He Sustains Me

Admin
Jul 19
9 min read

December 29, 2024

Psalm 54:4 says, “Surely God is my help. The Lord is the one who sustains me.”

During the difficult trials that I face in life, it is comforting to know that he sustains me. This message is a prelude to next week's message. It is important that we have a deep understanding of what it means for God to sustain us.

The Hebrew word that David uses here for “sustain” means to lean, to support, to uphold or rest upon. It also means to prop up, to lean upon for support, or to take hold of to assist. Basically, it means to keep from stumbling or falling.

David knew a bit about struggle, about pain, about remorse, and about failure. He knew a bit about being attacked, persecuted, and being hunted like an animal. David knew about weakness, exhaustion, and about being at the point of giving up. David also understood that it is God who sustained him during those dark times. Just as God’s sustained David those many millennia ago, he sustains us today.

Sustained by Grace

One way that we are sustained is by God's grace. Oh, how we love this word. We sing about Amazing Grace. We are thankful for saving grace. We are the recipients of abundant, yet undeserved grace. What is this thing that we call grace?

Historically, we have been told that grace is “unmerited favor.” The Greek word defines it as being “favorably disposed towards someone or something.” In simplest terms, grace is simply kindness to the unworthy. Paul speaks of grace in II Corinthians 12:9 where he writes the words that father spoke to him when Paul asked to have his thorn in the flesh removed for the third time. God's response to Paul was simply that his grace, which is his kindness to the unworthy or his predisposed favor toward us, was enough for that moment. God said that Paul's personal weakness brought about by the sore trial was in fact an opportunity for God's strength to be manifested in the situation.

The grace of God gives us the power and the strength to keep going even though we feel like we cannot take another step. I have personally experienced this strength and power, and I'm certain that many of you have also. Paul speaks of this strength in II Timothy 2:1 where it says, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

As I have said in previous messages, we don't want grace in those desperate moments. What do we want? We want deliverance from our trial. We want relief from our pain and discomfort. But this is what we know from experience: the grace of God is not necessarily immediate relief from the turmoil or trouble we are facing. I am not saying that immediate relief is never granted, but those scenarios are few and far between in our lives. Rather God's grace is the continual, constant, and immediate support and strength we need to face our troubles, our challenges, or our times of crisis.

One of my very favorite verses in the Bible is found in Psalm 73:25-26 where Asaph asked the question, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” God himself is my sustaining grace, and because this is true we can continue to worship God with our whole heart. In the midst of trouble, pain, loss, or in the middle of a life changing event, I can worship the God who sustains me by his grace.

We can also continue to love God and those around us with the same depth of love that we have experienced, that very same love we receive from our father every moment that we live. In the very depths of our trials, we can continue to be joyful remembering that joy is a choice that we make rather than a reaction to our circumstances.

We can be joyful because we know that our God is with us. He is not only with us every moment, but also for us. He is predisposed toward us, and like we learned during Advent we can continue to be filled with hope because we possess an eager expectation – not merely a need-driven desire – that our God will be faithful to his word.

We can continue to experience peace, that state of being that has been given to us by the Prince of Peace. We know that we have been made right with God and that the barrier of sin that separated us from him has been removed by Jesus. During the darkest of nights, the most troublesome of days, or the driest of seasons we are sustained by grace.

Sustained by Faith

When we think about or contemplate our faith, our minds likely goes to what the writer of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 11:1 where we read, “Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for. It means being certain of things we cannot see.” This means that faith is a firm conviction and a steadfast or fixed persuasion. It means being fully persuaded or confident of an outcome.

Faith is an unshakable knowing that father has all things in hand. Those of us who are long in the faith understand that faith comes with experience, of living in the Kingdom, of being forced to rely on God during difficult times. It deepens and strengthens as we learn to trust and rest. Faith is something that is developed over time.

We also understand that faith is a personal thing. It is something unique to my experience and relationship with God. My faith is something precious shared between Father and me, and yours is the same. Yet others can recognize it, can see the unique aspects of our faith, and their faith is affected by ours.

We can find examples of such sustaining faith in the Bible. We see it in Mary's life. Mary was an unwed teen living in an unforgiving culture. Such an action would bring dishonor and shame to the family. It would bring rejection by society and perhaps even punishment by death by the religious leaders of the community, but she had the word of an angel to sustain her. She was fully convinced and absolutely confident in the circumstances she found herself in.

We can also find Jesus, this incredible person filled with the Holy Spirit and with power, having the ability to perform miracles like no other. He is lauded as the long-awaited Messiah as he rode into town on Palm Sunday. The people are ready to make him king. However, just a few days later he is alone in a garden at night, wrestling with the events that he knows is coming. He is in travail before God, and his faith sustains him. “Not my will but thine be done,” was his prayer.

Later in the Word we find Peter, this impetuous disciple. He has been arrested multiple times and has been brought before the Sanhedrin, the very same people who had condemned Jesus to death. He, along with others, had been thrown into prison. It was truly a dark night of the soul, and yet his faith sustained him because he knew what Jesus had said. His confidence in the Lord was not shaken.

And what about Paul? He was no stranger to trouble or abuse. He had been shipwrecked multiple times, beaten multiple times, stoned and left for dead. His ministry was attacked and questioned yet he never wavered. His faith sustained him.

We cannot overlook the apostle John who was exiled on the island known as Patmos. This prison island was impossible to escape from. John had committed no real crime, yet he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. He was to spend the rest of his days as a prisoner on that island. Yet, here in this desolate place, John's faith flourished. His faith sustained him during those dark years.

You see, it is not uncommon or unusual for the people of God to experience difficult trials in their lives or to endure tragic circumstances from time to time.

Many believers receive devastating diagnosis every day or are the victims of vicious attacks on their physical bodies, their possessions, their reputations, or their finances. Yet, in each of these challenging situations, our faith in God, our unshakable confidence in him, can sustain us and keep us from falling or stumbling. Our faith holds us upright and steady.

We are reminded of what David wrote in Psalm 55:22. We are to cast our burdens, our troubles, our difficulties, and our battles onto the Lord and he will sustain us. The verse goes on to say that he will only occasionally permit the righteous to be moved. Is that what it says? No! It says he will NEVER permit the righteous to be moved.

He will not allow us to wobble, shake, slip, or fall. That means that we can face down the enemy in front of us. He can take down the giant like David did. We can speak to the mountain and command it to move like Jesus said. We can calm the raging storm like Jesus did. We can walk out of our prison cell like Peter did or like Paul and Silas did because we are fully convinced and know that God is with us and for us.

Faith unfolds by leaving everything in God's hands and beholding his hand in everything. This is a quote from an unknown source, but it can serve as a guide for us as we are walking through difficult places. It is imperative that we understand and believe that we are sustained by his grace. We are sustained by our faith.

Sustained by God’s Hand

David writes in Psalm 18:35, “You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me. Your help has made me great.” In Isaiah 41:10 we read, “So, do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Then 3 verses later in Isaiah 41:13 he says, “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear. I will help you’.”

Our God will uphold, strengthen, and sustain us because we don't have the strength or capacity to do it ourselves. The Word says that in his hand there is righteousness. We find that in Psalm 48:10, “Like your name, O God, your praise reaches the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness.”

In God’s hand, we find many things. First, there is victory. We find that in Psalm 20:6, “The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.”

In God's hand, there is protection. We read that in Psalm 138:7, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes. With your right hand you save me.”

In his hand, there is safety. David writes these words in Psalm 17:7, “Show me the wonders of your great love, you who say by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes."

And in his hand, there is joy. That reference is found in Psalm 16:11 where we read, “You make known to me the path of life."

As little children, we sang a song that goes like this, “He’s got the whole world in his hand.” If he's got the whole world in his hands, then he's got you, he's got me, and all of our troubles and trials as well. We can trust him to sustain us. We can trust him to sustain us when we are young and while we are in the middle of our careers. We can trust him to sustain us as we raise our families and to sustain us as the kids grow up and leave home. We can trust him to sustain us in our old age as well.

We have his word on it. In Isaiah 46:4, God gives us this promise: “Even In your old age I am he and to your gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry, and I will save.” With the coming of the new year, there will be our fair share of difficulties, trials, challenges, and perhaps even loss. But we know that our God can and will sustain us by his grace. He will sustain us by our faith in him. And more than anything he will sustain us by his mighty hand in our lives.

Father, grant us eyes to see not only the physical dangers that we may face but the spiritual dangers as well. Grant us ears to hear what the Spirit is whispering to us in the days ahead. Grant us the willingness to follow the directive that we are given and the courage to be obedient and grant us the determination to believe what we see and hear from you.

I will close with these words from Psalm 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®