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Whatever’s Going Down
Category: Safe IN A HARD PLACE
Five Smooth Stones
Oh, couldn’t we do with a few slain giants today? Those huge obstacles that get into our thoughts, minds and hearts and try to take us down in defeat and leave us feeling like whipped puppies?
Oh, yes, those fears, anxieties and failures that just have a way of wrapping themselves around our little finger to blackmail us into their captivity, always present themselves, just when we think we’re making a little progress along the way. They creep out of the cracks like poisonous spiders, small but mighty, ready for attack, and we feel helpless to escape.
So, friends, that’s why we grab our five smooth stones of scripture to tuck into our pockets before we head out for the day.
David knew, didn’t he? He collected his stones and his words just before he went out to meet the big guy, the Philistine no one dared to speak of, let alone meet. In 1 Samuel 17:45-49, we find him reinforcing God’s faithfulness in action, when he states,
“You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s armies..whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.”
So, maybe the battle rages on within and without and you’re left without much to go on, but five smooth stones of scripture. That’s enough! Grab them! Tuck them into your heart! It’s all you need to face those big guys who are out to get you and trip you up.
Our Forever Friend
Yeah, so life can get in the way sometimes can’t it? Messy Stuff comes out of nowhere and lands right in our lap and leaves us feeling not so capable of managing the moments staring us in the face.
When stuff happens we so much want to run and go and be and do and control and make it work and fix it, even though we haven’t got the slightest idea as to how. In ignorant exuberance, we so often then, make more of a messy situation, than we dared think of.
Oh, aren’t we so delighted to know that our God, the Master Creator of this brilliantly put-together universe and our giver of life itself, is the One who runs after us when our world runs out and our stuff gets messy? Yeah, When things go sour, He runs with outstretched arms of grace and hands of healing and mercy to our aid, if we only stand still and let Him catch up!
Even then, after we’ve made a complete mess of it, He steps in and says,
“I can fix it for you! Let me!”
And He does! I love how He does it, don’t you?
Isaiah 12:2
“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.”
Lamentations 3:25
“The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;’
Called To Faith
Believers are called to believe in the living, active and victorious Lord. The One who lived, walked, taught, died, and rose to new life, conquering death to make a way for us to escape its grip and its ‘so forever’ penalty! It’s a simple ‘faith’ thing, so simple yet so complex, that we may tangle up its simplicity with our theology and head knowledge completely missing the soul mark and the fundamentals of it. It’s not a Social Gospel, It’s not about what we do and how much we do! It’s about our solid faith in our Saviour and what He’s done for us, not what we do for Him. Our works won’t cut it! But our faith in Jesus’ will.
The thing is, It’s not all that difficult, but it’s not just ‘simple’ either and we don’t have to understand it, we just have to accept it!
We’re called to enter into a faith that’s abstract and yet so very concrete and solid! Abstract, because we can’t see the one true God we worship, but solid because we see His creation, and we know that we know that we know, He’s present in our lives! Believers, without doubt, know that He has saved, renewed and transformed old life into new! We stand amazed in His presence when we stand before Him justified, cleansed, and forgiven in our moment of belief! That ~ beautiful one is a solid faith in a sovereign God! Old desires have passed and the new desire within our very being is to live to please Him. Oh yeah ~ That’s true saving faith; where divine grace meets us in the old mud puddles of yesterday and the same old, same old, that once got our attention and drew us into the sinking mire, dissipates before us, as we grow and mature in the faith! It’s called freedom and It’s a sweet life ~ no, it’s not easy; it’s not a bed of roses, and the way is difficult and long and heavy and broken at times ~ but it’s sweet and it’s abundant!
It’s not simple; it’s very complex to a hardened heart. Undeserved? Yeah, it’s undeserved, but we’re under grace and losers are winners in God’s economy. When He graces us with unconditional love, it’s a defining moment in our history, when the old is gone and the new has come.
We are so lavishly graced with such an awesome opportunity to repent and be freed of our bondage. Why do we linger on the fringes when now is the time of salvation?
“Behold now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation”
2 Corinthians 6:2.
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 