Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

January 23, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO UPHOLD ME

Psalm 37:17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.

At times, you and I can be too easily impressed. We also have the tendency to be too easily intimidated. We will be discussing the subject quite a bit over the course of this year. God is dealing with this in verse seventeen.

We are reminded first of the limited ability of man. “The arms of the wicked shall be broken.” The Bible teaches us in Romans 3:23 that all of us have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The Bible also teaches us that there is none that are righteous on their own accord, not even one of us. We are all born with a wicked, sinful flesh. Because of this, the first part of verse seventeen is speaking of all of us. All of us have “arms” that are breakable. The Bible instructs us to put no confidence in the flesh. I want you to know today that every burden and weight in your life, that you are trying to carry, is simply too heavy for you. Before long, our “arms” just break down.

We are reminded secondly of the limitless ability of God. If you will notice the verse does not say that the arms of the wicked will break, but the arms of the righteous will not. On the contrary, this verse narrows everything down into two categories: God, and everyone else. We are not to assume that if we are righteous, then we will be able to hold ourselves up. This verse is teaching us that the righteous are the children of God who have learned to let God do the upholding.

Here in verse seventeen, the wicked are the only individuals that are struggling. The arms of the wicked are stressing and straining, trying to carry a load that they cannot handle. The righteous are not struggling because they are depending on God to uphold them. God is not struggling because He is the one that is upholding, and God is more than capable to do so.

So there you have it.

We can carry till we bury,
and hold till we fold;
Or learn before we break it,
To just stop, and let God take it.

I am persuaded that He is able to uphold me!