Is that true?

He will not allow you foot to slip –Ps 121:3

The Lord will protect you from all evil – Ps. 121:7

If you have lived the Christian life very long and then you read passages like those above, you wonder. You wonder if they are true in the literal sense or if they are speaking of the Spiritual realm? You wonder if you are an authentic follower of God because it seems that “evil” and “slipping” are an everyday occurrence.

Even when we have a “child like” faith, it is hard to reconcile troubles with an all powerful, all loving God. I believe God is aware of this issue. I also believe that we can come to resolve that results in great faith, not unanswered questions.

I as pondered these two statements in Ps. 121 for the first time I head in my spirit ….

There is a difference between slipping and tripping. I felt like God was instructing me that when we truly are following Him, He is able and willing to keep us from slipping, but He allows tripping. And….

Being kept from evil does not mean being taken out of circulation. If we have a dollar bill and keep it, we would hide it away; we would take it out of circulation and keep it safe. But when we do this, that piece of paper is worthless. As long as the dollar bill is not in circulation it is worth only what a piece of paper that size is worth. The value of a dollar bill is dependent upon its use. If the dollar is never used, but only “kept” than it was of no use, it is useless. God keeps us while we are in circulation, but being in circulation requires a lot of handling by the world. As Romans 8:44-36 informs us, we are circulated to overcome, not to be ripped apart. The motive of God is victory over the world and He both keeps us and places us at risk in this endeavor.

From the normal human perspective the safety and security of life far outweigh the safety and security of eternity. But the reality of God and the reality that He is placing in the hearts of His followers is, “now and forever are merged”. Momentary light afflictions are but a small thing, possible not even a slip, when experienced through life eternal.

Today you are going to live your life. Stuff is going to happen. You should not try to escape by living in the past or imagining that you are not going through what you are going through. We must live in and through what is happening to us, not denying it and not trying to avoid it. We can only truly overcome by going through these things with the help of God and in His will. God has set many things ahead of you for you to be mindful of. The greatest of which is unending fellowship with Himself. But as you mind is set on Him you still need to live in the moments He has given to you on earth. You need to stay in circulations so that the value that He has placed in you can be used in the world and overcome the work of the evil one.

And, if by chance you find yourself flat on your face you may be need to avoid self condemnations, as in “why did I slip”. You may need to seek the Lord about how to avoid being tripped up.

Abandonment

When you ponder you life in Christ, do you see it through the lens of fulfilling your purpose? Do you look at your life in God and consider what God is telling you to do based on what you feel your calling is? If you do, isn’t that wrong?

What if you felt like you were to be a great leader of people, would you live content in a prison or in a servants position? What if you felt like you were to father numerous sons, would you be content in God with just one, maybe two? What if you were the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, would you allow people to crucify you if you could easily stop them?

When we abandon ourselves to God, it is not with the one reservation that we fulfill our calling. Our personal purpose in life is not a trump card to guarantee some deep sense of self. Even self on this level must be give to the Lord. Abandonment as I use it here is “lack of inhibition or self-restraint”. I am asking if you and I have no self-restraint toward the Lord, that we have give all.

If you whole relationship with God is based on your purpose and calling, than this is very difficult for you. But you ought to ask if you are the Lord’s or if you are using the Lord for your personal goals? We also need to be aware of when our relationship with God is based on us because we then tend to view others based on our objectives. We fail to see all that God is doing because we do not want to see all of it. We want to focus on “us”, our part, our purpose. Now while we can find a thousand reasons to do so, they all well prove to be weak if we first look as the instruction of scripture and the reality that God is not a respecter of persons. Everyone matters or else You do not matter.

It is not a matter of being able to trust God for your life or even for the lives of those around you It is a matter of totally trusting God no matter what you see or perceive. People passionate about Jesus beat up on other followers of Jesus all the time because “what they see” is not of fellowship with God. But the reality is they are trapped in the small world of their own vision, unable to abandon themselves to the King, they Judge and the Rule of all humanity. But this is not about them, it is about me, you.

Why do we need to see the world and God through our eyes?
Is there only a limited about of wisdom and revelation (vision) in God?
Is the renewal of our mind so that we can be a better self or is it for Christ like transformation?
Is there more joy and peace living abandoned to God than in living for God as a person enslaved by my own calling and purpose.

I know some will argue that you cannot escape functioning out of your own calling and purpose, that we are made that way, but I believe all those arguments are based on natural logic. Jesus, our example was ever mindful and obedient to the Father. His view was of doing the will of the Father and in that vision He lived and accomplished His purpose. We too have this ability because of the one who indwells in us. We can be God focused and not miss any of our purpose, even when we may be unaware of our fulfillment of it. Greater is He who is in us that he who is in my own mind.

Who are you?

Have you ever taken the time and stop and deeply and thoughtfully investigated who you are? By this I mean going much deeper than that “this is what I do” and “this is how I act so others like me” inquiry.

Each one of us is a living being with a past (both good and bad). Each one of us longs for identity and purpose. Even those who are of such a personality that they “do not worry about it” let all of us around them know how much they “worry about it” when we interfere with “it”.

If you took half an hour and with God waited, listened and listed all that is in your life. If you were aware of your fears, your desires, your lusts, your joys and all the stuff that makes you – you; what would you have on that list? Most of us might never make the list because in the reality of that type of honesty, we might not life who we are. But pretending we are not that person makes it all right – right?

I like God. He often shows me who I am and in doing so invites me deeper into the possibility of being changed. When I stand in life with all my stuff, all my issues, I get depressed. When I agree with God about the real condition of my life, I feel hope. Hope that I can be made into more than I am.

If you list “who you are” would you get depressed? Why not take some time and give it a try. And as you end that time of making your list, turn with your heart and soul to Father God. Like Adam and Eve who tried to hide from God when they knew their condition, let us stop trying to hide and seek the one who can make us whole.