Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. – Jude: 1:24.

It is that time of year again!

As I reflect, I note times so painful in 2015 that I literally lost my senses of smell, touch, and taste and the ability to produce tears. I suppose it was in an effort to protect myself from all I was experiencing. First, as I presided over my dad’s funeral. Again while anointing with oil of myrrh the lifeless body of my youngest grandchild. Once more, as my 37 year old sister suffered a debilitating stroke.

In these moments, I was internally, silently screaming at God, “Why do you trust me with so much pain?” I felt Him whispering back to me, “Just know to trust Me more”.

And then, there were times so joyful that I thought I would burst. My son received a hearing restorative device after 3 years of silence. I found siblings I didn’t know I had. Met new friends and reconnected with old; financial windfalls, and the acquisition of a debt free building for our ministry.

In these moments, I would be humbled by the blessings of God and ask,” Why do you trust me with so much goodness?” And He would whisper to me, “Just Know to Trust Me More.

Reminds me very much of that old “trust exercise” where you allow yourself to just fall back and hope that the one behind you was willing to and strong enough to catch you. Without a doubt, the One Who Is Mighty to Save is fully able and entirely willing to catch you and not only that, He is able to keep you from falling in the first place.

In every moment, those in which I thought my soul could not go on and in those where I thought it could fly, God has always been there to keep me from falling. He has always known how much I could take and how much I could receive. How much I could bear and how often He would have to carry my weight. In all of this, He was wooing me to “Trust Him More”.

It is easy to just trust? No,not always. Pain can tempt us to shrivel away and blessings can tempt us to be full of ourselves. But when we turn our focus to the “One who is able to keep us from falling away” levels of faith increases and the process more sure. Every day, I must choose to see Him as my Source, my Backbone, and my Back-Up I find myself repeating over and over, “ To Him who is able to keep me from falling… into sin, from falling into despair, from falling into pride, from falling into debt, from falling into sickness..” And so on and so on

That trust is empowering when we remember that it also carries a promise of “great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault”. Imagine being invited into the Presence of the Almighty…. Into His Love, His Care, His Healing and His Provision….knowing full well that you are unworthy and incapable …only to have Him say “ Come on in, I see no fault in you”. Selah on that one, will you! Now receive the joy from the knowing!

So as I prepare my set for praise and worship at midnight tonight, the song that immediately comes to mind hails from Hillsong’s Darlene Zschech. The lyrics of the chorus sum up 2015 and gives me peace about 2016:

“Though Mountains Fall, I’ll Stand
By the Power of Your Hand
And In Your Heart of Hearts I’ll Dwell
And This My Soul Knows Very Well”

Yes to Him who is able to keep me from falling!!!!! This my soul knows very well!