https://odb.org/2025/09/25/its-gonne-be-okay
Psalm 118:5-14 (NIV) –
5 When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord;
he brought me into a spacious place.
6 The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
7 The Lord is with me; he is my helper.
I look in triumph on my enemies.
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in humans.
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
10 All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the Lord, I cut them down.
11 They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the Lord, I cut them down.
12 They swarmed around me like bees,
but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the Lord, I cut them down.
13 I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation.
One of my daughter’s most vivid childhood memories is the day her dad taught her to ride a bike without training wheels. At one point in their outing, my husband balanced his feet on the hubs of her rear wheel (while she kept hers on the pedals and they shared the handlebars) so they could coast down a small, gently sloping section together. She remembers her dad laughing with joy—a sharp contrast to her own fearful experience of the moment. The ride was so short that the entire episode happened too quickly for him to stop and empathize with her. As they reminisce about the incident today, my husband’s gentle response to her recollection is to reassure her that he knew everything would be okay.
The above is the starting paragraph of today’s ODB article by Kirsten Holmberg. It’s a good metaphor for who God is in our lives. There are things that we need to experience in life. Some experiences are painful and disappointing. Like a breakup in a relationship or the death of someone. Or, like the recent but annually recurring brouhaha over local university admissions, we may have been extremely disappointed with the course offered to us previously. For the latter, I’ll say now that after more than 35 years from my time, nothing much has changed except that there are many more opportunities outside that system today with more reputable local private universities and the government higher education loan system. In other words, nowadays, we don’t need to forget about university education and enter the workforce if we don’t score well for STPM. In fact, nowadays, fewer even bother taking STPM altogether. Whatever we may have gone through in life, God is and has always been with us.
I believe the message this morning when we ponder upon God being with us is to look at life in terms of many years and not a few days or weeks or even months. Maybe we went through difficult and sad times. In the present or the past. But God was and will always be with us in the background, and when it really matters, He does intervene. Not always, and not all the time, but He does. Personally, I experienced His grace and mercy countless times, although, like many others, I had also faced and had gone through tears, disappointments, and sadness. Just 3 years back, when I was about to resign from my previous employer and abandon my 27 years of service there, in fact, just moments before I was about to push the button, I was offered a severance package for my long service. It was a touching and pleasant surprise and was testimonial of God’s grace and mercy. It is proof that He is always in the background, keeping a close eye on what was going on in my life. Or how my late dad had survived a very bad heart attack in 2009 and lived another 13 years with renewed vigour and life serving God and even marrying my much younger step-mum. We wished he had lived much longer, but we rejoice in His goodness and grace, giving him a new lease of life.
God is always with us! Amen! He is indeed our strength, defence, and salvation!
Ronnie's Thoughts 