Category: Protection

Psalm 91:14,15                                                          God Is Faithful

“The Lord says, ‘I will rescue those who love me.  I will protect those who trust in my name.  When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them’”  (NLT).

 

This photograph is from a state park in Nebraska.  The ranger told us that this pair of geeses had lost several chicks to a fox, so they had become extra attentive to and protective of their remaining gosling.  If these geese are so protective of their chick, how much more must our Lord and Savior be protective of us.  All we need to do is call on Him.

Psalm 91 is a Psalm of the promise of protection by God for those who love Him.  David begins the Psalm by speaking of the shelter and rest provided therein, and ends it by saying, “I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”  Packed between the beginning and end of Psalm 91 are acknowledgements of the deadly things the enemy will attempt to bring upon God’s people, from snares to terrors to arrows to plagues.  But also packed in those verses are God’s continuing proclamations that He will be with us, give us strength, hold us up with His hands, and provide us with armor.  Yes, satan can do terrible things, but he should know better than to get in a fight with God Almighty.  The last time He decided to take on God he was humiliated in front of his own demons, and Jesus brought us the keys to eternal life.  The last part of verse 15, “I will rescue and honor them,” is amazing to me.  Not only will God rescue me, He will honor me.  God will honor me?  Yes, that is what He said!  I’m the one who needs rescuing, but God will honor me.  WOW!  How great is our God?  How much can I trust Him?  How very much does He love us?  Those are questions that will take me an eternity to answer.

Lamentations 3:40                                             Turn Back to God

“Instead, let us test and examine our ways.  Let us return to the Lord. (NLT).

 

This picture was taken in 1971 on the beach in Olympic National Park.  The time was just after low tide.  We had walked, well, I walked and Tim was carried in my arms.  We had walked up the beach past this place and enjoyed the ocean and its views and then returned through this narrow section to go back to our car.  No big deal, right?  No big deal except that as the tide came in, this entire area was under water and was impassable for a man and his young son.  I knew that the area became flooded at high tide, so I decided to turn around and go back long before high tide.  It was good that I had that information, because Tim was much too young to know and understand the danger of remaining on the wrong side of these rocks.

We walk with our Lord, or He carries us in His arms as we explore this world, but there are times when we explore on our own.  There are places that we can go, but we must also return back from them in order to escape a difficult or even fatal fate.  We may be too young in the faith to understand the inherent danger, but since our God always knows where we are, we can feel safe because we know that He knows when it is time for us to return to Him, and He calls us back.  He doesn’t force us to return, but He calls us to Himself, and it is our decision whether we return or not.  Because of His great love for us, He continues to call even when we have said “no” to His initial call to return.  God never gives up on us.  His love is eternal, and His call to us is available every moment of our lives, right up to the moment of death.  Once death occurs, there is no way back to God.  God loves each of us for eternity, but if we have not returned by the time of our death, there is no longer a path back to Him.  So, if you have wandered far away from God, and you hear His call, turn back to Him.  He will greet you with open arms and great joy.  If you have a friend who is far from God, be part of God’s call to bring him back.  Yours may be the voice that convinces your friend to return to the joy of the Lord.