This morning’s word is The Hand That Held You.
The anchor verses are Matthew 4:19 and 1 Corinthians 6:11.
In Wells, Maine, a reader named Peg L. recently wrote about being four years old at the airport. Her family had gone to see her uncle off. She walked through the terminal with her father, watching planes. After the plane departed, they walked back to the car. Her dad laughed when he let go of her hand. There was a puddle of sweat in his palm. He had never let go the whole time. She had no idea.
Two more stories arrived this morning. Joey H. in Durham, North Carolina, wrote about his dad who volunteered to drive school buses for field trips. When Joey was eight, his dad, then thirty-eight, studied road manuals for weeks and passed the Commercial Driver’s License test. He drove Joey’s classmates and him all over South Carolina for the next three years. Candy D. in Maitland, Florida, wrote about her dad who raised her alone in the 1960s on a small island in north Florida. When her gym class required mothers to embroider names on their daughters’ shirts, her dad did it instead. He stitched her name with blue thread in a staccato line, each stitch done with love and perseverance.
This is the rhythm at Grace and Peace Studio. Each morning, readings are gathered and walked together until their single thread emerges. Today’s come from four streams: Day Six of “Does God Heal Today?,” Day One of “Overcoming Temptation,” Step Five of Discipology, and the third chapter of Ignatius’s letter to the Trallians.
The thread is one sentence. You are being made.
Step Five of Discipology, the disciple-making plan by Peyton Jones and Kris Langham, names the second rhythm Jesus used to form HIS disciples. Year One had been TIME. Year Two became TEACHING. Mark 1:15 marks the shift. “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” Jesus took the Twelve on what Peyton and Kris call a giant field trip. They watched HIM heal, serve, forgive, rest. HIS action came first; the words came later. HIS first promise to them in Matthew 4:19 was that HE would MAKE them into fishers of men. They did not know they were being trained.
Pastor Daniel Vander Klok of ResLife Church, who writes on the healing ministry of Jesus and the believer’s part in carrying it forward, names what we are being made FOR. In Day Six of “Does God Heal Today?” he turns to the question of what GOD’s will actually IS. The Lord’s Prayer says it plainly. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Revelation 21 paints the picture. No more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 names the shape of the work: that HE would sanctify you completely, spirit and soul and body.
Day One of “Overcoming Temptation,” a new ten-day plan from ResLife Church, names what the making has already done. The accuser, Revelation 12 says, wants to root our identity in our struggle. The Word’s answer is the past tense of 1 Corinthians 6:11. “Such WERE some of you. But you were washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The making is already underway. Your desires do not define you. Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus was tempted in every respect, yet without sin. Being tempted is not the verdict. The hand that holds you has not let go.
Ignatius of Antioch, the second-century bishop and martyr who wrote seven letters to early churches on his way to Rome and execution, opens chapter three of his letter to the Trallians with a teaching that meekness is itself a power. The bishop’s quiet appearance is highly instructive. Even the ungodly must reverence him for the meekness. Then comes the line that holds the whole posture together. Ignatius, bound for the sake of Christ, says he is not yet worthy of Christ. Even in chains, he is still being made.
Peg’s dad held her hand at the airport. She did not know he was holding her. He did not let go. When he opened his hand, the proof was in his palm.
GOD has been holding you. You did not know it. Sometimes the making looks like a parent learning a new skill at thirty-eight. Sometimes it looks like blue thread in a staccato line of stitches. Sometimes it looks like a sweaty palm at the end of an airport walk. Sometimes it looks like a year you watched and learned and were changed without knowing.
What is asked of you today is simple. Trust the hand that has been holding you. The making is HIS. The kingdom is here. You are being made.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.