Free From the Dread of Evil

The news is filled with disasters, tragedies, war, and suffering. It seems like everywhere we look, there are opportunitites for terror. We are really living in "perilous times." It is easy to look for and expect the worst to happen.  It is real!  We have an enemy who is lurking in the shadows of darkness, seeking to make us his prey!  Do you experience times when the sense of darkness and evil grips your heart with a heavy sense of impending doom?  There are times when I feel weighed down with dread of an encroaching darkness threatening myself, my family or my job.  As I was praying about this, I came to understand that God does not want us to fear evil but to live free from the "dread" of evil.  How do we live free from this sense of dread when we live in a society that is crumbling around us and where evil seems to win?

I found the phrase "dread of evil" used several times in the Bible.  In each case, the Word proclaims God is victorious over all darkness and evil and that He can be trusted in such times. We must make the choice to stand in faith and place our trust in the LORD.  The battle we fight is to keep our eyes on the LORD and place our faith in Him.  He promises,  "But he who listens to Me shall live securely and be free from the dread of evil." Prov. 1:33

I have been meditating on Joshua and Caleb for many years. They were men of faith that was forged out of a relationship with God.  Moses sent twelve spies into the Promised Land and when they returned, ten declared that there were giants in the land, too large and fierce for the Israelites.  They saw themselves as grasshoppers compared to the fierce violent warriors who occupied the land. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who did not bring back a bad report.  They declared that yes, there were giants in the land, but through their God they could overcome them.  It is not coincidental that those who had faith and did not fear were two men that the Word declares walked closely to their God, they knew Him!  Joshua had remained in the tent of meeting with the LORD.  It is said that Caleb "followed hard after God all the days of his life." 

David was a man who faced his share of giants!  There was a point in his life, when he was being hunted by King Saul that the Philistines took his wives, children and belongings as well as those of the band of men who were following David.  His men blamed David and threatened to kill him.  David certainly would have had a strong sense of being surrounded by evil and darkness.  His response gives us an example of how to walk in these times.  The word says that David strengthened or encouraged himself in the LORD.   In this time of prayer and fellowship with the LORD, God gave him directions by which to recover all that had been stolen.

In the well loved Psalm 23 that has brought so much comfort to so many, David also spoke of living without any fear of evil. He declared, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies..."  In fact, he ends with a declaration of certainty that goodness and lovingkindness will be with him all the days of his life. That is what we so desperately need right now! Not just the absence of the dread of evil, but the certain hope that our lives hold goodness and lovingkindness. 

 

I don't believe we are to ignore that sense of darkness when we discern that it is lurking near.  We are to actively pray, stand fast to battle it, but in quietness and confidence that our God is greater.  Psalm 46 declares we can have hearts full of peace in the midst of a disintegrating world, in the midst of war.  God is to be our hope, our refuge, a present and well-proven help in time of trouble.  God will be with us, a fortress and a high tower.  We are to be still, know and recognize that He is God and He is with us.  Jesus said that He would never leave us, or fail us, or forsake us.  When we truly know Him, we can put our faith in Him and know that we truly have nothing to fear on this earth.   

Under the shelter of His Wings

"Those who live in the shelter of the Most High

will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty...

He will shield you with his wings,

He will shelter you with His feathers.

His faithful promises are your armor and protection."

Ps. 91:1,4

I do so love the way the LORD gives us pictures that can help us to understand His ways through nature and in simple sights around us. I looked at the little ducklings and imagine how safe and protected they must feel, hidden in their father's wings. His waterproof feathers keeping them safe and dry in the storms they face. The picture is not only one that speaks of safety and protection, it speaks of great intimacy and love of the parent for their offspring. It reminds me that our God is not far away or indifferent, but desires to draw us close and keep us nestled in the safety of His presence.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem, stating that He longed to gather them as a mother chicken would gather her young under her wings, but they were not willing. I was watching a nature program one day and a father bird and his newly hatched chicks were spread out along the edge of a lake. The father saw a hawk coming and made a piercing call to his young. The babies did not see the danger but immediately responded to the father bird's call. He spread his wings and the babies hid in safety until the danger had passed by. I've always remembered that scene and pray for the sensitivity to His Spirit that I will hear His voice and respond to His call to hide under His wings.

"Keep me as the apple of your eye,

Hide me under the shadow of your wings."

Ps. 17:8

A God of Wonders

"But as for me, I would seek God,

And I would place my cause before God;

Who does great and unsearchable things,

Wonders without number.

He gives rain on the earth,

And sends water on the fields.

Job 5:8-10

In his book, "Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in all of Life," John Piper drew my attention to something I had missed in my previous readings of this verse in Job. Eliphaz, the writer of this passage, lifts up God, describing Him as one who does great and unsearchable things..."wonders without number." Do you consider it odd that his first example is something that we all not only all experience often, but also frequently complain about? ... rain? Did you ever think of rain as a great and unsearchable wonder? I try to be grateful for the rain, having lived through times of drought, and come to realize it as a gift of God, but I never thought of rain as "a wonder." John Piper shared some facts about rain that have totally changed my understanding of this "wonder" of the LORD's creation. For Job and his friends to have experienced this wonder, water would have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea several hundred miles away and then poured out on fields from the sky. How does this happen? It would not just be for the uneducated mind to wonder at this phenomena. The more one knows about the process, the more amazing it truly is! John Piper says, "...if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 2,323,200 cubic feet of water, which is 17,377,536 gallons, which is 144,735,360 pounds of water." That is just the amount of water on one square mile!! I learned about evaporation and condensation in school, but I never really think about how incredible this process truly is. How does it work? John Piper described the process, "water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide...the salt is taken out. So the sky picks up millions of pounds of water from the sea, takes out the salt, carries the water for three hundred miles, and then dumps it (now turned into water) on the farm. If it just dumped millions of pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the millions of pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so from the sky without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks." It does this through coalescence, which means that "specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger, and when they are big enough, they fall." It really is one of God's wonders, isn't it? Our God truly does all things well!!

Longing for Spring

The first snow of the season is falling tonight. Already the world is transformed from shades of brown and red, to that of white and silver. I find my heart already sighing, longing for the first signs of spring! Those of us who live in the Midwest complain and whine about the cold, snow and ice, longing for this season to be over. We herald the return of the robins and the firt signs of spring. Yet as passionately as we long for spring, how much more should we long for the return of our King. In asmuch as the earth lies under the curse of winter, so this world lies under the curse of separation for our Lord Jesus. Like Narnia, it is always winter, never spring! The early Church prayed frequently: Maranatha! LORD!! Maranatha!! This prayer proclaimed the longing of their hearts, "Lord, come quickly!" May the Church be sick with love for her LORD and not rest content until we are united with Him!! Maranatha!!

Longing for Morning

"My soul waits for the LORD, more than those who watch for the morning!" Ps. 130:6

Andrew Murray said, "When there is a shipwreck at midnight, with what longing the sailors look for the morning! How often the sigh goes up, "When will the day break?" Similarly, the Christian must wait on God and rest patiently until His light shines upon him."

Andrew Murray calls his readers to begin each day with prayers, especially asking the LORD to make His face to shine upon His servant (Ps. 31:16, Ps. 80:3). He says, "Do not rest until you know the light of His countenance and His blessing is resting upon you."

And Iron Entered His Soul

I have been meditating a lot on the life of Joseph. He is one who early on in life had a sense of God's calling him to a high purpose in life. He had dreams. He had a position of favor in his family. I wonder how many times Joseph asked himself, "What happened?" ...Why did his family turn on him and reject him? How could he end up in a dungeon when he had tried so serve and walked in integrity, even in captivity? How had his life spun so wildly out of control? I can identify so much with Joseph and the questions that undoubtedly entered into his mind in those dark days of imprisonment. Yet, we've read Joseph's story from beginning to end and we know that those days were part of God's plan. God never lost control and He never made a mistake in moving Joseph into exactly the place He wanted him to be for His purposes. Psalm 105:17-19 has an interesting insight regarding this time that Joseph spent in prison. It says that this was a testing time for Joseph. F.B. Meyer notes that where it says, "His soul entered into iron," we also might translate this into our language as saying, "Iron entered into his soul." I often think of God's testing as one in which He seeks to find our weaknesses, but in fact, a study of God's testing reveals that in these times, as we yield to Him, He creates in us strength. It is when we go through a trial that God is able to forge His strength in the place of our weaknesses. Without the times of trial and testing we would happily go along on our own strength, never realizing we are ill-prepared for the next phase of our lives.

Cosmic Battle in the Heavenlies

Click on this picture to see full size version!

This amazing picture is not from a science fiction movie, it was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on August 25, 2003. This picture is of several generations of stars amid curtains of clouds in a region called W5, about 6,500 light-years away. I am fascinated with photographs of microscopic or the telescopic that reveal a universe to us that is beyond our own ability to see! We cannot see this with our naked eye, but that does not mean that it does not exist. Until recently we did not have a way to even imagine such a picture! But, it also reminds me of a cosmic battle in the heavenlies, described in the Bible, which is also beyond our ability to see or even really comprehend. The Bible reveals times in which a certain person's eyes were opened to see the angelic hosts, but we are told that there is a place in the heavenlies where the armies of the LORD battle with the hosts of darkness. Seeing this picture makes one realize that we can never discount what our eyes cannot see!