“The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”  Deuteronomy 31:8

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”  Psalm 121:1-2

This year has been as season of challenges and unplanned events.  While on vacation in July, my wife broke her ankle which led to surgery and several weeks of not bearing weight on her left leg.  Needless to say, it has caused challenges of various sorts for both of us.  Additionally, we’ve just returned for a trip that was to be a relaxing time at the beach.  Given the recent surgery, we considered canceling; however, as the trip included our aunt and uncle, we chose to proceed as planned desiring to take advantage of every opportunity that we have to spend time with them.  What was not planned was a hurricane Irma heading straight toward our chosen location.  Rather than spending a lot of time at the beach and comparatively little time traveling, the reverse became our reality.  I am a firm believer that scripture teaches that God plans all things in our lives…both the lovely and the difficult.  While I will save that discussion for another time, it is in that context that I wish to discuss God’s provision and mercy which is also planned.  God’s attention to our needs is never a matter of coincidence.

While the words of Deuteronomy 31:8 were spoken by Moses to Joshua in the presence of the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into Canaan, they are as true for us today as they were for the young nation facing the uncertainty before them.  While I have seen the evidence of God going before us in the past, I could not help but recall this passage regularly throughout the last week.  While I could site at least a dozen ways in which I could see God’s hand working to provide for us even before our trip began, in the interest of time, I’ll focus on the hotel accommodations on the first and last nights of our journey.  The night before or flight to Florida, we stayed at a hotel near the airport and left our car there as part of a “park, sleep, fly” package.  The reservation was made before my wife’s accident.  At the time of booking, the only room available for the package was a handicapped room fitted with everything that my wife needed.  Not only was the room exactly what was required, but the staff on duty was more attentive to our special needs than I have ever seen them in previous trips.  When I asked the shuttle driver to give me a few minutes to get both my wife (in a wheelchair) and our luggage to the front of the hotel, he immediately grabbed a luggage cart and took care of the luggage completely.  Further, he would not leave us until wheelchair assistance arrived to help us to our gate.  Having fled Florida, the four of us decided to spend our last day together in Berea, Kentucky for a little fun before we parted ways.  There were only two rooms available at the hotel that we had selected…one was a handicapped room.  Further, the staff offered a wheelchair before we even asked.  Experience has taught me that this was God going before us to provide before we even had need.  Not only did these accommodations make our situation more manageable, but it also encouraged my soul to see God providing for our needs even before we were aware of them.

Psalm 112 verses one and seven tell us:  “How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments.  He will not fear evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”  This too I have both believed and felt to be true throughout our experiences this year.  It is the gift that God bestows on us when we choose to trust Him.  Earlier in our marriage, my wife and I were much more anxious about “evil tiding”.  It is not that we didn’t trust God then or that we are so spiritual now, but rather, that over time God has shown us how He cares for us and has trained us through prior circumstances to trust His wisdom, His plans and His provisions.  During this past week, it was a calm decision to change our plans and while none of us enjoyed the traffic or the extra effort to find rooms on our way out of Florida, tempers did not flare and we were able to enjoy each other’s company.  Further, another aunt was too frail to move out of Florida.  While it posed more of a challenge than some of the other considerations, I had to trust that God would care for her as well whether that meant taking her to be with Him or allowing her to remain with us.  I emailed her as we were leaving to let her know that I was praying for her safety and her peace during the storm.  Her simple reply was: “We have a Creator who’s in control!” Knowing our Creator, His promises to us and trusting in His wisdom rather than our own allows us to remain calm and remember that nothing that happens to us will separate us from His love or His care for us.

The first two verses of Psalm 121 remind us that our help comes solely from the Lord.  To make sure we get the point, we are reminded that our help comes from the One who made heaven and earth from nothing.  Our hope is not in our self-sufficiency, the assets that we have acquired, our career, our loved ones, our doctor, a new treatment or drug or any other person, place or thing…our hope rests in God alone.  It is He who provides for all of our needs.  While we may receive His provisions through the kindness of another, He is the one directing our care and providing the spirit, means, opportunity and timing for them to assist us in our suffering.  It is never a matter of coincidence, but rather due to the love and attentiveness that our God lavishes on us.

One of the things that I appreciate about the psalms is that when they cry for help, protection or forgiveness, it is never solely focused on the need itself.  While they are often desperate pleas for God’s intervention the ultimate goal is to proclaim the goodness of God, to teach the generations to come of God’s faithfulness and to turn others from their sin.  They look beyond the individual need to the needs in the family of God.  I pray that this is true of this post as well…that you are encouraged to remember God’s promises to you, to look for Him at work in your life and in the lives of your loved ones and that you too will tell of His faithfulness and goodness so that we remind, teach and encourage each other until that day when we abide with our God and praise Him together for eternity.

May God be gracious to you, see your affliction, and lift you up that you may praise Him and rejoice in your salvation.

Will