Pastoral Note - 6th May 2007

Quite a number of years ago, I remember counselling someone feeling spiritually down. We’ve all gone through it before – either times when you feel like you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps.19) or when you feel like you’re walking in a spiritual desert. You know the feeling when God feels distant – when everything in your life seems to have gone wrong. I’ve heard it before from those who’ve walked in that spiritual desert – “I don’t feel like praying and when I do I don’t feel anything. I haven’t read my bible for some time, and when I do I don’t get anything out of it. God seems so distant and I feel that I’m going to lose my faith. I feel as if I’m going to let go any moment.”

What we need to realize is that in our desert experiences God is actually closest to us. The song writer in Psalm 19 says that though he walks in the valley of the shadow of death, he knows God’s comfort i.e. God’s comforting leading and presence. ‘Your rod and your staff they comfort me’, says the song writer. The apostle Paul says the same thing in his desert experience as you read 2 Cor.1. Beaten, misunderstood, in chains, falsely accused, physically sick and he says, ‘God is my comfort’.

Why is the song writer and Paul able to find comfort in God, even in the worst of times as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death? The answer lies in that what keeps you secure and safe doesn’t ultimately depend on your hold on Jesus, how hard your grip is, but on Jesus’ hold on you … on the Father’s grip on you. And let me say to you that Jesus and the Father never let go.

Jesus himself tells us this in John 10:27-29. (27) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (28) I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. (29) My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

Sometimes our hold on Jesus feels weak and fragile. The circumstances of our lives make us feel like we are losing our grip on God. What we need to remember is that his hold and his grip is what matters. His hold and his grip is strong and unbreakable. In fact, your are doubly secure – you are in the strong hands of Jesus and the Father, such that no one can snatch you from the double hand grip of God! When you cannot walk, when your arms are weak and failing, when your grip is slipping, remember that He still holds on to you.

Whether you’re walking in a spiritual desert or walking through the valley of the shadow of death, remember that He is holding on to you. What you need to do is to persevere, to keep trusting him, to keep obeying him, or as Jesus says in the verse above, to keep following Him, because he’s right there with you.