The other morning as I was driving to work, I looked down and on my right hand was this beautiful little rainbow.  As I continued to drive along, Isaiah 41:13 came into my head.

“For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” Isaiah 41:13

I thought about how God would take me by the hand, lead me and help me.  I felt a peace at knowing that He was there reminding me of that fact.  Then as the day went on, it wasn’t long before I had forgotten all about that moment.  Isn’t it funny how something so sweet and special can be forgotten but something bad will stick with you all day?

This morning, as I was doing my early morning devotion before I got out of bed, Isaiah 41:13 came up.  Immediately, I remembered that day last week and the little rainbow on my hand.  I began thinking about the significance of the term “right hand” specifically in regards to The Bible.  According to Jack Wellman, in a post for The Christian Crier , the phrase “right hand” appears 166 times in the Bible. Traditionally  the right hand signifies strength and power.  Many times in the bible, we read verses such as

Exodus 15:6
“Your right hand, LORD, was majestic in power. Your right hand, LORD, shattered the enemy.”

or one of my favorite verses

Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

As I spent some time thinking about all of this, I thought about what it meant to me, that God would hold my right hand.  Now I am no theologian, but to me it felt like God was saying…it is my strength you need…not yours.  All that you are trying to do in your own strength and with your own power, you need to let go of and take my hand.  I had a vision of a small child who needs to hold the hand of their parent when they need help to climb up and over something.  They could try to do it on their own, but if they want to climb safely and reach their destination, they need to hold their parent’s hand.  I think it is the same way with us.  We can try to do things on our own, with our own strength and our own power, but if we want to get safely through the storm, if we want to safely scale the mountain looming in front of us, we need to allow God to take hold of our right hand, relinquishing our own strength to Him and let him lead us with his power and his mighty right hand.

Again as I thought back to that morning with the rainbow on my hand.  I thought about how the rainbow was a sign of promise from God.  I thought about how at that time, I was thinking of a million different things that I could do to climb up the mountain of trouble that was looming in front of me.  And I realized that God was promising me that if I let him take hold of my hand, if I stopped trying to do it in my own strength and let him lead me, he would help me to get up the mountain safely.

No matter what we are facing in our lives.  We can’t do it in our own strength or in our own power.  We need to let God take hold of our right hand, so he can lead us through the darkness and bring us safely into the light.