Sustain

Sustain

Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you.

MY FRIEND PASTOR CAROL’S favorite verse is Psalm 55:22, where we are told that God will sustain us when we give him our burdens. Carol has played the piano for decades, and one of the reasons she loves the verse is because, as a pianist, she is familiar with the pedal to the far right that is called the “sustain pedal” and helps hold a note as long as you want. Over the years, Carol has held on to the promise of God’s sustaining power through the financial crises she’s experienced.

When Carol and her husband, Geary, became Christians, their faith was immediately tested. Within four months of uprooting everything to move to a new town, Geary lost his job. With three kids and no money coming in, it was a bad situation. But Geary insisted that God would provide.

One day, the Lord told Carol to make a grocery list and place it on her windowsill.

“I put the list on the window, and we just prayed,” she said. A day later, a woman Carol had never met—someone who had heard about them from a mutual acquaintance—showed up with a carload of groceries.

“I was blown away. I’d never experienced anything like that,” she said. “She left, and as I began to unload them, I got to the two cans of Chicken of the Sea tuna and I knew. I went and got my list, and everything that was on there was in the bags. We didn’t even know what we were doing, and God was faithful to us.”

Those early years were a training ground for Carol’s challenges today. Carol and Geary founded Place of Hope Ministries, which helps provide both immediate shelter and permanent housing to those experiencing homelessness, meals for the hungry, kid-focused outreach, a discipleship program, jail and prison outreach, and church services.

“Because of what we experienced, we can run Place of Hope. Because every day, it’s the same. Every day, I’m making my list. Okay, Lord, is this what I need today? And he routinely comes through, usually at the last minute,” she said. “I would love it if we could pull from a big fund. But we don’t; we have to pull from the Lord. He’s our Provider.”

Lord, thank you that we can trust your promise to sustain us in all circumstances. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: Think of circumstances in your life in which you’ve had to trust the Lord to sustain your faith. What did that experience teach you?