"Stand and Watch"

"They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them." (Psalms 118:12)

 It is amazing to me how little we know, and yet, how much God can show us. This is pretty much what I think God is speaking into my heart through this verse this morning. When it comes to fear, most of our fear is something that is unreal expectations; our minds run in so many directions when we are worried about a certain issue or dealing with something beyond our control. I would say to anyone dealing with such uncertainty, pray for peace, and then watch God work everything out for the good. I know, it is easy to put something like that out there, but living it is difficult; it cannot be that simple! Actually it is that simple; it is just hard to do. It is hard because we always think that we need to help God figure out what is going on and how He should fix things; when all along, He already has the plan, we just need to relax and let Him do what He is going to do. If you have heard me share about learning to drown, then you know how important it is to not fight God's working in our lives. In the illustration above, David is speaking about something out of control and something that cannot be contained; a swarm of bees is a really good example of what that might look like. You don't know from where it is coming from and how to defend yourself against it. Much like the way our enemies are God's tools in our trials, these bees are God's smoke screen; they are nothing more than that, and just like smoke, they are blown away. If you have ever seen how quickly thorns burn up when they are on fire, they are not very good fuel to use in order to light a campfire; at least not without being tied in a bundle. By the way, evil is all evil; it is all one big bunch of thorns...

"David replied to the Philistine, "You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven's Armies -the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! And everyone assembled here will know that the LORD rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the LORD'S battle, and he will give you to us!"" (1 Samuel 17:45-47) NLT