Within Arm's Reach

As usual, I sank down in the big, comfy chair in our living room this morning, my steaming cup of coffee on the table beside me, my open Bible in my lap, and my mind full of questions. Issues. Challenges. Worries. I sipped my coffee and brought it all to Him. I love my time in the mornings...so early... still dark. This time of day serves to magnify the reality of how I come to Him in my human-ness: foggy-minded, surrounded by darkness, alone, filled with questions.

I've been struggling with the issue of whether I trust God, really trust Him. If asked, I would be quick to say that I do. But that pesky emotion called "fear," those anxieties both big and small that surface in me throughout each day, testify to the truth that on some level, in some things, with some things... I must not really trust Him. So it was in front of that spiritual backdrop that I read a verse this morning that fell on me with a fresh relevance.

"And the LORD said to Moses, "Has the LORD's arm been shortened?"

Numbers 11:23

I just sort of stared at those words this morning. The NKJV rendering of the above verse asks (rhetorically, of course) if something has happened that has limited God's power. Have His power and might, which so often is what His "arm" represents, been altered in any way? The obvious answer is a resounding "No!" The Lord's arm has not been shortened by... the sickness of a loved one, a possible scary diagnosis for another, the chronic problem that has plagued my extended family for almost two decades, financial issues, marriage concerns for a dear friend, a burden for the lost... or anything else I brought to Him this morning. His arm is as long as ever. His power is as great as ever. None of this has surprised or shocked Him, none of it jarred Him off His throne or "shortened His arm." "God is not mocked." (Gal. 6:7) Neither is He shocked, nor is His world rocked. "Giving Him control" is simply aligning my view to what is already a reality: He is in control. He's never not been.

"Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?" Isaiah 50:2

"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear." Isaiah 59:1

"And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm;" Deuteronomy 5:15

His arm is as long as it ever was: long enough to save, to reach, to extend His accomplishing hand to bring His will to pass in His creation and in His people, in my circumstances and of those I love... and long enough to draw us to Himself. I can trust Him. Praise You, Lord.