“I Believe” by Rev Robin Gilbert
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Don’t be frightened, for I am your God!
I strengthen you – yes, I help you – yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand!
~ Isaiah 41:10 New English Translation (NET Bible)
If you are like me, sometimes it seems like the harder you try, the worse things get and if they don’t get worse, they don’t change…and you find yourself…trying…it’s like you are standing on one of those walkways in the airport, the ones that automatically move but don’t move fast enough to give you the edge. You stand on the automated moving walkway but the people walking by foot are moving faster than you…it looks like everything is moving in the fast forward mode and you are stuck. When you jumped on the walk you thought you were getting a head start but after standing there a minute you realize that it is not helping at all…you realize that your effort was with good intention but somehow, it backfired.
Then if you are like me, you look back to see if you can get off and start again, but this time walking…then you look forward trying to see how far you have to go and it seems like you are still in the middle, not moving and even if you start walking now, you will be left behind because you would have to go around the people who are standing on the walk with you, you must go around the obstacles.
You feel stuck: and when we get stuck, we are embarrassed, we panic, give up, we feel trapped. However, we all get stuck; we all experience failure and we all experienced fear and when that happens, I stop and take a breath… because I believe.
I believe in God and there is no one on this earth that can make me not believe, there is no situation on this earth that can make me not believe, there is nothing that happens in my life or to me that will cause me not to believe. I believe in God.
And even when I don’t understand, when I am afraid, when I am unsure,
even when I am standing in darkness and I cannot see a ray of light
I believe, so when I read the words…
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Don’t be frightened, for I am your God!
I strengthen you – yes, I help you – yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand!”
I believe it.
I don’t know how my situation will change,
I don’t know what is going to happen to me,
I don’t know where I will end up, but I believe.
I believe He is with me.
When He says, Don’t be afraid
- I know that it is necessary that God should have room in which to work.
- I know my emptiness is to receive Him;
- my weakness is to be empowered by Him.
When He says, for I am with you!
- I know not my mistakes,
- not my past,
- not my lack of confidence,
- not my health,
- not my lack of money,
- not my family situation,
- not my loss of a job,
- nothing in my life can separate me from His love.
When He says, Don’t be frightened
- I know that I need to take a step back,
- calm down,
- pray
- and release the anxiety,
- the uneasiness,
- the un-sureness.
- I know He is saying show me your faith.
When He says, for I am your God!
- I know He is saying I able to preserve and strengthen you.
- The God of heaven is God;
- He has all power,
- and that power is pledged for my protection,
- I have nothing to fear.
When He says, I strengthen you, yes, I help you
- He is talking directly to me,
- He is talking directly to you…see God is a personal God
- He loves you on a personal level
So when He says I strengthen you, yes, I help you, He is saying
- I will enable you to bear all your trials.
- I will always be by your side,
- I will walk with you in the valleys,
- I will be with you in the shadow of death,
- I will comfort and keep you,
- I will be there in the middle of the night when no one is around to hear the sobbing in your pillow,
- I will mend your broken heart,
- I will remove your fear
- I will be there with you
- I will give you the strength you need to get through this
- and He is always near to help,
- He is always able to help,
- He is always willing to help
- and He is always kind in helping.
- He does this simply because He is God.
When He says yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand
- this is God giving us grace.
- God extending His faithful hand,
- that it might be relied on,
- that we receive His powerful protection through our trials and temptations.
There is a beautiful song written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath and Sonny Burke, entitled Somebody Bigger, the lyrics say,
Who made the mountains
Who made the trees
Who made the rivers flowing to the sea
And who hung the moon in the starry sky
Somebody bigger than you and I
Who makes the flowers bloom in the spring
And who writes the songs for the birds to sing
And who sends the rain when the earth gets dry
Somebody bigger than you and I
Somebody bigger
We’ve got to answer
Somebody bigger than you and I
Who made the babies
who gave them life
And who gives them dreams
Guides them through the night
And who drives our footsteps along this way
Somebody bigger than you and I
You can believe Him when he says, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!
Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! I strengthen you – yes, I help you – yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand!”
God is bigger than all our problems and He will uphold and protect you.
~May God Bless and Keep You!
About the author ~ Rev Robin Gilbert
Robin is a former Pastor and an ordained minister and a native of Denver, Colorado, who made Huntsville her home in 1982. Robin and her husband, Minister Isaiah Gilbert conduct Real Life Bible Studies through their ministry Our Church Without Walls. She is the founder of the Alabama Christian Business Association, a faith-based nonprofit organization that aids in the startup and connection of Christian owned businesses, and she has authored and published numerous books among which are Dear God…It’s Me – A Meditation Journal, The Ministers Resource Book and What is…Asked Javien, a Christian children’s book collection.
Robin is a proud mother of four adult children, a mother-in-law and a grandmother of five, which she thanks God for each and every day. A powerful, dynamic, speaker Robin uses the gifts of the Spirit to speak from her heart and soul with a genuine love for whom God made her and for what she does. When asked how and/or why she does all that she does, she simply replies…”I Am The Lord’s”.
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