Recently I read a sermon by Octavius Winslow titled, “Time is in Your Hands.” It is a sermon based on Psalm 31:15, which says, “My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.” Though Octavius Winslow pays special attention to the first part of the verse that says, “My times are in your hands…” I can fully related to the entirety of the verse, as I have often felt like David might have as of late.

Anyway, all that to say… At the end of his sermon, Winslow makes this final charge to the listener (reader in this case) – It says:

“Trust God implicitly for the future. No sorrow comes, but which will open some sweet spring of comfort- no necessity transpires except that which comes from a father’s care- no affliction falls except what will be attended with the Savior’s tenderest sympathy. In him meet all confluence of grace for your hourly, momentary need. Let your constant prayer be: “Hold me up, and I will be safe.” Let your daily precept be “Casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.” And then leave God to fulfill, as most faithfully he will, “his own gracious, precious promise: “As your days, so will your strength be.” And so walking with God through this vale of tears, until you exchange sorrow for joy, suffering for ease, sin for purity, labor for rest, conflict for victory, and all earth’s checkered, gloomy scenes for the changeless, cloudless happiness and glory of heaven.”

I can’t say enough how badly I personally needed to hear this gentle battering ram of a reminder: “No sorrow comes, but which will open some sweet spring of comfort.” -Consequently, “Hold me up, and I will be safe” has been my anthem and prayer these past few days. In life, seasons change and some seem darker than others… But it is in those times, this time, that I will choose to walk “with God through this vale of tears” until I “exchange sorrow for joy.” God loves me, and like my times, I, too, am in His hands.