This has been one of those weeks. You know the kind, when everyone you truly care about seems suddenly to be faced with something overwhelming or difficult. My sister’s surgery and her continued battle to overcome cancer, my son’s sudden flare-up with his lifelong struggle against chronic allergies, our parents declining health, a loved one’s struggle with faith, a difficult pregnancy for another, as well as important decisions that have to be made in spite of personal exhaustion; it all brought to mind a phrase from an old hymn. “When all around my soul gives way.”
There is only one place for me to stand. No human rescuer has the answer when the storm comes.
- My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.- Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
- Refrain:
So often, when we are faced with an unexpected crisis our stress reactions, adrenaline, etc. take over and our ability even to perceive God in the midst of our situation is clouded. There is nothing to DO at that point. The answer is simply to rest and surrender on His grace. We do not deserve it, cannot earn it; we can only throw our anchor deeply into it and hold on tight!
2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
Instead of trying to figure out the plan of God, which we could not hope to comprehend with our limited understanding, now is the time to rest on the truths we believe. We can believe His oath that if we have confessed our sins- He has forgiven them. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We can believe He covenant that He will never leave us or forsake us. Hebrews 13:5 “for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
His offering of Himself for us was enough. Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
He is our hope!
3. His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
Ultimately, when it is all said and done we will stand before God, and our feeble efforts will not mean anything. The robe we wear will be the righteousness that He alone could give us. He is the only one who can make us faultless before God.
4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
So to all those I know who are struggling, brace yourself on the solid Rock, take your stand, watch all the rest of the non-essentials swirl around you and fall away.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
Matthew 7:24-25 24“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”