Right Hand

For I, the Lord your God,

    hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, “Fear not,

    I am the one who helps you.”

Isaiah 43:6

I always wondered what the significance was of the right hand in the Bible. Why wouldn’t God hold my left hand?

Then Google helped.

It simply goes to say that the right hand in Bible terms means “power.” That is God is holding our right hand is equivalence to power.

Power. Who needs power?

We as human beings need power.

We need power from the evil spirits that lead us to sin.

We need power from our own flesh that is by nature sinful.

We need power from the times we want to slap some sense into someone… and have to refrain from doing it.

We are in need of power. God has power. We don't. At least not his kind. That says a lot.

The many times I have heard of another person getting cancer or how someone has fallen into harmful habits, I see the need for power. Not the power that is we can see in an aggressive way towards others, but one that is gentle and strong. The one that keeps us from falling apart when we hear news from the doctor that the cancer is back. One that shows grace when someone is rude. One that is found in the tears when nothing goes right in your day. It is the very power that keeps our knees from buckling under the pressure and causing us to be unfruitful human beings.

Look at Galatians 6:25-26. The fruit of the Spirit. If one characteristic is missing, don’t they all cave in? Then if one is missing from our life, what is needed is our hand in the hand of the God we trust.

We can find all the stamina in the world to gather all that we need to gather to be happy and fulfilled in this world, but when the tough gets going, what do we hang onto? It’s not the emotional roller coaster we find ourselves on that is the problem, but the circumstances leading into it. I don’t have my life together, but I do know this. Psalm 62:8 says pour your hearts out to God. Pour it out!

Stop contemplating the pains in life when they have no rhythm in the moment you are in now. And if you are in the rhythm of hell on earth, then let me join you in pouring our hearts out to God. We may not be able to change our circumstances, but God is willing to walk beside us and hold our hand. Oh my sweet Lord, that sounds amazing!

I am so thankful for that. Everything that I go through. Some of what I do not want to explain to someone, I can just talk to him and he knows and cares to hear our prayers.

Listen, as I write, I have gone through some tough circumstances. Stuff that when I talk to people one on one with they say they couldn’t handle. Well obviously. Don’t we all have those kind of circumstances? But that is what makes us human and able to grow stronger in the mist of illness, bad luck, annoying company, or money woes. We have all we need in Christ who strengthens us. And sometimes that’s all we can accept in a moment.

The rhythm of a moment that is either going good or bad. The one that we can reach up and grab God’s hand for strength and power.