Abide Under the Shadow

 

I am aware that I used this photo before but it illustrates so clearly what I want to say

that I trust you will forgive me. It was 42 degrees when I took this photo and the sheep, very sensibly, had taken shelter in the shade of this lovely Plane tree on my Son and Daughter-in-law’s property near Gilgandra. They were free to walk out into the heat of course, but had more sense than to do that. The 91^st Psalm (Authorised Version) says that if we dwell close to God we will “Abide under the shadow of the Almighty,” As those sheep abide in the shade. How good is that? God further emphasises His keenness to protect us by describing Himself as being like a bird covering its chicks: “He shall cover thee with His feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust” and that’s not all as He says “because you have made Him your refuge, the Most High, your habitation, there shall no evil befall thee…He will be with you in trouble, He shall deliver you and honour you, with long life He will satisfy you, and show you His Salvation.” You know, we really should avail ourselves of these great offers from the Almighty God of the Universe. Then again in Isaiah, Chapter 40 and Verse 31, He offers to “renew our strength”, so we see why Psalm 73 verse 28 says “It is good for me to draw near to God”. However, you will notice that each of these “offers” is conditional; in the first case we must “draw near” to God if we want His protection, whilst in the second case we must “wait upon the Lord” for renewed strength. Just what does all this mean? Well, to “draw near” is simple enough, just as those sheep were protected when they “drew near” to the tree-trunk, so we will be protected if we draw near to God. Which means accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, and endeavour to live as He requires. O.K. that gives us some idea of what “draw near” implies, but what does it mean to “wait upon the Lord”? The answer is two-fold: Firstly, a waiter in a restaurant, (for example), is there to do his employer’s bidding by “waiting” on the customers. He (or she) takes their orders, and generally attends to people’s needs. Likewise, God wants us to lovingly help other people, as He told us to. Secondly, an employee waits for the “employer’s instructions.” Which means just that; We have the written word but need the Holy Spirits guidance. For example, soldiers prepare themselves for battle, to the best of their ability, but they then “wait” for directions from their Commanding Officer. There are many examples of this in the Bible. One of the earliest is where the Children of Israel were escaping from the Egyptians and panicked, so started to rebel against their leader, (Moses), but Moses just said “Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13) at which time God “stepped in” and saved the day for them.  King Asa and Gideon and many others had similar success when they also “waited on the Lord”. The trouble with us is that we lack faith and often don’t wait for God’s directions. Our Governments ignore Him almost completely and what a mess they have made. They have sold off our land to the highest foreign bidders, sold our mineral resources, sold our ports, sold our electricity and even the electricity poles, to name just a few of their mistakes made because they didn’t seek God’s wisdom.

As for you and me, we will only make rational decisions if we “Trust in the Lord with all our heart, lean not unto our own understanding, in all our ways acknowledge Him” so that “He shall direct our paths.” Thus, we should “Seek  first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us.” Mostly we don’t do that. There is an old saying that “Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread” and that just about sums up what we usually do. Which is a far cry from “waiting on the Lord”. But the good thing is that all is not lost, we are still alive and can therefore “repent” (change our ways). As Isaiah said, in Verse7 of his 55^th Chapter: “Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him….and will abundantly pardon.” He said that a long time ago and a lot of people have changed their ways since then, so praise God, we can do that too. But we had better get on with it. Take me for example, I don’t know if I will be alive to make a decision to-morrow. In that case it is good that I have accepted Christ’s forgiveness, isn’t it? How about you then? Are you sure you will be here to make decisions to-morrow? Well if you are not sure, (and no one really can be), then you should, right now, also accept the forgiveness that Jesus earned for you. (if you haven’t already done so). That way we will both be “Righteous in His sight” “when we stand before the Judgement seat of Christ.” (Better to be sure than very, very, sorry when it is too late, don’t you think?). Best wishes, Tom.