Holding His Hand

We have a one-year-old grandson, Barnaby, who has been learning to take his first steps. For some weeks he has been able to stand upright, holding on to furniture, or even standing unaided, but taking his first steps without anything to hang on to seemed too risky for him! If he had someone’s hand to hold, he felt secure and would race off with no difficulty. It was very special to hold his tiny hand and know that he trusted me to stop him from falling. I wonder if that is how our Heavenly Father feels when we put our hand in His and trust Him to hold us up!

While we may be longing for Barnaby to learn to take off on his own without help, God must be longing for us to learn not to try to walk without our hand in His. The only safe way for us to walk through life is with our hand firmly in His, so that He will be leading and guiding us, comforting us, preventing us from falling, upholding us and giving us support and strength to keep going.

The popular world view is that people should learn to be independent – ‘a rock’ or ‘an island’, as the old Simon and Garfunkel song has it, doing things ‘my way’, as Frank Sinatra used to sing. However, this is not God’s way for us. His plan is that we would be totally dependent on Him for everything – our life, our health, our strength, our provision, our guidance, our protection, as well as all we need to enable us to live in a godly way. 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that: ‘His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness’ and Jesus says that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5).

The problem is that many of us have learnt to walk without holding His hand and we have become independent. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ we need to ‘unlearn’ that behaviour and become as little children again, putting our hand firmly in His at all times. It is only then that we will be enabled to walk through life, with all its ups and downs, without falling or faltering.

Prayer: Lord, forgive me for the times when I have walked through life without looking to You. I want to place my hand firmly in Yours and trust You to uphold me, strengthen me, guide me and give me everything I need to live for You today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.