What’s Holding You Together?

Looking back at my blog, my  last post was in July! Where has the time gone?? Well, let me share just a bit with you!

I’ve been through a tough four months, but have come out on the other side even more aware of God’s presence in my life. In the beginning of September, my mother was sent home from the hospital with hospice care, after fighting round two of breast cancer for a year and a half. She was living with my brother a day’s drive away, and I lost count of the number of times I drove, spent several days there, and drove home again. She left earth for her new room in her Father’s house towards the end of November. In the midst of all of that, our family at home was preparing to move to a new home, so there was packing and cleaning and painting to do here. Two days after my mom graduated earth for heaven, my husband and I signed the papers for our new house, and the next day I drove our kids down to my brother’s for Thanksgiving and her burial service. The rest of 2016 was filled with moving into our new home, another trip to spend a week sorting through Mom’s things, painting and cleaning up our old house for a new family, and Christmas. The last day of 2016 we handed the keys over to our old home, bringing another chapter to a close.

There were a lot of things going on in my life all at the same time, any one of which could have sent me over the edge! But none did, individually or collectively. How did I not fall apart from the pressures coming at me from all sides?

Before all of these things began happening, I read Psalm 29. This Psalm tells about the power of the voice of the Lord. His voice…

• “Echoes above the sea” (verse 3),
• Is powerful and majestic (verse 4),
• “Splits the mighty cedars” (verse 5),
• “Strikes with bolts of lightning” (verse 7),
• “Makes the barren wilderness quake” (verse 8), and
• “Twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare” (verse 9).

If that describes his voice alone, then I serve a mighty God! The last verse of this Psalm says, “The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace” (verse 11). That is exactly what He did for me as He carried me through the end of 2016. His peace and strength were immeasurable as I faced each circumstance with Him by my side.

Are you going through a difficult time? Are you wondering how you’re going to make it through without imploding? Look beyond your circumstances to Christ.

He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. – Colossians 1:17

You are part of that “all creation!” Your body, mind and emotions were all created by God through Christ (see Colossians 1:15-20). Sin has tainted that which was created to be perfect, but even with its imperfections, Christ is holding all of creation together. He never abandoned it to destruction, but instead paid for its redemption out of love. You are loved, and destined for far more than what you see before you (or in you) today.

How can you know peace and strength in the midst of rough times? I believe the biggest choice you have to make is just how much you are willing to trust God with your life. What is holding you back from giving yourself fully to Him? He is willing and able to carry you, my friend. You just need to let go and let Him. He can and will hold you together.

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. – Hebrews 1:3