Release Them

July 17

Sometimes it is easier to be steadfast in the face of misfortune than it is when life is pleasant and profitable. It is written of Marie Antoinette, who was said to be totally preoccupied with the frivolous trappings of her lofty estate in the years prior to the French Revolution, that when the unthinkable happened, when her country was ravaged by civil strife and bloodshed, that she became a pillar of strength to those around her.

It can be at those times of seeming defeat that man gains his most important victories. When one’s finances are devastated by a disastrous economic downturn, he rises in faith to appropriate the help of God who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills,” Psalm 50:10. One who has nothing of his own easily turns to the Holy One for his daily bread.

The person at the precipice of death, much like Marie Antoinette, finds the Giver of Life to be the center of his life, to be seated on the throne of his heart, when eternity looms before him. It is at such times that Isaiah 26:3, 4 becomes his anchor of hope. It says, “You, O Lord, will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfastly upon You because he trusts You…the Rock eternal.”

We pray calamity will not come; we pray we can, “be strong in faith, giving glory to God,” Romans 4:20, throughout long, happy, healthy lives that find us strong in body, mind and spirit. But, if we succumb to the temptations of the world, if we fail to lift up His holy name in the good times, may we be found clinging to the One who has died to set us free from the world and its allures at that time when we have no choice but to release them from our grasp.