What God Has Promised 

In the day when I cried out, You answered me,

And made me bold with strength in my soul.—Psalm 138:3

"Some folks' lives roll easy as a breeze..." Paul Simon said, but for most of old folks it's more of a push, or a "stumble." 

And, truth be known, there are no biblical promises that life will get easier as we get along in years, that God will, of necessity, transport us to the skies in flower beds of ease. No, in fact, though I'm loath to say it, the harder tests may be further along. That's certainly been my story. I'm not a dispensationalist, but I must say, sometimes old age feels like the Great Tribulation.😋

Here's the thing: God has not promised that you and I will Be delivered from every dire circumstance. But He has promised that He will give us grace to be strong and brave in the face of that circumstance. God, on the basis of His undying love, made David "bold with strength in (his) soul," though, as he later put it, David was still "walking in the midst of trouble" (138:7,8). 

Jesus, in Gethsemane, "offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard..." (Hebrews 5:7). Yet His Father did not save Him from the pain and humiliation of the cross. Instead He gave Him courage to endure it to the end and to think nothing of its shame. 

No...

God has not promised skies always blue, 

Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;

God has not promised sun without rain, 

Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

God has not promised we shall not know

Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;

He has not told us we shall not bear

many a burden, many a care. 

God has not promised smooth roads and wide,

Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;

Never a mountain rocky and steep,

Never a river turbid and deep

But God has promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labor, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above, 

Unfailing sympathy, undying love. —Annie Johnson Flint

David Roper

11.7.17