“[My] help is in the Name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Father, You are the help I have, the help I turn to when things are not going well. You are the help I acknowledge when things are going right. I love the old hymn:
“O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter in the stormy blast and our eternal home.”
You are my place of shelter and of rest. I live on the earth now, and You shelter me. One day I will have rest in my eternal home with You.
Like David does in this Psalm, I can look back over my life and see times when I was guarded and protected by Your hand. I can say with David: “if You had not been on [my] side when people attacked [me], they would have swallowed [me] alive when their anger flared against [me]; the flood would have engulfed [me], the torrent would have swept over me, the raging waters would have swept [me] away.”
I have faced circumstances I thought would do me in. Times when I could see no way out to be at peace again.
Some were physical challenges or health issues with myself or loved ones. Some were situations at work or with relationships I thought could never be reconciled.
Some were simple hardships like times of being out of work, or the basement flooding. At times it actually felt like turbulent, raging waters pulling me down, away from my ability to cope.
But Father, You have shown up to give me hope when the world offered no hope. You would often sing me a new song along with scripture to help me sense Your presence and be encouraged. One such song’s chorus goes:
You calm me down, You give me peace
You make this battle inside of me cease
You give me hope to carry on
when all the hope the world can give is gone
Thank You that You are my hope, my help. Thank You that John reminds me that You have given me eternal life. Let me remember to focus on that when challenges come.
He reminds me that I can have confidence in approaching You: that “if I ask anything according to Your will, You hear me.”
Father, help me see and know Your will. Align my desires with Your will. So that when difficulties come, and they will, I will be able to ask for Your perfect will to be done, knowing that even if I have to walk through hardship, You will be my help. And I will never be alone. Amen
Daily Bible Prayer 