Sometimes you just need to call out. You’ve done all you can do . . . but you know that ultimately it’s out of your control. You’ve tried to still your soul . . . but your mind keeps racing. You’re prepared to trust in the Lord with all your heart . . . but deep down you wish it would be for something other than what you know the day holds in store for you. And so . . . you call out . . . just like Isaiah did . . .

“O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for You. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.” (Isaiah 33:2 ESV)

There’s an old southern gospel song that asks, “Where could I go but to the Lord?” Don’t know that Isaiah would have been much a southern gospel fan, but I kind of think he’d pick up on the sentiment . . . when you kind of realize that there is no other place to turn, you turn to the Lord. And so he cries out, “Be gracious to me . . . be my strength as I head into the day . . . be my deliverance and my victory when things are getting kind of scary.”

He is “our arm every morning”. He is our strength . . . our power. He can flex muscle . . . He can lift up . . . He can hold secure . . . He can do what we cannot. And, He can do it everyday . . . His mercies are new every morning . . . with each sunrise He is ready, willing, and able to draw alongside as needed.

And so, I call out. Not presuming . . . not demanding . . . but, knowing the Shepherd’s voice and His heart, appropriating the all sufficient grace He has promised. Humbly requesting that I might sense afresh the abiding power of the King of Kings, He who is Victor over all things . . . feebly crawling up on the lap, as it were, of Abba Father as His beloved child of adoption, asking that I might know His abiding presence through the day,

And so “I wait for You.” Looking eagerly upward . . . setting my mind on things above . . . seeking to navigate the realities of the day in light of the realities of the Kingdom. Planning’s done . . . strivings cease . . . and I’ll look up . . . waaayyy up! . . . “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)

The LORD is my arm . . . my every morning strength. The maker of heaven and earth is the designer of today’s circumstance. He who upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3) holds also the details of the day.

And so I’ll call out . . . and I’ll wait . . .

Where could I go . . . but to the Lord?

Amen?