You hold it all together...

​       God of my present
      God of my future
      You write my story
      You hold it all together...
         This song by Maverick City Music, “You hold it all together,” has been playing in my mind for some days now. There are times when I wake up to this song on my mind and it has been a source of encouragement and strength. 
         He is the God of my present, my future and I would even add my past. He is intricately weaving it all together for my good and for His honour and glory. I feel like my life is a puzzle and God is taking all of the pieces and cleverly fitting them together. To me it seems so disjointed at times, just pieces that don’t seem to fit together... but in God’s very capable hands they do. 
         I think sometimes we need to get a glimpse of God’s picture. The one in our mind is limited, fragmented, imperfect. It may even seem good enough to us, but keep in mind our vision, our picture is still limited. Our ways and thoughts are not like God’s. In fact, His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9).
         Psalm 139:16 says: “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (NKJV). I checked various versions of this verse and the New International Version caught my attention: “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” I don’t know about you, but this confirms to me the Author of my story. I may not be able to put the pieces together, figure this out or even write my own story but then ... that’s God’s job. 
         It encourages me because when times are tough, I can be confident that God knows the beginning, the middle and the end. He is the one who is holding it all together for me. 
         I think of the story of Job. Job was doing his best to live a righteous life. It seemed he was doing everything right, yet, tragedy struck. Many of us in similar circumstances question God, we wonder where He is when tragedy strikes and we wonder if He cares. Job could have thought the same thing but He didn’t. He chose not to give up on His God. The thing is, we are given insight into what really happened and why. God had not forgotten Job. God had not chosen to randomly deal him a terrible blow. In fact, when the sons of God came before Him Satan also came among them (Job1:6) and God was the one who brought Job to his attention (Job 1:8)! Was God thinking straight? Of course He was! He was the Author of Job’s story and He was about to put a little “twist” in it. But the thing is, He knew His servant Job, He knew his faithfulness to Him and He knew that Job would not turn His back on Him. His confidence in Job made it easy for Him to single him out for tragedy, not because He didn’t love him but because He knew Job would not turn His back on Him. Job’s tragedy was going to be God’s story of loyalty and character. 
         Whenever, I have faced discouraging situations in my life, my motivation to not give up, to keep going, has been the reality that I have used to help me make it. I have to survive because someone out there needs to hear my story and needs to be encouraged with the fact that if I could make it, so can they. So, my writing, my music, everything about me is simply God taking my past, my present and my future and craftily working it all together not just for my good but for the benefit of others. I don’t write, speak or sing for style. It is simply my story being played out before the world.
         What story is God writing about you? Believe it or not, God is taking everything, your past, present and future and He is intricately creating a masterpiece for the world to see. It’s bigger than your picture that you have created in your mind. Maybe that’s why some of us are still impatiently waiting for our story to unfold. Maybe we just need to release our version of our story and allow the story God has crafted and written for us to unfold. Fear not. Every fragment, every piece, every joy, every sorrow, every success, every failure, in your past, present and future, God is holding and working all of it together for your good and for His honour and glory.
         If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so now. God is our Author and Master builder. When we put the fragments of our life into His hands, rest assured, He will fit it all together to create a story, a picture that will inspire and encourage others even as their own story unfolds.

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