I Need Thee
Annie Sherwood Hawks penned the words of the hymn “I Need Thee Every Hour”. It is something we need desperately to remember. We should not look to God for comfort in times of trouble only to ignore Him when times are good. We cannot praise Him in the good times only to turn our back on Him in times of distress. If we are to look to Him, we need to do it constantly.
The third verse says, “I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.” We need to look to God every hour of every day, whether we feel joy or whether we feel pain. If we do not have Him with us constantly, life is vain.
I looked up vain in the dictionary and two synonyms were impotent and unrewarding. Those two words describe a life without our Lord and Saviour. Without Him, life has no power and no reward. Life with Him has both power and reward.
Which of these two choices would you prefer? To have power and reward we need Him all day every day, not just sometimes or somedays. That constant presence is easily obtained. All one needs to do is ask Him to come, and He will.
June 16/09
Despair
On the old TV show ‘Hee Haw’, they sang a song whose first line was “gloom, despair and agony on me”. They performed it as a comedy, but to many in today’s world it is too real.
It’s very easy to look at the world and feel despair as a result of the things we see. The news is constantly filled with items that are more depressing than uplifting, stories that brings fear rather than hope. To avoid the feelings that can overwhelm us, many turn to medicines, psychiatrists, drugs and even thoughts of suicide.
There is no way we can avoid seeing those images and hearing those reports, but we do not have to let them rule our lives. Psalms 55:16-17 tells us, “As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” (KJV)
Where do you turn when you feel the world closing in around you? Even those who call upon and trust God have bad things happen. Their faith in God and the release and peace that comes through prayer is what carries them through. Allow God to be your reality instead of giving in to the stressful and depressing things that might surround you.
June 30/09
Canada Day
Canada Day will be upon us in one week. Does it mean anything to you? It should. Canada is a wonderful country with a bountiful Christian heritage. Our motto is taken from Psalms 72:8, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea”.
The Peace Tower in Ottawa has a scripture carved into the stone over each of the exterior arched windows. Over the East window is Psalm 72:8, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea”. Over the South window is Psalms 72:1, “Give the King thy judgment, O God, and thy righteousness unto the King’s son”. Over the West window is Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. The largest of the 53 bells of the carilion has Luke 2:14 inscribed upon it, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men”.
There are many other scriptures carved into the walls of the parliament buildings, too many to list in this short column. Even our National Anthem proclaims, “God keep our land, glorious and free.”
I feel that it is this Christian heritage that makes Canada such a wonderful country. It is something that we cannot afford to forget or let slide. God has blessed this country in the past and He will continue to do so into the future, if we keep His name first.
