"I'd like to share Christ, but I just don't know how!"
When God gives you an opportunity, just smile, pull out a copy of If We Never Meet Again or What If No One Warned You? and say, "Here's something I think you'll enjoy reading!"
August 18, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"My times are in your hands..." Psalm 31:15
What a rich consolation it is to every believer to know that God reigns supreme, is in control of all we encounter, and our times are in His hands. Whatever man might contrive against us, Jehovah is our God. However enraged and bitter our enemies may be, God reigns supreme. Nothing comes to the child of God except through His permissive will. God in His providential care has promised that "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways" (Psalm 91:1, 11).
David experienced God's gracious care time and again when he was exposed to the rage and jealousy of Saul. He hunted him like a partridge on the mountains but he could not stay the hand of God. Paul also was in perils constantly, but none could take his life, until he had finished the course marked out for him by God.
Elisha, when overwhelmingly encompassed by the enemy, calmly says to his servant, "Don't be afraid, those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Elisha prayed, "...and he [his servant] looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha" (2 Kings 6:15-17).
"God Himself is a wall of fire round about us" (Acts 14:19, 20). We have the same covenant relationship with God as they. Lord, open our eyes that we may know this blessed assurance of Your presence and provision, Your care and comfort, Your strength and mighty power.
How much would we miss had not David dared to trust God in his many devastating encounters with the enemy. It was in these alarming experiences, destitute often even of food and water, when God providentially reached down and built a wall of fire around him. Rich are the times in which we read how David found his source of strength in Almighty God. His psalms ring out with the "cry of the seeker, and the glad song of the finder." Read Psalm 18, in which David exclaims again and again the blessed refuge he had in God. "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in who I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."
Such is God's COVENANT TO US. But, let me ask you...Is HE this BLESSED ONE to you? Have you the "consciousness of His presence" abiding within your heart? Do you have the freedom and liberty to lift up your heart at anytime, anywhere, and have the assurance that HE IS WITH YOU? Live in the reality of Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
What greater assurance do we have than that found in Isaiah 43:1-3..."Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by your name; YOU ARE MINE. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, the holy one of Israel, YOUR SAVIOR!"
May we say with David..."My times are in your hands"...and live every day in confident faith in the ONE THAT NEVER FAILS!
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-08-18&print=1
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