I was born without a right hand. It has not bothered me much; I have been able to adapt and compensate well. Still, it is not easy to live without this limb. 

Recently, I found a Bible verse card on my bookshelf—one that I had received during a church week of prayer ten years ago. The verse was Psalm 73:23: “Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand.”

It felt a little ironic, at the time.

Sometime later, I attended a gathering of the global MB family, ICOMB, in Malawi. It was a tremendous event, and a great blessing. On the way back to Germany, my colleague and I had a stopover at the airport in Addis Ababa. While we were there, we met with another couple who had also attended the ICOMB gathering, as representatives of our North American mission agency, Multiply. 

The conversation turned, of course, to our Lord. All four of us felt moved to encourage one another in our faith, and to pray for one another. Then the sister looked up.

“I feel, “ she told me, “that we are supposed to pray for you—to pray Psalm 73 over you.” Then she began to speak over me, paraphrasing words from the psalm.

 “He is always with you,” she told me. “God holds you by your right hand. He guides you with his counsel, and afterward He will take you into glory. Whom have you in heaven but Him? And earth has nothing worth desiring, besides Him. Your flesh and your heart may fail, but God is the strength of your heart, and your portion forever.”

At first, while she spoke these words, she held my left hand. Then, realizing that this verse was about the right hand, she reached out her two hands and gently grasped my right forearm—where no hand exists. I was deeply moved.

Our flights were called, and we parted ways, but I continued to ponder these words for many months. 

Then, the words came to me again. I was attending a prayer seminar where participants were being encouraged to listen for God’s response. As we did this, someone had a strong impression for me.

They told me, “God says, ‘I gave you a firm word! Remember what I have already promised you!’”

It was not clear to me, then, what the Lord meant.

A few weeks later, during my Bible reading, I returned to Psalm 73. As I came to verse 23, I remembered the incident at the Addis Ababa airport. God was speaking this verse to me, again! Why?

“Lord, You say that You are holding my right hand,” I said, “but I have no way to grasp Your hand!” 

Suddenly, something became clear: Hand or no hand, it was not for me to hold onto Him, but for Him to hold onto me. I needed to trust Him to hold onto me, and that was exactly what He was promising. It was a completely one-sided promise.

I spent months trying to process this revelation in my heart. Then, one morning, a brother from Uganda messaged me with a verse—Isaiah 41:13. It said, “For I, the Lord your God, will take hold of your right hand and say to you, ‘Do not be afraid, I will help you.’”

At that moment I felt such a strong surge of desire to know God—more closely and intensively than ever before. 

It is not always easy; please pray for me.