. . . and He will sustain you

As October approaches, it will be four months since we daringly packed up our St. Louis lives to venture into a new frontier on the prairies of Eastern Illinois.  This sounds more adventuresome than it is since we had previewed life here in Charleston through our daughter’s eyes and many visits the past three years.  Still, after 60+ years in St. Louis, it was a bit of a “leap of faith,” and for me that means faith in God to be in our boat guiding and keeping us steady and safe.

Most mornings, I lie down with the heating pad and iced band (its confusion that is messing with the way I walk!), read from a few devotionals and pray.  Just this past week, the second part of a Bible verse rolled through my mind:  “ . . . and He will sustain you.”  Thanks to Google, these unbidden but highly beneficial scriptures can be easily located.  How did Moses ever keep it all straight-- but then a burning bush and a pillar of fire would be helpful.

Not surprisingly, I found the whole sentence in Psalm 55:22 and its simple, wise instruction:  “Cast your burdens upon the Lord and He will sustain you.”  Taking this a step further, I looked up the definition of “sustain.”  It means to “strengthen or support physically or mentally.”  Synonyms include “comfort, help, assist, encourage . . . to buoy up, carry” and my personal favorite, to “buck up.”  Being sustained by God Himself is no small thing, no, indeed.

Whatever our burdens may be, casting the worry and weight of them upon the shoulders of a truly good shepherd, a mighty God and Savior, does uplift us as God’s sustaining powers shore up our weakness and anxiety.   Remembering God’s promises and His faithfulness through the ages crowds out those nagging worries, replacing them with hope in Christ. 

During our last couple years in St. Louis as my symptoms worsened and doctoring wasn’t determining the exact cause, worshipping with our congregation and receiving their kindness and concern were part of how God sustained us through that period.  However, perhaps the most strengthening sustenance comes directly from God when he “personalizes” His word as we seek Him.

Long ago I underlined verse 13 in Psalm 27:  “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  Whatever our burdens or worries, may God help us to roll them over onto Him who sustains us and supplies the help we need as we trust Him through these seasons of “distress and grief,” a description from an old hymn, Sweet Hour of Prayer.  Let us be like Mary, the sister who chose to sit before Jesus when He came to visit.   According to Jesus, when “she sat at Jesus’s feet listening to what He said,” she had chosen the better service to God.