8You have taken account of my wanderings;Put my tears in Your bottle.Are they not in Your book?9Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;This I know, that God is for me.10In God, whose word I praise,In the Lord, whose word I praise,11In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.What can man do to me?12Your vows are binding upon me, O God;I will render thank offerings to You.13For You have delivered my soul from death,Indeed my feet from stumbling,So that I may walk before GodIn the light of the living.Psalms 56:8-13
As I read this passage I am reminded of the place in scripture where an angel of the Lord visited the Israelite army before a battle and they asked "Are you for us or for our enemies?" The angel replied "Neither, but in the Lord's name I have come." (I will look it up and add the reference in the comment section when I am done here.)
If I were honest I think I would always want God to be on my side, backing me up. If God is for me, who could stand against me? Right?
But while the essence of the truth is that God loves me so much that he died to make a way possible for me to be with him for ever, that doesn't mean that he is behind all the situations I find myself in. Just because I believe passionately in a thing doesn't mean that I will have his support in pursuing said thing. He can be on my side for the sake of my soul without my using him to justify the things I want. He's not my big-brother body guard he is the parent who can love me completely, even when I mess up badly.
He says nothing can separate us from his love, and no matter where I go on this earth I can't run farther than he can reach. He is for ME. And that is different from being FOR me.
It's about humility and power. About acknowledging how deeply we mess up and go wayward. It's about firmly holding to the truth that no matter what the dire circumstances, HE is for ME. He won't give me up, He won't get tired of my whining, He wont leave me in the middle of the messes I make.
It's a subtle power shift when you re read this passage and see how much better it is that it's Him that is in the right and he is on your side, than the other way around.
2 comments:
Do you remember the Degarmo and Key song "If God is for us who can be against us"? I know it's a scripture verse :) but that was one of my favorite songs back in the day.
I do!!! Wow, D&K were the bombdiggity back in the day. Did you ever go to any of their concerts?
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