For weeks now, I’ve awoken with a piece of a devotion in my head but it slips away, I know it’s about traction and getting a grip and not slipping, inspired by new ramps at the sidewalk curbs being installed on all the intersections in my neighborhood. These are for wheelchairs and surely are an improvement from the non-tread version – and they are also for baby strollers and people walking, We all must watch that we don’t slip and we all should appreciate any type of grip to scale up an incline let alone inch down it. It’s not just the ramp to help you remain mobile, it’s something to grip on to keep you steadily descending or ascending. 

That maybe one of the many things that the Lord is trying to reinforce in me – and to say: God is the Grip that saves my day.

David, as a warrior knew both time as a boy shepherd (and Goliath killer) and as a long-serving king (and easily swayed sin-maker), and yet All in All, God had his GRIP on David, he knew the Lord kept him from slipping into a worse situation, the Lord went ahead of him to win a battle, the Lord kept forgiving, the Lord kept protecting. David had enemies many times but escaped, he sang in Psalm 94:17-19: Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.

Unfailing Love. 

It is the grip of the Lord, WHO IS LOVE, Who is Unfailing.

I can’t remember any more of the devotion but I do know this – God wants us to succeed – and He wants us to know HE is the ONE saving us – and He wants us to know that we will have trouble but fear not, He has overcome the world.

So let us enter this day in simply trusting the Lord, keeping a grip on things – knowing He keeps a grip on us. This might be keeping a grip on our emotions, on our desire to wag our tongues in gossip, to shake our heads in disbelief.

Let us grab for the traction that He has already made for us.

Slip NOT.

Amen