hand of the Lord – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

The hand of the Lord

Yesterday, we saw the hand of the Lord reaching out to lead and empower his people. Today, we see it in three other ways.

We see his hand reaching out to save, rescuing Peter from prison.

We see his hand reaching out to judge, putting Herod to death.

And in James’ life, we see his hand reaching out to take his people home.

It’s that last I want to focus on.

At a time when Herod reached out his hand (see the ESV translation) to strike out at the church, it seems God did nothing to help James.

But God never took his hands off of James. God never rescued him from Herod’s hands. But he never took his hands off of James.

God was with him when he was arrested. God was with him when he was in prison. God was with him when he was killed. And then God took him home.

God never promises to deliver us from all our trials here on earth.

What he does promise is that he will always be with us. And even should we face suffering and death, his hand will guide us home.

Remember Psalm 23?

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me…

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. (Psalm 23:4, 6 — ESV)

Always remember: this world is not our home. And whatever struggle or suffering you may go through here, the Lord’s hand is with you and he will lead you home.

Verse 21 really struck me today.

The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. (Acts 11:21)

It’s really easy to look at this chapter and see how the hand of the Lord was with Peter in bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.

But note here that verse 21 isn’t talking about how the hand of the Lord was with Peter.

It’s talking about how the Lord’s hand was on ordinary Christians who had been chased out of Jerusalem because of persecution, but who then started taking the gospel wherever they went.

In short, the hand of the Lord, the hand of Yahweh, is not just on special people like pastors or missionaries. It’s on all who are his people.

And so let’s pray for that. Pray that the Lord’s hand would be on his people to lead and to empower them so that those who are lost may be saved and filled with his grace.

Pray that for your pastors certainly. Pray the Lord’s hand would be on them.

But pray that God’s hand would be on you too. Pray that his hand would be on the people in your church. Pray that it would be on all his people throughout this world.

Only then will we see “a great number believe and turn to the Lord” in our cities, our nations, and our world.