I prayed for strength, and then I lost awhile

All sense of nearness, human and divine;

The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart,

The hands I clung to loosed themselves from mine;

But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone,

The everlasting arms upheld my own.

--Annie Johnson Flint (selected part)

"The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart." How true for many of us. How true that we have all leaned on something other than Jesus at some point in our lives and felt it crumble away beneath us, leaving a swaying, trembling, weak, and lonely soul. It may have been someone close to us. It may have been financial success. Perhaps physical prowess. Maybe even 'the church'. I am learning, on this journey, that God is a jealous God. He wants us to lean wholly on Him. Clutch only His arm. Seek only His approval. Strive only to please Him. Everyone else can fail us. Jesus never fails. Everything else can be lost in a moment. Jesus never leaves. Every thought, every great idea, every true intention means nothing if it doesn't find it's origin in Christ. That is why He must be the author and finisher of our faith. That is why He is the Alpha and Omega. It all begins and ends with Him. I am learning daily to lean on His everlasting arms and rest in His promises that when everyone and everything seems lost to me, He is still behind, before, beneath and beside me.