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Portals of Prayer - A Daily Devotion from Concordia Publishing House

 

Devotional Reading for:
7/3/2009  

Associated Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 42:5-9
Psalm 63


Handheld
 I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you. Isaiah 42:6

Handheld DVD players, PCs, TVs, MP3 players, GPS units—do you ever wonder how humanity survived without holding something with initials in our hands? We can recreate, communicate, calculate, and navigate, and it’s all handheld. What could be better? How about being handheld by God? In our Baptism, God “called [us] in righteousness.” God applied the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to us, forgave our sins, and declared us to be brand new. God’s Spirit now walks beside us and holds us by the hand, not just as a friend, but as our God. He does not ask us to hold on to Him. He holds on to us. In our weakness, He gives strength. In our faithlessness, He remains faithful. Imagine a father on a walk with his toddler in the woods. The boy’s feeble grasp on Dad’s fingers provides little security against rough terrain. But when Dad enfolds that little hand and wrist in his hand, there is security, no matter how rough things get. Faith does not hold on to God. It trusts that God holds on to us. We can recreate, communicate, calculate, and navigate our way through life, and it’s all handheld by God. What could be better?

 Jesus, thank You for Your faithful, strong, nail-scarred hands that hold us. Amen.
   


About Portals of Prayer

Each devotion features a Bible reading, meditation, and prayer in an easy-to-read format. Portals of Prayer is great for personal devotions, and these timeless devotions can be used to open meetings or launch Bible studies. It is published in the convenient and popular pocket size or a large-print edition.

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©2004 by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House.

 

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