Upheld From Birth

BY YOU HAVE I BEEN UPHELD FROM BIRTH…MY PRAISE SHALL BE CONTINUALLY OF YOU. Psalm 71.6.

As I crossed over into another year in my life I was meditating on today’s verse. I began to recapitulate the numerous, miraculous deliverances of God in my life. How true the testimony of the psalmist, “By You have I been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of You!” Every conception and birth is a miracle and mine was no exception. Thank God for His hand that formed me!

I can clearly remember how the Lord delivered my cousin and I from drowning in a local river when we were yet small boys. While at college, I was saved again from drowning in a deep well into which a friend pushed me. He thought I could swim! During one vacation a friend and I went for a walk along a railway track. We came to a bridge that spanned a mile-wide river. In our enthusiasm, we decided to cross. Before we could cover a few hundred ‘sleepers’ we heard the whistle of an oncoming train. We ran back for our lives and we were saved from being crushed by the train, if not drowning in the deep river. I remember the nasty attack of chicken pox the students suffered while in the medical college. I suffered but not as much as my friend on the next bed in the hospital! Praise God for both of us recovered without complications. All that happened while I was still in India.

In Malaysia, we have had half a dozen nasty car accidents – not because we were bad drivers! Each one was serious enough to either write off the cars or for them to have major repairs. Our very first accident was the worst. Our car skidded and spun and hit a coconut tree, turning upside down like a turtle! But none of us had any injuries or broken bones. But our son and only child at that time had a concussion. Thank God he regained consciousness and has been well ever after!

Then there was the occasion when in a London hospital I had an angiogram, just for a checkup. The cardiologist was the best available but I had a heart attack which almost killed me on his table! Thank God, he provided the best cardiac surgeon available and my life was saved by an immediate bypass surgery. To cap it all, some years ago, I was ‘incidentally’ diagnosed of colon cancer, a killer disease which never gets detected until it has spread all over and it’s too late to operate or treat! God made available the best surgeon, a Christian friend of mine too!

My family and I were some of the very few people who lived through the trauma of the collapse of a multi-story tower block which killed many people. Our tower got spared though only 20 feet away from the one that fell! Each member of the family can tell his or her own stories of God's great goodness and deliverance! With all these experiences of God’s miraculous acts and many others, more than I can count, who else could echo the words of the psalmist better than I, “By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of You.”

Dear friend, if you feel as though ‘God is not doing anything for you’, why not find some time to sit quietly and think of the many ‘forgotten’ blessings of God in your life and begin to praise God! Your faith will rise and you will ask and receive great and mighty things from God!

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, how much I praise You for all Your wondrous works in my life! I can confidently look for greater things from You for You remain the same forever! Amen.