In the Hands of God

It is a common motif in Scripture and in our music; this idea of God holding the world and our life in His hands because, of course, He is God and He is sovereign; this is basic Christianity 101.

But then there is this more personal application of the idea when we choose to put our lives in His hands - in other words to surrender ourselves to whatever He wants for us.

Typically this is a long range type of thing. "Lord, my future is in your hands. Wherever you lead I'll follow." or "I trust you to bring me to the place you have for me and fulfill the purpose for which you created me."

But have you ever noticed how "tomorrow" is always a day away?
My "future" is some other time out there, that e v e n t u a l l y I will arrive at...

So while God is in charge of the end destination of my trip, He's not necessarily concerned with the fact that this is a long road, my tank is on empty, and I really need an exit to pull off to refuel - right?

I've been thinking about this a lot the past week, life and the future and God’s hands…

So here I am at the end of the academic week – in five hours – and I still have a paper to write. I’d been a diligent student but “life” was currently making “school” a low priority but still there was this deadline…and the franticness was setting in and with it the frustration and crabbiness with my family as they wouldn’t leave me alone to let me work!!

And I stopped and realized that if my life is in God’s hands – if this whole go to seminary was His idea then so also was this set of classes at this time and this particular assignment in this one course that was due. This was my present reality. Was God in control of that? Was He able to help with it? Affect it? I gave it to Him.

In the next 15 minutes my entire family left the house for one place or another, and when Rob came back he’d brought a chicken family meal from Jewel because it was too hot in the house to cook.

Now I realize that last sentence did not stand out as particularly profound but here’s what you need to know to understand it – Rob avoids fast food, eating out and grocery stores as much as I avoid changing the oil in the car. He never stops and picks up dinner – ever! And here he was walking in with a bag of food and a refilled propane tank for the grill so there would be provision for cooking tomorrow night (fyi, that propane tank has been empty since September!)

Here was God taking care of what had been entrusted to Him. Here God demonstrated to me that He truly is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. I’d hoped for dinner to come home (but had planned to just make sandwiches) and I got dinner and a filled tank, something I’d never even imagined!

Now I realize that my story here is most likely trivial compared to your needs right now. But all I can share is my own story but it is an illustration of the principle that holds true for all of us who have put our lives in the hands of our God.

God has the end destination in mind but He also holds the “today” part of life securely in His capable hands! Is your life in God's hands? If so then be encouraged for your "future" is also your today and God cares for us on our journey. It's not just all about a race to the finish line but a God who travels with us every mile of the way.