherding me during the difficult and troubling stretches of life.  And the reason I’m not overwhelmed by fear is because God the Shepherd is with me and his rod and staff are at the ready to protect and guide me.  His presence comforts and reassures me in the midst of threatening darkness.    

 “Though” none of us journey through life without walking the valley of deep darkness, the psalmist makes it plain that God does not intend for us to stay there forever.  The valley is something one goes “through.”  We can walk through our problems.  We can walk through our sorrows.  We can walk through our pain.  We can walk through our screw-ups and life-threatening situation without fear of evil, because the Lord, our Shepherd, journeys through with us; and his rod and staff are at the ready to protect and rescue us, if and when needed.

The Psalmist concludes, “Surely your goodness and love shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

And so, this Psalm becomes a strong statement of faith, a song of confidence in God.  Whether our dark valleys are times of painful sufferings or the actual passage through death itself, we believe God is not only with us but is more than equal to whatever threats to our spiritual well-being may lurk within the dark shadows.

Psalm 23, along with the whole book of Psalms, is about having confidence in God.  The Psalms recount all sorts of human troubles, despair and fears, but like a compass needle that keeps swinging back to the north, they keep coming back to the confidence we can have in knowing that God is with us in the darkness.  And so, when Psalm 23 talks about God’s rod and staff being a source of comfort in the frightening valleys of life, it is stating the main point of the entire book of Psalms.

Psalm 139 can be read as evidence that God has journeyed through the dark valley ahead of us.  The author that Psalm says; “Where can I go from your spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make by bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”  (Psalm 139:7-12).

So says Peter in his letter to the suffering followers of Jesus in his day; “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  (1 Peter 1:6-7).

A Song of Confidence

Read Psalm 23

For my times of suffering, I have found much comfort and encouragement in Psalm 23, and as a chaplain have shared this psalm with many others in their times of suffering.  I think this psalm portrays an excellent summary of the Christian perspective for all of life, including suffering.

Psalm 23 is probably the best-known and most quoted passage from the Bible.  Even those who seldom read the Bible can quote at least a line or two from it, because they’ve heard it so often spoken at funerals. It is appropriately used there and is most often a comforting passage to mourners. But if you think of Psalm 23 as being only an appropriate funeral text, you can miss the fact that this Psalm is mostly about living, not dying.  In fact, only one verse references death, while the other five verses speak about good, abundant living.

Although many of us are used to hearing the King James version of verse 4 as “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death …,” the underlying Hebrew words can also mean simply “place of deep darkness.”  And so, the New International version, which I prefer, reads “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, (of hurt, pain, suffering and loss) I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff they comfort me.”

Psalm 23:4 candidly faces the inevitable experience of suffering and fear.  It does not say “If I walk” but it says “Even though I walk through the darkest valley ….”  The comforting power of Psalm 23 comes from its use of these two key words: “though” and “through” – the same word except for the single letter “r.”  That one little letter makes all the difference in the world.  It is the letter that turns your “though” into a “through.”  Valleys are not resting places, but passageways.

This then is a statement about God’s shepherding me during the difficult and troubling stretches of life.  And the reason I’m not overwhelmed by fear is because God the Shepherd is with me and his rod and staff are at the ready to protect and guide me.  His presence comforts and reassures me in the midst of threatening darkness.    

 “Though” none of us journey through life without walking the valley of deep darkness, the psalmist makes it plain that God does not intend for us to stay there forever.  The valley is something one goes “through.”  We can walk through our problems.  We can walk through our sorrows.  We can walk through our pain.  We can walk through our screw-ups and life-threatening situation without fear of evil, because the Lord, our Shepherd, journeys through with us; and his rod and staff are at the ready to protect and rescue us, if and when needed.

The Psalmist concludes, “Surely your goodness and love shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

And so, this Psalm becomes a strong statement of faith, a song of confidence in God.  Whether our dark valleys are times of painful sufferings or the actual passage through death itself, we believe God is not only with us but is more than equal to whatever threats to our spiritual well-being may lurk within the dark shadows.

Psalm 23, along with the whole book of Psalms, is about having confidence in God.  The Psalms recount all sorts of human troubles, despair and fears, but like a compass needle that keeps swinging back to the north, they keep coming back to the confidence we can have in knowing that God is with us in the darkness.  And so, when Psalm 23 talks about God’s rod and staff being a source of comfort in the frightening valleys of life, it is stating the main point of the entire book of Psalms.

Psalm 139 can be read as evidence that God has journeyed through the dark valley ahead of us.  The author that Psalm says; “Where can I go from your spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make by bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”  (Psalm 139:7-12).

So says Peter in his letter to the suffering followers of Jesus in his day; “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  (1 Peter 1:6-7).

Let Freedom Ring and Reign

The history of our country records thousands of stories of people who left everything they owned and came to America with nothing but the clothes on their backs.  They risked their lives and their future for what they valued more highly than everything they had left behind.

What was this thing they valued so highly?  It was freedom – freedom to live, work, and worship as they desired without suffering ridicule, persecution, imprisonment, or death.  The strong desire for freedom prompted them to resist the governing authority of England and establish a new nation were these freedoms could be enjoyed.

The Statue of Liberty that stands at the entrance to the harbor of New York is a striking, welcoming symbol of our nation’s commitment to freedom of life, work, and worship for all who become citizens of the United States of America.

Freedom was at the core in the formation of our nation’s government.  The Declaration of Independence says that freedom is from God and endows everyone with certain inalienable rights; and the right to live and worship in freedom is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Likewise, freedom is at the core of our biblical Christian faith.  Its welcoming symbol of freedom is the Cross of Christ on Golgotha’s hill.  Just as the statue in New York harbor lifts her lamp, welcoming and lighting the way to freedom, so also the cross on Golgotha’s hill invites and lights the way to freedom and eternal life for whoever will believe in Jesus.

The Jesus who hung from that cross said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  …Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  …So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  (John 8:12, 32, 36).

The New Testament begins with God’s announcement to Joseph that his “soon to be wife” Mary, would give birth to a son.  God told Joseph that he was to name the baby, Jesus, “because he will save (free) his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21).

At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus announced freedom to be the purpose of his life and message – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18).

And, in his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul declared freedom to be God’s gracious gift to us through Jesus’ suffering and death – “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1).

By accepting Christ’s gift of salvation, which he purchased for us with his own death on the cross, God sets us free from the guilt of sin.  By overcoming death through Jesus’ resurrection from the tomb, God sets us free from the fear of death.  By bringing Jesus’ love and power to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, God sets us free from self-contempt, insecurity, hopelessness, purposeless living, addictions, racism, and all selfish and unloving attitudes and actions toward others.

The freedom that Christ offers to all who will believe in him is ultimate and complete freedom.  We who enjoy this freedom should celebrate this freedom with grateful worship every day of our lives.

So we see that both the foundational core element of our Christian faith and the predominant core purpose of the American politic are similar – that is to provide and protect freedom for all people.

And I think the relationship between these two differing freedoms – spiritual and political – should be evident to all of us.  It is SIN, living apart from God, that prevents a person from experiencing spiritual freedom, and it is SIN that deprives a nation of people from experiencing political, cultural, and religious freedoms.

The freedom Jesus offers is not a license to keep on sinning.  To receive God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation (deliverance, set free) is to begin a process of working out our freedom from self-contempt, insecurity, hopelessness, purposeless living, addictions, racism, and all selfish and unloving attitudes and actions toward others.

And since these things are the things that threaten our political freedoms, we can rightly conclude that a people’s spiritual freedom has very much to do with the preservation of their nation’s political freedoms.

So let freedom ring and let freedom reign, in both the lives of people everywhere and in our nation always.  “You …were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge in sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:13).