Help our unbelief

Some stand on the cliff-edge today - fearing the doom that awaits with just one misstep. The darkness of the vast expanse below brings swells of fear and apprehension. They might even feel a little 'hemmed in' because there appears to be no way to turn back safely. It seems like the footing once secure and rock solid is slipping away, small pieces cascading over that cliff-edge, never to be seen again.

Some find the winds and waves of present circumstances rocking them to and fro, unable to sail a straight course because there is nothing but opposition in your sails. The harder they attempt to choose the correct course, the more the swells seem to pitch them this direction and that, until they are so unsteady and fearing the capsizing of all that they have come to know as their place of protection.

Others feel the ground beneath them trembling, rumblings coming from deep within spaces they have never seen. The ground beneath seems to open up, separating them from what they once knew as 'solid relationships' - huge rents coming between those they have once found such joyful experiences with. There seems to be no warning - just tiny rumblings, leading to much greater rumblings, shaking them to the core until what was once solid is now left in ruins.

Before the rush and roar of the oceans - God stands firm and steady. Beyond the cliff-edge darkness - God's light shines bright. Behind that renting relationship - God stands strong and mighty. The supernatural power of God's presence can bring the dead to life, the hurting soul into places of grace, and the tumultuous relationships into a place of health and unity once again. 

God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him. We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea storm and earthquake, Before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us. (Psalm 46:1)

God is a SAFE place to hide - not to escape, but to be made whole, secure, safe, and able to stand when all else says there is no way for your to every make it through what you are going through right now. God protects - he fights for us. Not against us - FOR us. All the world may fight against us - edges crumbling away, tossing us to and fro, rending what was once rock solid. All the grace of God fights FOR us. 

God-of-the-Angel-Armies --- this is who pulls us back from the crumbling cliff-edge. He is the one who stands just beyond the winds and waves, ready to bring us safely to shore. He is the one stronger than any rending influence our relationships might encounter. With the amassed armies of angels, he comes swiftly to our side - there we are secure and protected. We may not see them around us right now, but they are there - because he is there! Just sayin!

Have no fear

What are you wearing today? Have you dressed by the time you read this, or are you luxuriating in your jammies for just a little longer? Regardless of how you have 'clothed' yourself at the moment, there is nothing like what comes from being clothed with the blessing of God! Have you ever snuggled deep into something of comfort because your day was just a little harder than you'd like it to be? You may even find you needed some form of help, but it just seemed to never be coming, so you hunkered down, sheltered in place and are just there waiting. At those moments, all you want to do is sit down and cry out for help - but there doesn't seem to be anybody within earshot! Yet, you might just cry out anyway - if not outwardly, at least on the inside! Never lose sight of this hope - "real help" and very "real comfort" comes from God.

But you, God, shield me on all sides; You ground my feet, you lift my head high; With all my might I shout up to God, His answers thunder from the holy mountain. Real help comes from God. Your blessing clothes your people! (Psalm 3:3-4, 8)

God - the name of God also referred to as Jehovah - the unchangeable one. He is the one who stands ready to intervene whenever we cry out, hunker down, and seek his comfort. He is the one who gives grounding to our feet and lifts our heads high above the mess of the circumstances surrounding us on all sides. He is the one who becomes everything we need at the very moment have need. Need reveals itself in many way, but the answer to our need is always the same! He is the one faithful in all his promises and it is he that is our "real" help. You know, that word "real" has a unique way of describing our Lord's faithful interventions in our lives. We often look for that which is the most apparent to us - but did you ever realize that the term "real" means that which is not always apparent? Sometimes our "grounding" and our being "picked up" or "born along" is not always apparent in the circumstance we find ourselves in. We don't realize the reality of what God is and has been doing in our lives that brought us to the present point we are facing. We just know we need a little comforting and a lot of his presence!

We think of "real" as genuine, not counterfeit. That is true - but the thing I think we need to see is that God is not always apparent in those life "moments" when we find ourselves crying out! Just like clothing surrounds our physical frame and provides us with protection from exposure or the elements of the weather, God surrounds his people with his protection. He is what stands between us and the forces that come against us. Not just once, but each and every time! The next time you think you have no help - you are standing alone in one of those "life moments" when things are just not all that comfortable - cry out to the one who protects without always being apparent in his protection. He gives us a form of "immunity" to the things that otherwise might take us down! He provides the protection we so desperately require from the "inside" out - maybe not apparent to us immediately, but this protection begins to reveal itself more and more as we 'settle into' his presence! There is something of his character that is within us that will often be exactly what we need to draw from when we face that moment of challenge. God may not be "apparent" in the moment you face - but stand assured - he IS there! Just sayin!