the lord is our keeper

The Lord is Our Keeper
The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time and forever (Psalm 121:7-8). Some interpret this to mean God will keep them from life’s hardships and difficulties, 2020 proved different to countless souls. With that being said, many believers still struggle to understand why painful things happen in our lives. They often wonder, why didn’t the Lord stop me from experiencing such hardship or heartache? The question deepens when we read a passage like Psalm 121. Many interpret it to mean God will keep them from difficulties, but the psalmist says, that the Lord will keep our souls. The truth is, the Lord will at times, allow pain in our lives. Sometimes He even orchestrates it! And we all need to be reminded from time to time that God understands the hurt, but He can also see beyond it to the deeper more meaningful purpose in the situation. The 2020 seasons of our lives can also strengthen our faith and make us more Christ-like by deepening our compassion and love for others. At times, God may even use life’s difficulties to keep us from becoming complacent in our spiritual walk. With His help, we can often profit more from walking through the hardship than from avoiding it. When our heavenly Father knows it’s best He doesn’t keep us from life’s trying events but instead, enables us to endure them by providing us wisdom and strength. The Good News is, once on the other side of our trials we can always see with profound clarity and gratitude how God’s hand guided us through it. In turn, our hope is then fully renewed, knowing that the Lord is our keeper even through the most trying times. Take time to reread Psalm 121, and ask the Lord to remind you of His promises when painful seasons or situations arise in your life. Never forget friends, the keeper of your soul is faithful, “the Lord will guard your going out and coming in From this time forth and forever.”
Grace and peace always,
Fr. Greg+

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