Meeting with people each and every day who are struggling with so many different issues, it reminded me of a song that we use to sing in the little country Baptist church I grew up in here in Southern Michigan. 

I stood in church each Sunday morning and evening, usually ready to run and jump on the rope that led to the stepple where the old church bell would ring to announce that church was beginning.  Yes, I always got in trouble by the pastor for doing so.  Of course, it was never while he was preaching.  Well, maybe once.  Only once.

When the older folks began to sing the old hymns, I would settle down and sit there just listening.  Thank God for godly parents who always took us to church.  Sitting in those pews, I would listen to my Mom and her sister Gracie as they harmonized and sang so beautifully.  I was always moved in my heart.

The old hymn "I Need Thee Every Hour" written way back in 1872 by one Annie S. Hawks, stuck in my memory and it would replay over and over again, even when I was out living an ungodly life in the world.  It is a song I still cherish today and have found myself living out those words when walking through the deepest and darkest valleys when the shadow fell my way.

Lord, I do need thee every hour.  Let me never forget it.

Right now, it is in the first hour of my work day and you know what, I need God right now.  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, do you need God this hour?  In your darkest hour, do you need God?  In your happiest hour, do you need God?  With a bank account full of riches or on your last dime, do you need God?  Do you need Him every hour?  I do.

You see, I have had the oxygen sucked from my lungs when my son died suddenly.  I needed God that hour ... every second of that hour of need.  I have watched my parent slowly pass and I needed God every hour.  I have sat with those who are losing the love of their life and I needed God every hour.  And, so do you, who are in the middle of life's circumstances right now, need God this very hour?

I need Thee every hour _in joy or pain _ Come quickly and abide _ or life is in vain.