A Hiding Place for Work and Travel

The following is an excerpt from a new book in progress:

As a child of the Father God – a child bought by the sacrificial blood of Christ, the Lamb – you are blessed with protection. God keeps you safe as you travel. Consider Psalm 121:

1.I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2.My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3.He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4.Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5.The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6.The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7.The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul.
8.The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. (Psalm 121:1-8)

David describes in this Psalm what he would have seen when he was traveling from one place to another. Perhaps David was looking at Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah. Obviously he did not mean that his strength came from the hills, for the pagans worshiped idols. Instead he is setting up a contrast. Place a question mark at the end of the first line. (Many translations interpret this part as a question.) The answer is the second verse, which shows us that he was looking higher than the hills to the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Jeremiah 3:23 clarifies the concept:

Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from multitude of mountains; truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

God spoke the world into being. He who made heaven and earth, night and day, hills and valleys is powerful enough to watch over you always. And He loves you enough to make sure that you don't fall or stumble as you travel along the roads of your life. Whatever you are going through He understands and knows about. He will use His power to comfort you and relieve you. He will protect you.

I do not understand all the ways our God works, for His ways are higher than my ways, but I do know that when you face the most problems in your life – the most sickness, the most financial difficulties, the most misunderstandings among our loved ones, the most danger – the list could go on . . . when you face hardships, your Shepherd is near to lead you to a safe place. He sends His angels to keep you from stumbling or falling.

Trust Him. He is your protector and keeper. Realize that He will watch over you without a need to sleep or turn His head away from you. Realize that He loves you that way. I used to work as a nurse on the night shift. More than once a patient who needed help would ring his bell to call me and make a slightly disoriented apology: “I'm sorry to wake you up.” Some patients did not realize that we were wide awake and busy at the work of watching over them. They forgot that they were wearing monitoring equipment so the staff could watch every beat of their hearts. They did not see us sneaking into their rooms while they slept to make sure they were all right.

Not only does God protect you: He also provides for you a shade. When I think of shade, I visualize the shade of a big live oak tree or a beach umbrella. God's protection is much more than those. His shade is a place of refreshing. The eternal Being who is the infinite Source of all that is good, and the everlasting Substance of life, reaches down to comfort you.

Keep close to Him the way your shadow keeps close to your body. There He will shelter you from the scorching trials of this world. His shadow will be for you like a huge rock in a land that is weary, dry, and thirsty. There He will provide streams of fresh cool water to quench Your thirst. You can sit there in the shade of your God's comfort and delight in the pleasure. (See Isaiah 32:2.) You can be sure that He will provide protection from the roaring lions that are lurking about.

He will protect your right hand; or if you are left handed, he will protect your left hand. What is meant here is that God will protect your working hand. Since He is protecting your working hand, the logical conclusion is that He has work for you to do. Also He will help keep you from temptation. Your feet will not slip off into a way they should not no matter who is trying to take you away from your comfortable place near your God. Although there is evil all around, there is no need to be frightened. Your God will take care of you.

When God spoke the world, everything on earth was in harmony and beauty. After sin came onto the scene, evil, hurt, and ugliness appeared. God will protect you from the evil of sin if you stay in His shade – His umbrella of safety. He will protect you when you go out into the world and when you go home to your house. He will guard your soul. Realize that your soul belongs to Him. He will lead you in love as a child, through your adulthood, and your old age. He will take care of you as you live and as you die. He will preserve you fro all time in heaven. The Holy Spirit will remain with you forever.

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Form some new habits. Now that you have read about God's help for you, make a conscious effort to rely on the divine protection freely given you.

Meditate today on your relationship with your God as your protector.
Pray that God will protect you; in other words, accept graciously what God is giving you.
Let Him know that you trust Him to keep you safe.
Promise Him that you will stay in His safe shade.
Ask God to lead you away from temptation.
When you travel, ask God to keep you safe.
When you go out of your house, ask God to go with you and to send His angels to keep you from stumbling. Although you can assume that He will lead and guide you, talk to Him about it. You, as His child, will need to be reminded.
When you come home, ask God to bless your house and all that live within.
Thank Him.
Love Him.
Trust Him.
Remember that God is protecting your working hand. Ask Him how what work He has for you.

What a blessedness you have as a child of God!

What to Do if You Pray and Your Prayers Aren't Answered

When something doesn't work, it's time to analyze the process. Let's approach the problem the way journalists gather news. They ask the five “W” questions. This method has worked for centuries. Here are the questions:
1.Who?
2.What?
3.When?
4.Where?
5.Why?

Now let's look at the answers . . .

Who? The answer seems obvious. Who? Me. I'm praying. No, the question is not about who is praying but to Whom you are praying. It is not about you. Real prayer is about the Maker of the universe, the Ruler of the world, your loving Father. Until you realize that God created you for His pleasure and that He loves to hear from you, His precious child, you are not praying. Instead you are thinking to yourself – worrying about your problem.

What? What are you asking? You can ask anything you wish. God will answer what you ask as long as you ask according to His will, through His Son, and in His Spirit. God will answer your prayer according to His will, your need, and your desire.

When? God will hear one little whispered prayer. The Bible speaks out against vain repetition, but it encourages repetition. Your Father pays attention to the fervent prayer of a righteous person. (The only righteousness that any human being has is the purity of Jesus on our behalf.)

Where? As a child of God, you can pray anywhere, but don't make a show. Jesus warned against praying in the street corner to get attention. The reward becomes the attention that men give, not the answer that God gives. No matter where you find a physical location to pray, the relevant answer to this question is the spiritual location: near to the heart of God. Now that Christ has come and paid the ultimate sacrifice, we can walk into the Holy of Holies under the cover of Christ's blood.

Why? Why does God not give you what you ask? If the answer is ”no” or “not now” you may think there was not an answer. Your Father who loves you will give you the good things you need. Sometimes the greatest gift is what you may have been calling unanswered prayer.

Questions

Since I was ten years old, I have always been a writer. Most of the projects I completed I tore into shreds. When I wrote something that I kept, it was always directed to a specific person. A few years ago, I started writing without concern about who reads it. The result is publishing.

At this website for BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS CHRISTIAN WRITERS CONFERENCE http://www.brmcwc.com/ there is an excellent,very brief blog by Alton Gansky. He calls it "Two Questions." One of them is, "Suppose God told you that your current project would change only one life. Would you write it anyway?" Many authors have responded to this question with thought-provoking answers.

Last week, I started a new project, and I needed to think about that question. Having recently completed DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU? which was a huge book -- 400 pages with a devotional for each day of the year -- I find myself needing to think about who will read the new book I've just started.

When a friend told me that DO YOU KNOW HOW GOD LOVES YOU? had touched her life, I realized that all the work in that book was not wasted. If DO YOU KNOW . . . did not ever touch another life besides the ones it has already touched, I would still know that God has used my book for His purposes.

As one person said, writing a book always changes one life -- mine.

How Do You Know God Loves You?

In God's word, the Bible, which is full of love letters to you, He explains how you can know:

-He made you in His image. (Genesis 126-27)
-He made the world beautiful and placed you in it. (Genesis 128-31, Psalm 23:1-6. Look around you!)
-He created you for His pleasure. (Revelation 4:11)
-He watches over you at all times (Psalm 139:1-24)
-He surrounds you with His protecting angels. (Matthew 4:6)
-God the Holy Spirit lives within your heart when you become the child of the Father. (John 14-16)
-God the Father chooses you to be a member of His family and adopts you. (Romans 8:15, Ephesians 1:5)
-He wrote your name in His book before the foundation of the world. (Revelation 17:8)
-He values all you feel so much that He saves your tears in a bottle. (Psalm 56:8)
-He saves your prayers in a bowl and savors them as incense. (Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5)
-He will share His glory with you when you enter into His presence. (Isaiah 6, Revelation 21:23)
-God the Father loved you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to shed His blood for your sins. (John 3:16)
-He is preparing an eternal home for you. (John 14:1-4)
Jesus, God the Son, came to the earth to die for our sins and waits in heaven for you. (Revelation 1:6)
-Jesus, serving as our High Priest, intercedes for you. (Hebrews 10:12-21)
-The Holy Spirit intercedes for you (Romans 8:26).

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