Praise to the Lord who has carried us!

 "The LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this point." Deut.1:31

"Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." Isa. 46:4

"Thus far the LORD has helped us." I Sam. 7:12

What wonderful verses from Daily Light to close this old year...this year full of both challenging burdens and yet also unexpected blessings. As I think back over this year, how apparent the Lord's sustaining care has been. He truly has "carried" us through some hard, dark places. I can remember many mornings where I wept as I read His beautiful life-giving Word and cried out to Him in prayer. And He was there--carrying, sustaining, encouraging, guiding. How I thank and praise Him for His tender care and grace.

But He also carried us through spacious places of joy and celebration,  New life, new dreams, new hopes. And it was all Him--"every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17) How can we not praise and thank Him who not only carries and sustains us through difficulty and sorrow, but who also blesses us with every good gift, large and small?  

Charles Spurgeon writes of these verses in Isaiah: "When we grow old, our God will still be the I AM, abiding evermore the same. Hoar hairs tell of our decay, but He decays not. When we cannot carry a burden and can hardly carry ourselves, the Lord will carry us. He made us, and He will care for us. When we become a burden to our friends and a burden to ourselves, the Lord will not shake us off, rather He will take us up and carry and deliver us more fully than ever. Let us not dread old age. Let us grow old graciously, since the Lord Himself is with us in fullness of grace." 

I still have a little black rock that my dear friend, Beth Page, gave us ten years ago when Janie was unconscious in the hospital. Beth had written on it the words of I Sam.7:12, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." What a reminder of God's faithfulness and sustaining care--not just in that frightening time but in all the intervening days, months, and years since then. Oh how He has been faithful...and good...and true!  If He has "helped us thus far"--and He has!--He will continue to help us--and, of course, He will!  He always keeps all His promises!

I don't know what this new year holds for any of us. But I do know we are called not to fear but to faith, for our God has promised He will carry us through it all. We can look to 2023 with hopeful anticipation and joy, for He who has been so extraordinarily faithful to us this past year, does not change, so He will be faithful, forgiving, loving, sustaining, gracious, and mighty in the year ahead. His faithful love endures forever and ever. 

May you spend a few minutes pondering how God has carried you through this past year--with all its joys and sorrows, successes and setbacks--and then give Him praise and glory for His extraordinary faithfulness and goodness throughout 2022. Thank Him that "thus far He has helped" you. Then, look ahead to 2023 with hope and joy, knowing that He has so much more for you to see and experience of His faithfulness and goodness in the days ahead. For we know that, no matter what, the Lord will carry us all the way till He delivers us to our perfect, glorious heavenly home. 

To God, the forever faithful One, be all the glory.