Don't go there....

When I was in the military, I pulled the assigned task of "guard duty" on a few occasions. The thing that struck me most was that I was guarding "stuff" that I really had no clue that anybody would want, but it was supposed to teach me the skill of ferreting out friend from foe! Sometimes I'd be assigned to the motor pool, while I would just walk a perimeter around some place where others slept peacefully. Did I find I had to ward off intruders all that much? No, but I was ready! You never know when the enemy will attack, or at what location. So you "prepare" for the worst and pray for the best!

God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always. (Psalm 121:7-8)

God's watchfulness over his children is much like that of the one who diligent fulfills his role of 'guard duty'. When intruders come, we want to know we can answer the question, "Where does my help come from?" We need to rest certain in the fact our "help" comes from God and no other source. It is he who guards our very life, now and always! To guard means that someone or something is kept safe from harm. There is a watchfulness over that person or thing that keeps it out of harm's way. Did you also know that to guard refers to keeping a watchful eye so that the one being guarded does not escape or engage in misconduct? God does more as the "guard" over our lives than just keep us safe - he also keeps us from escaping his care, running toward those things that will harm us, and reminding us of the pain that our misconduct will eventually end up costing us. What a faithful "guard" he is!

As my children were born, there were things I did to "guard" them from injury. One of the simplest things was to purchase those small plastic caps that fit tightly into the electrical outlets. How did I know to do this - to guard them from electrical shock? Truth be told, I learned by experience - my own blunders of sticking pointy things into those small holes as a kid! I "covered" the small holes that could injure my children because I had already experienced the painfulness of my own "misconduct"!
God places "safeguards" in our lives, much like the outlet covers I placed for my kids, in order to prevent loss, injury, or damage to our reputation. Just like my children, we often resist those safeguards because we think something "good" must be on the other side of the safeguard - something is being kept from us that we 'deserve' or 'want'! I periodically watched as my children took small fingers and attempted to manipulate the plastic guards from those outlets. Each time, I'd remind them that they should not play with the outlets. Guess what? To my knowledge, my kids never got the "jolt" of playing around with electricity - because of my preparation and my guard!

God doesn't want to "keep us from the good stuff" - he is working overtime to keep us safe from the "bad stuff" that leaves us feeling 'jolted' by life! Safeguards don't mean we aren't curious about what is "on the other side" of the safeguard (boundary). All it means is that we have something that stands between us and the object of our desirous attention. God leaves the response to the "safeguard" he has placed for us totally in our court of decision. Much like my kids pulling with all their might to get that plastic plug out of the outlet, we often find ourselves "pulling with all our might" to remove the safeguards God has placed in our lives. Did you realize that there are a ton of synonyms for "guard" in the Bible? Here are just a few: shield, shelter, watch, defend, bulwark, watchman. God must really want to get the point across that we need "guarding"! The next time you see one of these words, look at in the context of what God says he is doing for his children as their shield, their defender, a bulwark, or a watchman. It may just open a whole new meaning for you about the value of God's "guarding" boundaries in your life. 

Aren't you glad that you have someone as dedicated to your safety on Guard Duty in your life? The next time you hear, "Halt, who goes there", you might do well to actually stop and ask why God is halting your forward progress. He might actually be trying to get you to realize the error of your steps, not to keep you from something good in your life, but to keep you safely within the boundaries that help you to avoid all things evil in it! The first step to enjoying the safety of our boundaries is understanding where we are about to cross over them! Then the next step should be the one that alters our course! Just sayin!

At the ready

A recent TV commercial shows a rather largely muscled, foreboding gentleman dressed in a suit standing guard in front of a person's house.  In the commercial, the premise is that nothing gets past this particular security system you can have installed and pay for each month.  The idea of this "body guard" of sorts is kind of effective to make the point - someone is standing watch over your life.  I have never been famous enough to need a body guard, nor have I had enough wealth to support such an expensive "personal protection" service for my home. I have gone into some pretty scary places, unarmed with natural weapon, nor supported by any burly dude big enough to stand up to any attacker who might come my way. I have been awakened to some "creepy" noises and wondered if someone was about to pounce on me in the dark of the night.  I haven't felt the need for another protector in my life because I have the privilege of being protected by the biggest "body guard" there is!  He not only protects my body, but my soul and spirit, as well!  

The Lord is your Protector. The Lord stands by your side, shading and protecting you. The sun cannot harm you during the day, and the moon cannot harm you at night. The Lord will protect you from every danger. He will protect your soul. The Lord will protect you as you come and go, both now and forever! (Psalm 121:5-8 ERV)

A protector is one who stands in defensive mode in your life - one who is at the ready to provide whatever intervention is necessary to see that your safety is assured.  Whether it is attack, invasion, potential loss, or just plain annoyances which are coming upon you, the Lord stands ready to defend.  Attack is the idea of being "fought against" in a violent manner.  It isn't just a call to give over your jewels and wallet, it is a lunging of full force against you in order to overtake and over-power you.  When we think of being "attacked", it brings to mind the hostilities of aggressive and over-powering behavior.  Invasion carries the idea of "entering into" your life - unwelcomed, often unnoticed, but with the intent to do harm.  We think of germs as "invading" forces which enter into the body and then set up shop to do their destructive work within you as their "host" for their activity.  

To understand personal loss, one must have something they don't want to lose. I often put things away so carefully because they are important documents, treasured items of some sort.  The day comes when I just want to get those out and use them for some purpose - and don't you just want to kick yourself when you have done such a good job "putting them away carefully" that you can't even find them!  To experience loss, one must value something.  For anyone to take what you value indicates they get close enough to you to actually take what you once had.  In other words, to experience loss you must have experienced the possession of something - the greater the value that possession is to you, the harder the loss will be felt whenever someone takes it away.  In thinking about annoyances, they are many and too innumerable to list, but you will likely understand that they are nuisances which you really didn't want to have to deal with, but there they are and now you are faced with the challenges they present.  

God stands as our defender from attack, invasion, loss, and just plain annoying things.  He is on the ready - at the guard - not like the burly guy in the commercial, but as the defender of our souls, spirits, and bodies.  His "impressiveness" isn't his "size", but his authority.  The truth is we can invite things into our lives which we might not like the resulting problems which come by having welcomed them into our lives, but God isn't to blame for the bad stuff which comes when we do.  He still was standing guard - we just didn't let him do his job! We opened the door for the attack, or invited in the thing which is giving us the greatest of problems now.  In essence, we knew he set up a defensive to not allow these things INTO our lives, but we chose to "shut down" his defenses by our rebellion and self-determined behavior.  It is as though we "ducked out" on our body guard and now we find ourselves in a "problematic situation".

When we embrace the authority of God in our lives, we can rest assured we will be upheld by his hand.  When we resist it, we can also be assured he will not leave his post.  He is at the ready to set in order what we allowed to create chaos in our lives once we come to the recognition of the futility of our misguided "judgment calls" which allowed us to "skirt" his authority.  This is called restoration - something we'd need a whole lot less of if we'd just trust his "defense" of our lives a little more!  Just sayin!

Place that guard!

Guard: To keep safe from harm or danger; protect; watch over.  In most cases, when scripture refers to God placing a "guard" over our lives, he is saying he is giving us protection, keeping watch, over our lives.  When he asks us to "guard" something, he is asking us to keep a particular thing under close watch in order to prevent some kind of misconduct.  The protection over our lives comes from God - the prevention of things which might put us in harms way is partly our responsibility - for obedience is paramount to our safety. 

GOD guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always. (Psalm 121:7-8 MSG)

GOD - Jehovah - the unchangeable one - places a guard over your lives.  The one who is unchangeable in all his promises - incapable of misrepresenting the truth - watches over our every step.  The one who is capable of becoming all we need is there with a watchful eye, anticipating our next steps and providing all we will need in the next moments.  The God of divine compassion and all holiness is watching over, keeping us safe from harm, in order to keep us whole and holy in him.  What we are incapable of doing, he does on our behalf.

Every evil is against us in this world - regardless of whether we are quick to realize the presence of evil or not.  The moment we choose to follow Christ, all of Satan's efforts are directed at keeping us from making any progress in our relationship with Jesus.  The moment we take even one step closer to intimate relationship with him, the war begins to wage against us.  Why? Satan is threatened by us!  The righteousness of God within us, the hope of eternity lived out in the presence of a holy God, this threatens him.  He doesn't want to live in hell alone, my friends!  He hopes for a vast multitude to join him.

Our very life is guarded - not because we might not see the threats and be able to respond to them, but because we might be deceived into believing that evil is good.  Remember, all evil is masked with just a little bit of truth in order to get people to buy into it in the first place.  If you look at marketing campaigns worldwide, you will realize the power of putting just a little truth up front in swaying people to want your "product".  Don't be deceived - Satan is no different in his "sell" tactics in your life!  We need this guard, for we may be deceived by the element of truth and miss the all-out lie right under the surface.

Leaving and returning - no movement is outside of God's view - he sees it all and his watchfulness over our lives goes from one movement to the next.  He even anticipates our movements, because he knows what we will choose even before we choose.  Yet he allows our freewill - the right to choose in spite of the danger in the choice we may make.  Why?  He doesn't want robots, he wants submitted children.  Submission is not a choice to be "lorded over", but a choice to be under the leadership of our Lord.  Leaving and returning under the leadership of one so all-knowing and all-powerful certainly places us in a better place of safety than taking steps based on our own wisdom and abilities.

There is no end to his watchfulness.  This should give us cause to celebrate, my friends.  The moment we say "yes" to Jesus, we say "yes" to his watchfulness over our lives.  Here we find rest - in the knowledge that the one who knows us best is in the driver's seat of our lives - protecting, guiding, and providing.  Just sayin!

Halted by our Guard

^7-8 God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life.
   He guards you when you leave and when you return,
      he guards you now, he guards you always.

(Psalm 121:7-8)

When I was in the military, I had the unfortunate lot of pulling "guard duty" on a few select occasions.  The thing that struck me most was that I was guarding "stuff" that I had no clue that anybody would want!  Sometimes I'd be assigned to the motor pool - now, I ask you, who wants an olive drab sedan?  At others, I'd walk the perimeter of the base, looking for intruders.  Ummm....now, ask me if I EVER saw any?  Nope!  So, what was the purpose?  Simply because you never know when the enemy will attack, or at what location.  So you "prepare" for the worst!

Our passage today is taken from a psalm that celebrates God's watchfulness over his children.  The writer begins with the question, "Where does my help come from?"  David knew that his "help" came from God and no other source.  He points us to God at every turn.  Now, he tells us why he has this confidence in the God he can neither see, nor touch.  It is he who guards our very life, now and always!

To guard means that someone or something is kept safe from harm.  There is a watchfulness over that person or thing that keeps it out of harm's way.  Did you also know that to guard refers to keeping a watchful eye so that the one being guarded does not escape or engage in misconduct?  God does more as the "guard" over our lives than just keep us safe - he also keeps us from escaping his care, running toward those things that will harm us, and reminding us of the pain that our misconduct will eventually end up costing us.  What a faithful "guard" he is!

As my children were born, there were things I did to "guard" them from injury.  One of the simplest things was to purchase those small plastic caps that fit into the electrical outlets.  How did I know to do this?  Well, I learned by experience, of course!  I learned that bobby-pins placed in those small holes in the walls give you a rather significant jolt of "attention-grabbing" current!  So, I "covered" the small holes that could injure my children because I had already experienced the painfulness of "misconduct"!

God places "safeguards" in our lives, much like the outlet covers, in order to prevent loss, injury, or reputation.  Just like my children, we resist those safeguards because we think something "good" must be on the other side of the safeguard!  I watched as my children took small fingers and attempted to manipulate the plastic guards from those outlets.  Each time, I'd remind them that they should not play with the outlets.  Guess what?  To my knowledge, my kids never got the "jolt" of playing around with electricity!

God doesn't want to "keep us from the good stuff" - he is working overtime to keep us safe from the "bad stuff"!  Safeguards don't mean we aren't curious about what is "on the other side" of the safeguard (boundary).  All it means is that we have something that stands between us and that object of our attention.  God leaves the response to the "safeguard" he has placed to us.  Much like my kids pulling with all their might to get that plastic plug out of the outlet, we often find ourselves "pulling with all our might" to remove the safeguards God has placed in our lives.

Did you realize that there are a ton of synonyms for "guard" in the Bible?  Here are just a few:  shield, shelter, watch, defend, bulwark, watchman.  God must really want to get the point across that we need "guarding"!  The next time you see one of these words, look at in context of what God says he is doing for his children as their shield, their defender, a bulwark, or a watchman.  It may open a whole new meaning for you about the value of God's "guarding" of our lives.  

Aren't you glad that you have someone as dedicated to your safety on Guard Duty in your life?  The next time you hear, "Halt, who goes there?", you might do well to actually stop and ask why God is stopping you.  He is actually trying to get you to realize the error of your steps, not to keep you from something good in your life!  The first step to enjoying the safety of our boundaries in understanding where we are crossing them!