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Scripture for the day: Isaiah 27:3 "I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day."
Thought for the day: Have you ever noticed how much safer vehicles are today than they used to be? Now we have radial tires, anti-lock brakes, collision alarms, back-up alarms, rear-view cameras and countless other safety features that were undreamed of just a few years ago. At the same time, highway fatalities are just as common as they’ve ever been. No matter how safe vehicles or houses or equipment can be constructed, someone will find a way to get hurt or killed using it. There just isn't any place to hide from misfortune, confusion and pain; it's part of life itself.
Now in today's scripture the Lord is speaking of the nation of Israel and promising His protection and nurture just as one would a vineyard planted on good land. Protection is needed lest thieves come and plunder the crop or enemies sneak in to destroy what has been carefully cultivated. God promised that same kind of watch-care for His people; and the promise remains today for each of us. But what does that really mean for us. You see, I think we too often get the wrong impression when we're talking about God's love and protection. We live in a material world so our thoughts revolve around the material aspects of life. And when God fails to protect us in that material world, we feel as if He's let us down. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
Nowhere does God's Word promise us physical protection. Oh, there are places we could point to that seem to indicate that if we are faithful to Him and follow His direction, He'll cause our way to prosper and we'll have good health and long life. But, generally speaking, those who would point to those passages as proof that God must bless us materially are taking them out of context. Otherwise they conflict sharply with such promises as: “In this world you will have trouble.” And how do we reconcile the promise of health and wealth with the scripture we looked at yesterday: "All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." No, we have no right to claim divine protection in every physical battle we face and the sooner we understand that the better off we'll all be.
As I’ve said before, I don't think we should be out looking for trouble but, at the same time, how will I ever know God's protection until trouble finds me? How will I ever prove His love for me until there come circumstances in which I find it necessary to rely on the promise of that love? We don't need to go looking for trouble but neither do we need to treat trouble as an indication that God has somehow abandoned us to our fate. The fiery furnace is there because God allows it and He allows it to demonstrate His protection, not from the fiery heat of the furnace, but in the midst of it all. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo came out of the furnace that day, what a story they had to tell. God had been with them in the very middle of the hottest fire they'd ever seen! God had wrapped Himself around them until they felt positively cool standing in the fires of Hell. What a mighty God! Do you suppose they would have had the same testimony if God hadn't allowed them to go through the furnace in the first place? Absolutely not.
Psalm 56:11 says, "In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" And Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 12:2, “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.” Paul reminded his Roman readers, "If God is for us who can be against us?" Later he encouraged the Corinthians with these words: "Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything."
What did he mean except that, as Oswald Chambers said, "It is misleading to imagine that we are developed (as mature Christians) in spite of our circumstances - we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them."
And praise God, that mastery is the protection He has promised us.
Now go take on your world. - Bill