The Everlasting Arms

It has been some time since I wrote on this blog. I certainly have not been idle during that time. Much has happened these past weeks. Many big things have come up. Important and even life-changing issues are being considered. Troubles and sorrows are thrown in the mix as well. I have been crushed but held up. I have been perplexed and in despair. Fear and courage compete in my heart. There have been frustrations, disappointments, and joys. But in all this the Lord has been my strength.  He has heard my cry and answered me. 

I came across this line from a tombstone recently that summarizes my experiences and hopefully

yours.   

  "A wretched, poor and helpless worm

    On Thy kind arms I fall" 

 These two lines originally come from an Isaac Watt's hymn. Later William Carey asked that they be inscribed on his tombstone. These simple words give us the whole of what the Christian life is. In the beginning we recognize that we are weak and vile sinners. We can do nothing to save ourselves. God's word tells us to trust in the work of Christ for salvation and forgiveness. So with a divinely given faith, we helplessly fall on God's arms for mercy. But this trust does not end here. The Christian continues to see that he is weak and helpless. There is more sin in his soul than was first thought. Trials and troubles come to show us how weak we are. In all these times of pain, trouble, sorrow and distress, we fall on the strong arms of our God. No Christian who has even trusted their Heavenly Father to catch them was ever let down. Those arms can hold the whole universe, how much more His child who was bought with the blood of Christ. This picture of the arms of God is not just found in this hymn. It is found in God's word as well. Deut 33:27 says, "The God of old is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms."  God is our home when we are pilgrims in this strange world. God's arms will hold us up though out our pilgrimage. He is always the same and His help is everlasting. Saints of today can be encouraged by the faithfulness of God to the saints of yesterday.

If you learn anything from this post, then learn this. God is reliable and faithful. I have found it so. It is when we see our weakness and fall on the kind arms of the Lord, that we will find that He will catch us and hold us close to His heart. 

"But He said to me,"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside in me." 

2 Cor 12:9

Brad