Which moments from 2022 were your best? Which were the hardest?

For me, God was in both. I experienced His healing (the best). My dad died (the hardest). I don’t know what was harder, to watch him decline for months or to say goodbye, but God’s grace sustained me through both.

Dad taught my sister and me to dance in the Safeway parking lot, took us sailing on Saturdays, and never missed a musical performance. I could find him in the audience easily by looking for the man in a cowboy hat.

Over the years, he still wore a cowboy hat but he needed help to get out of his boots at the end of the day. He still whispered, “I love you” over the phone, but I had to wait for between his naps to say it back.

I knew his death was coming. Still, I wasn’t sure I would have the strength to bear it. I was only sure of one thing: Jesus would give me the strength when I needed it.

This is a truth that Christians have been relying on for generations. Years before Corrie Ten Boom faced the death of her beloved father and sister in a German concentration camp, her father comforted her with these words:

“Our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need—just in time.”

We find the same promise in Scripture:

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” (Isaiah 40:29, NIV).

“In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13).

In any and every circumstance… Corrie leaned on God’s promise as she lived through harsh winters in lice-infested barracks and as she grieved the loss of her family. I like to imagine Corrie reading those verses out of her only possession: a hidden Bible she wore on her back. Scripture was her solace, God’s Word her strength.

Do you wonder what God has in store for you next year, and how will you find His strength—just in time? Look to His Word. He will enable you to do all that He asks. 

This devotional was first published at Joyful Life Magazine.

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