When death grips...

Some days death is physical here…actually many days.  Then there are other days when death is spiritual, mental, emotional.  When childhood dreams die before they take their first breath. When HIV roots in a young man’s core and tells him to hide, to give up.  When a struggling mother lashes out in physical abuse as fear torments her and she panics at the thought of losing her fourth child to disease. 

What do you do when death grips? I have to choose daily when it grips…to release.  I hold things loosely as I realize I have no power to grip life and death the way the enemy would like me to. I choose to encounter my Father in each circumstance, to exchange what was in my grip for what He now gives, what I now hold loosely…that is what it truly means by He gives and takes away!

Job 1:21…”Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave  and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

 

He exchanges death for life! Suffering, grief, sorrow, and struggle for eternal life…for eternal hope. I struggle when I advance with violent effort or contend with an adversary that has already been defeated. I hold life loosely while I stand firm and choose to release what does not belong to me.

1 Corinthians 15:58…”Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord. Because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”