Thursday, August 22nd, 2024
My husband, children and I recently took a vacation to Maine. It is one of my favorite places to go. There is a wonderful mix of water, mountains, fresh air and the natural beauty of God’s creation. On our last full day there we decided to embark on a short hike up Table Rock. Part of the trail is actually on the Appalachian Trail, which is a 2,190 mile trail stretching from GA to ME.
There are two separate trails to get up to Table Rock. One is more gradual and a little longer and one is shorter and has many more boulders to climb. Well, we ended up on the rockier path. My husband carried my two-year-old for almost the whole ascent while I tended to our other three children. The older two really did most of the hiking on their own which allowed me to focus most of my attention on our four-year-old. I was advising her on the best paths to take, holding her hand when she wanted it and lifting her over rocks that were too big to step over. Whenever I wasn’t doing one of these three things my hand was constantly behind her offering gentle support or just being available if her feet slipped.
In one of these situations I heard God speak to my spirit, “This is what I do for You.” It was a simple phrase, but an incredible picture. Some of us are climbing some intense mountains in our lives. They may be full of big boulders, slippery slopes or dark caves. Some days it takes all we have to take one step up that mountain. No matter our progress for the day or the feelings this produces, God never pulls His hand away. It is always right next to us, ready to give us strength, gentle support, or help up if we should slip.
As I have been going back to this picture and this phrase in the days since our trek, I keep hearing the word “undergird”. In scripture, this only shows up once in Acts 27:17:
17 When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing lest they should run aground on the Syrtis Sands, they struck sail and so were driven.
The word undergird in the original Greek means to bind a ship together laterally with girths or cables to enable it to survive the force of waves and tempest (Strong’s). That perfectly describes the picture of what God does for us and what I was doing for my daughter. My hand was undergirding her just as God undergirds us.
Final Thoughts…
It’s so easy to fall into a place of despair because of any number of fears that the enemy whispers in our ear. What if this happens, or what if you can’t do it, or what if you miss it, or what if you fail? What if our response to every one of these was, “God’s got me.” Do we believe that God undergirds us so that we can withstand any storm? I’m not saying He will keep us from the storm, but that He will hold us together through the storm. Even if what we see looks ugly and impossible, do we have the faith to believe that His hand is still there? Our counter to the enemy’s offer of fear needs to be faith. Whatever he tries to distract us with can be thwarted by knowing, beyond any doubt, that God is for us and with us through it all.