“You are my hiding place;
You shall preserve me from trouble;
You shall surround me with songs of deliverance”.
The Living Psalms version reads,
“You are my hiding place from every storm of life;
You even keep me from getting into trouble!
You surround me with songs of victory”.
Psalm 50:6 in the Living Psalms reads,
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble
and I will deliver you.
You shall glorify Me”.
I’ve heard my husband (who is a pastor) on more occasions than one say, “I’m not hearing your faith”. Or, “Where is your faith in this situation?”. He has even said that to me at times when I let the situation become bigger than it should be.
Some of you know the story of the “Giant” in my life. I had allowed a situation over the years to become a giant, just like the one in the Old Testament story 1 Samuel 17 of David and Goliath. Remember it? The Israelites were so afraid of Goliath, a Philistine. Goliath was 9 feet 9 inches tall. His coat alone weighed 126 pounds. Quite intimidating!
But…David was not afraid. He had confidence in the Lord. Some of his quotes are:
“Let no man’s heart fail because of him (Goliath);
your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
and
“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin.
But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel, who you have defied.
This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand…”
(Read the rest of the story.)
David spoke his faith in God. He didn’t go around mulling over the problem. I allowed this giant to overwhelm me. When the Lord showed me this about my giant, He said, “When you did that, you diminished my power over the situation”. That was over a year ago. And now, when I see that giant coming and taunting me, the Lord brings the story to my mind again. That is when my faith speaks, “In the name of Jesus, I command you to shut up.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 says we need to “cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”
The enemy throws arguments at us and exalts the problem above God. That is what we need to take authority over. That is the Goliath we need to slay. We don’t slay people, we slay the enemy.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Sometimes I think we focus and talk about the problem more than we talk about our faith in the God of solutions. I know I have. But, the Lord wants to change the way we think and talk. This is one of my “R”s, Renew our mind.
He wants us to thank God for the solution, not just pray the problem over and over again.
I read somewhere the other day that said, we need to go to the Bible and find out what the Lord says about whatever situation we are going through. Then, pray His Word, which is His will and then we will have the confidence that He hears us. Then we can thank Him for the solution.
So many Christians just don’t live in victory. We continually struggle with the same problems year after year with no song of deliverance in sight. I know I have been one of those in the past. I’m still bringing down some of them. However, the struggles don’t last as long any more because I found the lyrics to the song, you might say – The Word of God.
Sing the song of Deliverance. Our God is able!
Blessings, Pat
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