January 27, 2021 (Wednesday)
Last year in this blog I wrote, “January seems like a strange month to me because there have been so many deaths in our family during January. As I pause and think about my loved ones who have died during this month, I do not do so by reliving those final days, but by meditating upon the special presence each of them brought to my life. The author of Hebrews says of Abel, “by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead” (Hebrews 1:4b) . All of my departed friends and loved ones are still speaking to me through the influence of their lives when they were with us.”
Listen carefully to Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26). This means that those who have died still exist. They are “absent from the body,” but “present with the Lord.” As our hymn for today pleads, “In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”
Some days seem to us to be better than others, but when we know the Lord, we can pray for a closer walk with Him and a greater awareness that He is with us every day, all the time. Let us pray for awareness of His presence on every kind of day. Let us pray with the hymn, “I need thy presence every passing hour.”
ABIDE WITH ME
Words: Henry F. Lytex
Music: William H. Monk
1847
“Abide with me! fast falls the eventide,
The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day.
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me!
I need thy presence ev’ry passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Thru cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me!”
Hold Thou Thy Cross before my closing eyes,
Shine through the glooom and point me to the skies,
Heav’n’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee,
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.