{"id":25562,"date":"2019-04-24T03:30:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T10:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=25562"},"modified":"2019-04-23T11:20:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T18:20:29","slug":"april-24-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2019\/04\/24\/april-24-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"April 24, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand.\u00a0You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.\u00a0I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge.”\u00a0<\/em>Psalm 73:23-26, 28<\/p>\n

Holding His Hand<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I’ve had a sweet Easter weekend.\u00a0Because I’m carrying a number of things on my heart right now, I chose to use this weekend to press into Him and receive fresh grace for the journey. My heart was sad, but grateful, for the suffering Jesus walked through on our behalf on Good Friday.\u00a0When it rained here during the afternoon, it felt like holy tears over what Jesus had to endure.<\/p>\n

Then, I reflected on Silent Saturday of what this weekend means\u2014how powerful it is. I thought about how despairing everyone around Jesus was on this day.\u00a0They’d witnessed His crucifixion, but they didn’t know His resurrection was coming. So much was happening in the spiritual realm on this day, but mankind was mourning\u2014totally unaware of what was about to happen.\u00a0It truly was a “silent” day, an in-between day.\u00a0Not much is said about it in the Bible except that the guards were watching the tomb of Jesus.\u00a0And yet one of the most powerful days in human history was getting ready to take place.<\/p>\n

And I rejoiced on Resurrection Sunday that He’s alive!\u00a0He conquered death, sin, the grave\u2014He won a mighty victory!\u00a0My heart sang in worship that\u00a0He is risen<\/u>.\u00a0The presence of the Lord has been so real, so close as I’ve contemplated all this. I’ve felt I could almost reach out and touch Him.<\/p>\n

Someone sent me the visual below.\u00a0 I loved this depiction of the three days of Easter.\u00a0 I felt I had journeyed through it during the weekend in my heart.<\/p>\n

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One of the things that the Lord spoke to me is that I need to keep my focus on Him and what He has done for me, what He has provided for me\u2014not just on Easter weekend, but continually as I walk through the things that I’m dealing with right now.\u00a0It’s easy to be distracted by the details and the cares of life, especially when I’m weary or feeling weak.\u00a0Whenever that happens, I need to take my thoughts and my emotions quickly back to Him.<\/p>\n

I need to give Him every burden, every care, every need, every single thing that I don’t know what to do about.\u00a0He is with me and aware of each of these things. I need to trustingly cling to Him.\u00a0In my mind’s eye I saw the image of a small child holding her Father’s hand in a big crowd of people.\u00a0She wasn’t worried about getting lost because she was safe holding her Father’s strong hand. I’m choosing to do that!\u00a0He never gets distracted.\u00a0He is continually mindful of us.\u00a0He is always working on our behalf.<\/p>\n

Through Good Friday, Silent Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday God has provided for our every need.\u00a0These three days did indeed change everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cFather, we are stunned by Your grace. We reach out now and take Your hand. Hold on tight, Lord, so we won\u2019t stray. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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