I had it all wrong!
When I looked at the word "Lord," I failed to see the truth. I saw the name and saw chains that stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. It is too easy to see the name and think He calls us to go here and there until we fall down in weariness. For so many years I got it all wrong. I admit it wasn't easy to call Him Lord.
I told Him about my fears and how hard it was to call Him Lord. I was frustrated about these fears until one day I looked up the name in dictionary. "Lord" was an old English description for "Keeper." This revelation changed my perspective and opened my eyes to who God is.
Keeper. Keeper Lord. He keeps me. I am cupped in His hand and yielded to His will. The Keeper keeps.
No wonder He says, "Not everyone who calls me 'Lord Lord' will enter the kingdom of God, but he who does My will." We cannot call Him Lord Keeper if we don't trust Him to keep. If He tells us to turn to left then we must turn to the left because He has prepared the way.
Why do we get angry at The Keeper when we take the wrong path and it proves hazardous? Why do we think there is harm in obeying Him? If the Keeper keeps, then when we obey we are covered in the palm of His hand no matter what happens. Even if we don't understand what is happening or why we have to do what we do, He still keeps us. To really call Him Lord, and mean it, then we must trust Him—we must trust The Keeper.
Joseph knew the Lord as Keeper in the cistern, on the trail leading to Egypt, in Potaphar's house and even in prison. In the end, Joseph was used to save his family and ultimately the entire nation of Israel. Because he knew The Keeper, Joseph could say with confidence to his brothers, "What you meant for evil God meant for good."
Joseph went to his death bed trusting The Keeper to free even him from the foreign land of Egypt. 400 years later, we read how the Jewish Nation carried the bones of Joseph out of Egypt and took them to the Promised Land. The Lord Keeper keeps.
I had it all wrong. Today, with new eyes I see things differently. Today, without hesitation and in confidence, I call Him "Lord, Lord - Keeper, Keeper" How about you?
"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10)
