Heidelberg Catechism

Question 28. What advantage is it to us to know that God has created all things, and by his providence continues to uphold them?

Answer: We can be patient in adversity, (a) thankful in prosperity, (b) and in every circumstance that befalls us, we can place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, (c) knowing that nothing shall separate us from his love; (d) since all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they cannot so much as move.(e)

(Click through to see scriptural proofs.)

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Sunday's Hymn: God of My Life, to Thee I Call

or Looking Upwards in a Storm, Cowper’s original title.

God of my life, to Thee I call, 
Afflicted at Thy feet I fall; 
When the great water-floods prevail, 
Leave not my trembling heart to fail! 

Friend of the friendless and the faint, 
Where should I lodge my deep complaint, 
Where but with Thee, whose open door 
Invites the helpless and the poor! 

Did ever mourner plead with Thee, 
And Thou refuse the mourner’s plea? 
Does not the word still fix’d remain, 
That none shall seek Thy face in vain? 

That were a grief I could not bear, 
Didst Thou not hear and answer prayer: 
But a prayer-hearing, answering God 
Supports me under every load. 

Fair is the lot that’s cast for me; 
I have an Advocate with Thee; 
They whom the world caresses most 
Have no such privilege to boast. 

Poor though I am, despised, forgot, 
Yet God, my God, forgets me not: 
And he is safe, and must succeed, 
For whom the Lord vouchsafes to plead. 

—William Cowper

HT: Kim Shay

Red Mountain Music has put these old words to another new tune.

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• The Perfect Wisdom of our God at By Grace Alone
• All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name! at Graces Daily
• Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days at The Happy Wonderer
• Smitten, Stricken, and Afflicted at Luma Simms
• My Love and Happiness at Tried With Fire
• Lord’s Day 11, 2014 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Lifting Up Our Hearts - 20 at The Upward Call
• Your Weekly Dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs: “We are coming, brethren!”
• The Treasury of David: Psalm 18:31 at Theology for Girls

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Thankful Thursday

Tonight I’m thankful 

• for life — one more year of it.
• for beets and fudgesicles, two foods I’ve been liking lately.
• for daylight in the evenings. 
• that it’s warm enough to sleep with my bedroom window open a crack. I sleep so much better when I’m breathing a little fresh air.
• for this week’s visits from family.
• for the “one act of righteousness [that] leads to justification and life … . “

What are you thankful for?