When There's Nothing Left to Stand On

You know when you've heard something a hundred times but then, for the first time, you really hear it?

And these words that you've heard, that you've spoken, that you know by heart, take on a meaning that they never have before.

Your heart fills and so do your eyes.

And they both overflow with gratefulness for a new understanding; a revelation.

You want to mark that moment.

You want to remember when His voice spoke into your heart, and you heard Him.

I grew up on hymns.

I've been singing them for as long as I can remember.

We sang a favorite of mine in church today, The Solid Rock.

It's one I've sung many times before.

It's one I know most of the words to.

It's beautiful.

But this time, the words of that hymn ministered to my heart in a way that they never have before.

"My hope is built on nothing less,

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, 

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand."

The words struck me--"my hope is built on nothing less."

Where is my hope?

Where have I leaned for strength, for protection, for happiness and peace?

I've leaned on myself.

I've leaned on my marriage.

I've leaned on my husband, my children, my friends, family, home, job, even my circumstances.

And some of those things have failed me.

At some point in my life, all of those things will fail me.

Why?

Because they are sinking sand.

"When darkness veils His lovely face,

I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil."

When I walked through my darkest valleys, He was there.

When it was so dark, it seemed like He wasn't, He still was.

The rest of my world sank around me, but He was my solid rock.

People will fail you.

Your marriage will fail you.

Your children will fail you.

One day your job might not be there.

Or your home.

One day there will be a fire, an earthquake, a car accident.

We think it won't happen to us.

But it will.

And if our hope is in this world, then we will crumble just as our world crumbles around us.

But if our "hope is built on nothing less" than JESUS, we will stand back up.

Tossed, buffeted, thrown down and hurt by the gales of this life, we will stand back up, because we're "resting on His unchanging grace."

And after that we can look back on the hard times, yes, even the hardest times, and see that He was always there.

It makes me love Him so much more.

Because He was there for me when I was alone.

When I thought all hope was lost, He stayed the course.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

I will fear no evil,

for You are with me; 

Your rod and Your staff, 

they comfort me."  Psalm 23:4

I realized today that for much of my life I have placed my hope in the wrong place.

I have given Jesus part of me, but held back much more.

"I can do it myself."

Oh, I hear myself in my 3 year old daughter all day long!

The truth is, I can't do it myself.

No one else can do it for me either.

He is the only thing that doesn't change.

"All other ground is sinking sand."

So I will ask myself, "who am I standing in today?"

"Who am I leaning on?"

It can't be anyone, or anything, but The Solid Rock.

Love from,

Greta