YOU ARE MY ROCK

by Barbara Chadwick

Adversity, trials, sickness, pain and death are all parts of life. We can face them only with the help of our “Rock, our Salvation.”

“When I had shingles the music stopped.”  (from a commercial about a singer who got shingles.)

 My sister, Mary, in a similar situation said of God, You are my hiding place…and you will surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7

A friend, Shirley rode the 1 ½ hours to our women’s retreat with a group of women from our church. When she arrived I said, “I’m so glad you could come.” She smiled and told me about the ride down the mountain with her sisters in Christ and said, “It felt so wonderful to laugh again.” Her husband had died 6 months before. They had been married over 50 years and she had felt bereft since his death.

O Lord, my God, I called to You for help and You healed me… weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:2, 5

All of us have our litany of stories from friends and family who’ve faced adversity, trials, sickness and deaths of loved ones. Many have prevailed, stood on the rock that is Christ and given honor to Him through it all.

Writer Madeleine L’Engle said, “It’s a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet and what is sand.”

Who is the rock except our God. It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. …I will sing praises to Your name. …You broaden my path beneath me so that my ankles do not turn.       2 Samuel 22:32-33, 37, 50

When we were building our house on the side of a hill in the Colorado mountains, we were informed that  the foundation would be secured to a huge rock. The wind often blows furiously here, shaking the house.  I am always grateful for that secure foundation. On the days when I feel overcome with adversity, pain or trials I am eternally grateful for my God, my Rock.

The Psalmist, David wrote: Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to You, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.  Psalms 61:1 Then in chapter 63:7-8  he says, Because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.