S.M. Wibberley’s Blog

‘Because he loves me,’ says the LORD, ‘I will rescue him….’ “  Psalm 91:14

 

You, Lord Jesus, are faithful, you are the epitome of follow-through. You speak a promise and it will come to pass. You bind yourself with a Word and always do it.

For instance, in Psalm 91:1 you powerfully declare, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” There is no doubt, no possibility of failure in this rest, if we remain in the protection you have provided.

I praise you, Lord God for your righteousness displayed here:

you cannot lie,

you always follow through,

you promise and act,

you continually keep your word.

I praise you that your character never changes:

your Word never fails,

your faithfulness never ends,

your presence never ceases,

and your love endures forever.

Psalm 34:4,5 show your faithfulness to bring your promise of help to pass, even in storms like in this picture:

“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”

He deals with our fears before our problems. He is wise, good and trustable!

Dealing  with difficulties

In Jeremiah 1:19 God calls to us, “‘They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD.” All He wants is our admission of our own inadequacy, weakness and need. With that, we can step back to prayer and let the Almighty One do the work in and around us, obeying Him in the part He has for us, rather than carrying the burden of the whole matter.

However, we tend to fight, push, work and strive against forces we neither understand nor can possibly defeat. All the while our Lord patiently calls to us, “Come, take refuge in me, let me fight this battle for you.” Our reply should be, “…the LORD has become my fortress, (like in this picture) and my God, the rock in whom I take refuge” (Psa. 94:2).

Our part is to pray, praise and trust while we attend to the daily duties that really do belong to us. At the right time and in God’s way these desired things will come to pass–as He deems best. In the meantime, our Lord is more interested in the development of what we are than in what we get done. As my wife is fond of saying, “Waiting on the Lord is the greatest economy of time.”

Prayer: “Lord, help me to bring my problems, frustrations, failures and dreams to you, to leave them with you and to be faithful in obeying you in the mundane duties I know are your will for me to do. May you fight for me, may you bring to pass all that you desire. I praise you now for what you will work out. May you be glorified in it all. Amen.”

As the Word said, ’They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,’ declares the LORD.”  Jeremiah 15:20

“Yes, we’d like you to work for us; you can probably start next week!” Elapsed time to present: 75 days and work has not started.

“Your telephone will be connected next week.” Elapsed time to present: 92 days, still no phone.

Waiting is a major aspect of life here in the Middle East. It isn’t that the people making these promises are lying; they believe what they say and may even work hard to get us what they promised, but it’s just difficult to get things done

God, however, has much use for these delays. In this constant waiting and suspense that fills our lives, the Word has given us great comfort. Psalm 46:7 says, “The Lord of Hosts is with us….” (NKJV)

Who is this, “Lord of Hosts?” He is the commander of the Angelic Armies of Heaven, the only undefeated force in the Universe! His power is unlimited, His knowledge is immeasurable and His wisdom is unassailable. He wants to fight our battles for us and defeat the enemies who are far more powerful than we are. He will use His power to protect us if we trust in Him.

As it says in 1 Peter 1:5, we, “through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” If we trust, we are protected; are we trusting?

More on the peace Jesus gives us.

Now because of Jesus death and resurrection, we can have peace on three levels.

First with you, Heavenly Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, by confessing our sins, receiving forgiveness and surrendering to you as our Lord.

Then we can have peace within when we forgive ourselves as you have forgiven us.

And third, we can have peace with others by forgiving them as you have forgiven us, and by asking for forgiveness when we commit an offence against them.

The outcome is the release of grace from above, bringing peace within and the flow of peace without, to those around us.

This peace is can then be carried on into our day as we trust in you, lifting up the shield of faith by praise. This is the demonstration of our trust in your; we can be totally transparent before you for, “You are good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy to all those who call upon you” (Ps. 86:5, KJV).

As we trust in you, your peace continues to fill us, and opens the way for joy and hope: “May the God of hope fill You with all joy and peace as You trust in Him so that Your lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13 – emphasis mine). Without our trusting, none of this will come to pass.

You are wise, O God, you are worthy of praise, you are wonderful in insight, you are an amazement to all who know you.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him….”  Romans 15:13a

Praise be to you, Lord Jesus,

King of Peace,

God of Grace,

Giver of Good.

You, in your wisdom have brought to us the possibility of peace, but have left to us the practice of partaking, implementing and enjoying it.

You invite us to dine with you at the table of peace; if we refuse to sit down and join you by trusting you, we, by our own choice, will live in peaceless turmoil, worry and fear.

I praise you, Lord Jesus, for what you have done in your great Love, Wisdom and Faithfulness, making peace possible.

In your passion you have provided for all people a passage from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. You have made peace available to all by sacrificing yourself.

Without you, Lord Jesus,

there can be no peace.

Without trusting you there can be no rest.

You are a wonder, loving your enemies so much that you provided them peace at great personal cost.

And in your wisdom you made us responsible for taking up and enjoying that peace through trust and obedience.  Help us to do that throughout the day.

My favorite flowers are pink bubble gum petunias. They are beautiful, prolific and hardy, blooming from early Spring up until the first frost, as you can see in this picture on the right.

But this year was different. About the middle of August, the blossoms began to diminish and then disappeared altogether as you can see in the  middle  picture! Lots of green, no color.

So, I went to the place where I’d gotten the plants and asked about this. “Well,” the clerk said, “We’ve had so  much rain this year that all the fertilizer has been washed away.  Just give them this fertilizer and the blossoms will come back shortly.” So I did that and in the picture on the left you can see what happened. The reappearance of the blossoms was almost like magic!

This made me think about “spiritual fertilizer,” the importance of having a regular quiet time. I have found that many Christians (including full time workers) do not have a regular quiet time, or it is very brief. They are lacking their “spiritual fertilizer” and the result is a lack of “spiritual flowers.”

Proverbs 8:34 came to mind, where Wisdom says, “Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.” Note the word “daily.” And where can we get wisdom but from the Word? Then in  the next verse is this encouragement: “For those who find me find life and receive favor from the LORD.”

So let’s listen at the door of wisdom everyday, get our spiritual fertilizer and blossom for the Lord!

   

Written many years ago:

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone.”  Psalm 62:4

Anxiety, tension and pressure. These are reality in a fallen world, as seen in this picture, and this week they were very real for me as wave after wave of difficulty rolled over us: broken schedules, dashed hopes, tension-filled relationships, hampering sickness, unreasonable demands of others (at least from my perspective), mistakes, disaster looming in a couple of areas, conflicts of value, and potentially dangerous exposure to the authorities. It was enough to make a strong man cringe, and that I am not very strong.

But our Father is faithful. In each case, He led me to Scripture which gave perspective: John 8:32, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free….” And Isaiah 30:15-16, “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, “No, we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee!’”

It is very easy, when under pressure, to flee on the horses of our own wisdom, of man’s help, of our own feeble efforts. But real help and strength come from spending time with our Father, telling Him of our needs and repeating Truth to ourselves.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” (Ps 91:1). The Hebrew word for “Almighty” means the one who satisfies and the one who fights for us. We can rest in the midst of anxiety, tension, uncertainty and pressure if our trust is in the Almighty One who has unlimited power, unlimited knowledge as well as unlimited wisdom–and has promised to fight for us.

Our part is to pour out our hearts to Him and to look to His Word, meditating on passages that tell us what ultimate reality is. This allows Him to strengthen us while He works on the problems before us.

It’s been a profitable week from the standpoint of spiritual growth! We are happy to be here in the Lord’s “precious cooker” and to serve Him.

 

Prayer: “Lord, as difficulties come today, help me to flee to you in prayer and thanksgiving, to think your truth and to be set free from the worry and stress of this world. Amen.”

More thoughts on  the earthquake in Haiti

Yes, you are there, Lord, with those suffering people. You are working powerfully for good, to open eyes, to show that the only stability in this world is in you, to bring people to yourself. You use such tragedy to get peoples’ attention and bring them to repentence and yourself.

As it says in Rev. 9:20,21, “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts”. God allows tragedy in order to wake people up to their need of a Savior. Unfortunately many still refuse the forgiveness and love He offers.

You also are working to chasten believers to develop their spiritual maturity, and to give your children opportunity to carry your grace to those in need. You are also exposing the sin of men–shoddy building practices, corruption and lack of maintenance have made the disaster much worse.

Praise you for your greatness, O God, that in the overview of all, you know what you are doing, as well as in the details. You are the only One worth trusting, worth following, worth obeying. You are the One who brings meaning in chaos, purpose in suffering, wisdom in disaster.

Epilogue: Several months later I read a report by a number of Christian agencies working together in Haiti, telling of tens of thousands that have come to Christ in the aftermath of the earthquake, and of many believers who have rededicated their lives to living for Him. God is faithful and good! He uses all that He allows to come to us for our good and His glory.

“The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.” Psalm 145:17

In 2010  I read an article on the powerful, devastating earthquake that occurred in Haiti: much suffering and heartbreak, much death and destruction, much stench from the thousands of dead bodies piled up in a warm climate. What a horrendous happening.

Yet you, Lord are there and at work. This is true, and I must thank you for it, even though my heart is pained to see all the devastation and suffering. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be in such a place, to have to deal with such chaos, suffering, trauma and heart wrenching scenes: many dead bodies, the wounded with no help, people thirsty and hungry with no supplies, all the buildings just piles of rubble, the streets clogged with debris.

Yet, I know from your Word that you give grace to your children who are in the midst of that disaster so that they are not just able to cope, but to rise up and help others. I can rest in you.

And You, Lord God, are not just there, you also suffer with them, you hurt with them. And you are active, using the pain to work out greater things for the good of all: the salvation of many, the repentance of many, the long term, eternal good of many, and for your glory. You know their hearts, their needs, their desires and how much suffering it takes to open them to truth. You are working in all of this to bring as many as are willing into the Kingdom.

Prayer: “Lord, lift my eyes to be able to see and understand the greater picture of what you are doing in the happenings of the world, as you move history to a conclusion and use disasters and difficulties to sweep as many people as are willing into the Kingdom of Light and Eternity. Deepen my trust for you; help me to praise you in and for all things. Amen.”

“I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.”

Psalm 91:2,3

 

Praise be to you for your great promises, Lord Jesus, such as the one above in Psalm 91. These promises are fastened at one end to your plans laid out before the foundation of the earth, then stretched over time as a canopy of protection, and fastened at the other end in the conclusion of history when all evil and sin will be swept away and confined to Hell and the lake of fire.

Your faithfulness is our shield and rampart, throwing back the attacks of the enemy. We live every day under your powerful, pure and persistent protection. And you give us a part in this, equipping us with the ever-present and portable protection of our spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:10-18). I praise you especially for the shield of faith, which we can choose to raise with praise to quench all the fiery arrows of lies and accusations the enemy shoots at us.

At the same time, we live with the ever-present possibility of “escaping” to our own devices, wandering off into the fields of self and sin, exposing ourselves to the sinister attacks of Satan.

You have certainly given us great freedom of choice: great power to dwell in your shelter, or not. And in giving us this choice-potential, you have exposed yourself to grief and pain as we often choose to disobey, to not forgive, to not get up the shield of faith. Thank you for your willingness to continue to suffer grief as you work in our lives to conform us to Christ.

Praise you for your persistence in moving us towards maturity, bringing diverse difficulties our way so that we can practice procuring your grace, persisting in prayer, acting in wisdom, obeying in joy, and thereby be protected from the “snares of the fowler.”

Yours is such love, such kindness, such empowering, such willingness to suffer for the good of your children! There is no other like you! You are the Lord my God, you are the Creator and Savior, King and Shield, Protector and Redeemer, to you be glory and honor and praise forever.

Prayer: “I bow before you, my King, and give myself to you anew with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. May I honor you today in all I say and do. Lead me in what is righteous, good, lovely and graceful. Amen.”