"IN HIS GRIP, AND WALKING IN IT" -- Devotional for June 18, from "Good Seeds"

The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord, and He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they won’t be down for long, for they are firmly held in God’s grip. Once I was young, now I am old – but in all my years I have never seen the godly forsaken, nor their children begging in the streets. (Psalm 37:23-25)

I remember hearing this exchange between my son-in-law and one of his college buddies whenever they parted: “In His grip” said one; “And walking in it,” replied the other. If this was a cliché (for I heard it often), it nevertheless seemed to have great meaning to them – and it really impressed me, to the point where I have now adopted it as my salutation of choice at the end of my letters. As I write, “In His grip,” I breathe a prayer that my friend will also be “walking it.” I used to wonder where this phrase came from – and then I found it, expressed so clearly, in the middle of one of my favorite Psalms: “Though a good man may fall, he won’t be hurled headlong, for God firmly holds him in His grip.” But wait, I’ve known people, and so have you, who are strong Christians and yet have experienced terrible and tragic accidents, leading to serious injury, and sometimes death. This is not easy to explain…but let me try: First, we must know that nothing takes God by surprise. He is in charge, and in total, loving control of even the tiniest detail of His children’s lives. I can still hear Evie singing: “He never promised you’d only see sunshine; He never said there’d be no rain. He only promised us a heart full of singing about the very things that once brought pain…give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus: shattered dreams, wounded hearts, broken toys; give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus, and He will turn your sorrow into joy.” So just know that even in the deepest dungeon of depression or despondency, or when experiencing the dullest boredom or the sharpest pain, God is there to catch you in the safety net of His everlasting arms. Sometimes the pain is not physical but financial, not mental but relational. But God is with you, holding you in His grip, even when you have lost your grip on Him. Just as a war is made up of many battles, so a Christian faces many trials, often as many and as fierce as those faced by unbelievers. They endure them, but we embrace them, as we remember God’s promise never to forget us or forsake us. And in the long run the life of the believer will bear fruit, personally and in his progeny, proving once and for all that the life of the Christian is always the best. And when those who are “without God and without hope in the world” (Eph. 2:12), see that it isn’t our lack of trials but our security in God’s care that makes all the difference, maybe they will want to be “In His grip, and walking in it” too!