To Be Upheld by His Righteous Right Hand
What does that mean?
The verse
Sometimes, when I’m struggling with something, God puts a verse to my mind. Recently, as I’ve been struggling with times of stress and anxiety (nothing new if you’ve read any of my other pieces), God has given me this verse:
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10, NKJV)
At first, when I got this verse, I figured that it meant that He was going to take every situation I was worrying over and stop the things I was fearing would come to pass from happening.
As in, I thought I could see the way each situation would go if it were to go bad — and He was saying that it wouldn’t go that way.
I took comfort in that.
Then situations started to go bad
I was, admittedly, a bit shocked. Hadn’t that been the verse I received? And even if I’d just dredged it from my mind somehow, a verse that I’d heard many times, and God hadn’t given it specifically to me, it was still in the Bible.
It’s been a few weeks now and although they say that hindsight is 20/20, I don’t think I’m quite there yet. Regardless, many of the situations that I held anxiety over are winding down and I’m starting to see the results.
Here is what I can see from my position of, if not more wisdom, at least more knowledge:
Each situation that went south went south hard. These were the moments when I put my hands to my head and breathed:
God, why?
You gave me that verse!
Then, after some more time, I began to see that the way that things went south began to lead to some results I definitely was not expecting. Not problem-free results, but results that revealed underlying problems that needed addressing, so this sort of thing wouldn’t happen all over again in a few weeks or months.
This got me thinking.
God has the long-term, indeed, all of time and space, in perfect perspective, and we don’t. We know this.
So why should I assume that being upheld by Him means that my understanding of the best result is accurate and is what will come to pass?
Being upheld by Him will most certainly end in the best result, but we have exactly zero knowledge of the events that need to happen to get us there.
It reminded me of the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego:
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3: 16–18, NIV)
That “even if He does not” part always threw me growing up. “Even if He does not?” I would ask myself. What kind of weird qualifier was that? Of course He would deliver them. God isn’t mean.
And, in that story, God did deliver them, so for years I dismissed at as a weird moment and nothing more.
Looking back now, I can see there’s actually a lot to unpack in that moment
That qualifier was meant to say:
We don’t know the end, but we know our God. He is good, and He will uphold us and see us though to the best result, whatever it may be.
It’s a bold statement, given that if God did not deliver them out of that particular situation, they would have ended up burned alive.
But it’s a statement in the trust of the Goodness of God. That Goodness that wants the absolute best for us, whatever that may be.
Note that best does not equal easy. This is what I was struggling to see. But after all, if things are easy, how will we learn and grow and become more like Christ?
Being upheld by His righteous right hand is not a promise that we will be delivered unscathed out of every trouble.
It is a promise that through every trouble, God is there with us, ensuring that we are becoming the people He wants us to be, with the wisdom, experience, and trust in Him that will make us better and better servants of His kingdom.
This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family, and fun.
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