What do the following Scriptures say about ways people can be of authentic help to one another?
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 – “‘Two are better than one…’ ‘If one falls down, his friend can help him up.’”
2 Corinthians 1:10-11 – “We support each other with our prayers”
How about you? Name a few people who are a tremendous help to you in your journey and how they help you.
“Suzy asks the tough questions to keep me honest and hold me accountable. Ellen restores my joy and sense of fun.”
Name specific ways God can help you that other people simply cannot.
“protection from harm, pricking of conscience, guidance of our path/choices, renewal of strength or alleviation of pain.”
What does Jude 1:24 say Christ is able to do for us on our pilgrimage? “keep us from falling”
Name a way He does that. “There have been times when I could almost imagine an angel between my car and another I thought I would hit.”
What did Elijah suggest Baal, the god of the pagan enemies of Israel, might have been doing rather than coming to their rescue?
“sleeping (or deep in thought, busy, or traveling)”
Psalm 121:5 says ‘The Lord is a shelter right by your side’ (HCSB). How does Psalm 91:4 depict the closeness of God’s shelter?
“as a protective parent bird’s wing”
In fact, ‘moonstruck’ is the literal rendering of the Greek word translated ‘seizures’ in both verses (Matthew 4:24 and Matthew 17:15). Can you see the similarity of the words lunar and lunatic? Praise God, He protects us, even where our superstitions mislead us.
My Psalm 121
“When troubles loom above me,
“I wonder who will help me.
“Then I remember, my Lord made the heavens and the earth, and He will help me.
“He will guard my steps and won’t be caught napping.
“He never sleeps!
“My Lord protects me; he is with me wherever I go.
“He protects me from harm, be it genuine, exaggerated, or imagined.
“He protects my life.
“He will keep on protecting me wherever I go now and forever.”
Dearest Rachel –
It’s always uncomfortable to see you writing about the many times God protected you from this or that. While I acknowledge that you did find yourself in such situations more often than most of us – I suppose it’s more likely than most of us that you would suffer from an accident eventually – the fact that one did catch up with you renders your talk of ‘protection’ not so much invalid as… gosh, what’s the word I want, here? Questionable, maybe?
The thing is, we all end up dead eventually; God doesn’t ‘protect’ us here on earth forever. Indeed, if He granted us earthy immortality (especially if He let Adam and Eve grab some fruit from the Tree of Life on their way out, as He discussed with Himself), that would probably end up being pretty close to hell on earth – not through His doing, of course, but our own. We are pretty nasty creatures, in our fallen state. To leave us here, and for us to consider that ‘protection,’ is a rather cruel form of mercy.
So letting you knock off early might have been an act of grace on His part; but from the perspective of us still down here, it looks like the very opposite of protection, because Earth is the only home we know. We may understand, dimly, that there is one, better and more suited for us, in the hereafter, but as we’ve never seen it, and even God Himself (in the form of Jesus) had difficulty explaining it – He started off so many parables with something along the lines of “how can I describe the kingdom of heaven to you?” – it’s difficult for us to truly grasp this fact. After all, if the All-Knowing God was stuck for words and comparisons, how much less can we wrap our heads around it, especially not having seen it?
And yet, that is our ultimate destination; heaven, and the presence of God, just as He Himself desires us to be. To be ‘protected’ from going there is only as perceived by our current, earthly perspective. If the Lord is our Shelter, our Home, it is we who are down here who are the nomads, homeless, seeking refuge here and there while we can, trudging through life, hoping that one day, we will find – or more to the point, be allowed in – to the Home that He said He was preparing for us. We will need no further protection at that point, since we will be with Him from then on – with Him there with us, what need we to be protected from?
But I’m telling you this from my own conjectures, while you’re experiencing it; I clearly have nothing to teach you about this, but you rather should be informing me. However, as that’s not an option, I can at least express what I understand about the fact that, while it may seem to me that God ceased to ‘protect’ you at that one point, that in no way means that you are no longer in His care. On the contrary – while it’s true that He is everywhere – the fact that you’re in His presence now suggests that you’re closer to Him than you ever were in life, closer to Him than we can, in our limited way, imagine.
One day, we will have our turn… but until then, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 