"Great Misunderstanding"

"For the voice of him that repoacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger." (Psalms 44:16) I don't care how you slice it, getting beat up does not look good to those that are watching. Two thoughts come to mind: why don't you do something? and, why is this happening? Of all the great and mighty things that God has done, you would think we might be a little less concerned; after all, "if God is for us, then who can be against us", right? Have you ever noticed what a sick tree looks like after it has been pruned by someone that is trying to save it? It looks terrible; like all of it's glory has been removed, and there is hardly anything left that produces shade, or that gives beauty to behold. What God allows us to go through, He does for our benefit, or for the benefit of others around us; something that we seldom catch hold of in the midst of our circumstance; at least not at first; usually it isn't until every single possible earthly resource has been used up, then we have no other choice but to place everything in God's hand. It isn't until we do that, that we finally realize, with all certainty, that we are in God's hand! It's not that we did not know this before, because we understood it to be so; but knowing something from the experience of surrender is so much more real than knowing from what you have been told. Think of that game you play, the one where you fall backwards while someone else stands behind you to catch you; we sometimes picture that kind of thing going on when we surrender to God, where we just fall backwards into His arms; but that's not so, because we are already in His arms to begin with, we just need to let go of everything else. You really can't tell anyone how it feels to totally surrender to God, it must be experienced to really know how it feels. But one thing is for certain, when we surrender totally to God we are not hoping for someone or something else to save us, only God... "Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved  with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." (Hebrews 3:7-14)