I saw the sun shining bright for a while yesterday as it peeked from behind those clouds!  That prompted me to take a brisk walk with the wind at my back helping my pace… the same wind and sun in my face on the way home, making me lean into the wind to keep my balance a few times.  How well I remember taking walks with Ed on days like that where he’d hold tightly onto my arm to keep me from blowing away, as he put it!  He kept me from getting blown to and fro by those changing brisk winds… something our Lord does for us when we hold onto His hand, allowing Him to lead and guide us thru stormy days. Which prompted this previously unpublished blog for today.  May you know the Lord’s guiding hand every day on your journey thru life. 

Sometimes we feel like we have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, and we fret and worry about everything! I know… because that description fits me at times. It’s one of my struggles – learning to release my cares to the One who knows and allows what it is I face each and every day.  He can handle all that comes my way… if I would just let Him… and He can lift me up from all the mistakes I manage to make.

But I’m going to admit it’s not easy to “let go and let God” as the popular saying goes.  Sometimes it seems that if I do the worrying, then somehow that will help make the situation better.  Nah!  Don’t count on it!  Actually, it seems like it often tends to make the situation worse as I become confused and lost in the tangled web of thoughts.

So, you’d think I’d have learned to always release my burdened heart and let God take over while I move forward in peace.  After all, God is right there, ready to listen, ready to carry me, and ready to deal with whatever is stressing me out.  He can fix it all… without my help!  And He has done just that… blessing me richly in so many ways, so many times… drawing me closer to His side, filling me with a calm and quiet peace. Yet, somehow it seems to be a lesson that I must learn and relearn. 

All of which reminds me of Matthew 6:25-33 (NIV), part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  These verses have often come to mind over the years.  “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? …But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  

And as I heed these precious words from our Lord himself, reaching out to Him in prayer, He’ll guide me each step of the way… just as He’ll guide you through whatever you might face on this journey of life!

His Guiding Hand

Linda A. Roorda

Lord, I give You my all

As I relinquish

That which my heart

Has always held tight.

You know that I struggle

Thinking I can control

All of life’s burdens

Which tumble my way.

You hear desperate pleas

As I try to wait,

While Your very best answers

Conform my will to Yours.

At times I struggle

Alone with my thoughts

In a mind doing battle

Within my seeking soul.

Where is my God, my protective Shield?

How can life be so raw?

Why does pain and confusion

Keep knocking upon the door?

And yet… He is always here!

In a whisper soft … or a vision serene

Enveloping my heart

With His perfect love and grace.

For He directs me on the stony path

And plants my feet securely

Upon a foundation solid and firm

Guiding each step along the way.

As rough this road at times can be,

He gently carries me safely home,

When oft in prayer I turn to seek

His loving, guiding, and merciful hand.

~~

Linda Roorda writes from her home in Spencer.