The Everlasting Arms

She was in her 80’s, overweight, confined to a wheel chair with swollen legs. But she was as bright as a new copper penny and wore a smile that was both constant and genuine. After my evaluation and recommendations were completed, she asked, “Doctor, may I share with you the verse that is getting me through all this?”
“Sure.”

"It is Deuteronomy 33: 27: ‘The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, ‘Destroy him.’"

“That’s what I do with this cancer; I just trust God to drive it out.”

Arms to hold and arms to drive out.

I hope most of us can look back on our lives and feel God’s arms when they alone could hold us---when the world had vanished beneath our feet and nothing was keeping us from falling forever. I hope that most of us can remember the advancing armies bent on our destruction that only His arms could sweep aside---and remember that they did.

I can certainly recall a day when my dreams had evaporated, when my family, my self-image and even my faith was dissolving in front of my eyes. All personal and system approaches had failed to hold me up and I was freefalling into darkness.

And then I was caught by the arms of God. I cannot forget the feel of those arms. Nor can I forget the way they swept away the forces that would destroy me.

Have you been there yet?

If you have, remember.

If you have not, you will.

The God of Deuteronomy 33 will never change.

Dear Father,
I need You now whether I am crying out in despair or comfortable in the moment. Let me know that Your arms are He…both to hold and to drive out.
In Christ alone,
Amen.