When God takes our hand....

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, 'Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.' But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters BY THE HAND(1), the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. Genesis 19:15-16

I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you BY THE HAND and keep you. Isaiah 42:6

...the day when I took them BY THE HAND to bring them out of the land of Egypt... Jeremiah 31:32 and Hebrews 8:9

I love the picture painted in the above Scriptures of God taking people BY THE HAND. He's not behind them putting His shoulder into their back to push them. He's not in front of them tugging on their arms to pull them. Rather, He has taken them BY THE HAND to lead them out of danger (as in Lot's case) or out of the bondage of Egypt.

I have found comfort in this picture of the gentle, compassionate heart of God.

Do you ever feel like you are wandering without direction or purpose? Perhaps you are uncertain as to what your next step should be; or you know what your next step should be but you really don't want to take it.

Let me encourage you to pray that God would take you BY THE HAND and lead you where He desires for you to go.

Do you have a loved one trapped in a life-vice either through their own choices or through circumstances beyond their own control?

Let me encourage you to pray that God would take them BY THE HAND and lead them safely to freedom.

Diane

1 CAPS mine