Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog for this weeks Monday Manna. This verse is so short! Don't think that a verse that has only 12 words is not enormous in it's meaning! Check this out:
The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14
Yeah, that's it. Doesn't it seem so simple? The God of the universe, who is mighty to save, will come to your rescue. PERIOD. We have a knight in shining armor, who has a sword and shield prepared for battle on our behalf. I can just picture Jesus, in a knight's uniform. My mind's eye sees a purple plume on the top of the helmet (purple stands for royalty), the metal polished so that it reflects the light of his glory coming from within him, easily wielding a sword bigger than Him, and a shield adorned with jewels that protects most of him, that I could probably sit on. How magnificent He looks! Regardless of how your imagination might picture Him going to battle for you, one thing remains the same. He is ready, willing, and able to fight on your behalf.
The knowing is easy for me. I know for sure that God is bigger than anything I can imagine. I know for sure that He is my Saviour, and that means a wide variety of things. I know for sure that God is for me, and not against me. I know that He has plans for me that were written before I was born, that are to prosper me, and not harm me. The problem comes in the "being still" part.
One of the things that I am reflecting on today, is cancer. In the past few weeks, I've found that 2 acquaintances of mine have stage 4 cancer. Stage 4 is the terminal kind. Both of these people are believers of the living God. They have both been saved by grace. Where is the fight for them? I know that one couple is for sure being still and relying on God. They are right now making a decision to continue treatment or not. Does being still mean not to take treatments, and trust that God will fight the battle of cancer on thier behalf? I cannot answer that question with any amount of clarity. There are some things in this lifetime that we are just not going to be able to understand. Is it frustrating? YES! I believe that we can voice that frustration to God. I believe that we can shout, cry, question, and shake our fists at the situation in the presence of The Almighty. It doesn't mean that we will necessarily recieve the answer that we want, but I think that that is all part of intimacy with Him.
This verse also made me think of the story of the israelites in battle in Exodus 17.
10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
I think there comes a point when we get restless of waiting. God's timing is not our own. A year for us is but a breath for Him. His timing is perfect; ours is not. Maybe God sends people into our lives during difficult times to hold up our hands in battle. Someone to lift us in prayer when we cannot utter the words. Someone to stand alongside us in the winning, and the losing of the battle. We were not meant to go this journey alone. I don't care what you are going through....cancer, loss of a loved one, infertility, a defiant teenager, drug or alcohol abuse, you name it......you can always, if you look hard enough, find someone who has been there. We go through trials in our lives for many different reasons. I believe one of those reasons is so that your testimony of what the living God has brought you through will encourage others in their faith. The question we are left with is this: Are we bold enough to use it for Him?
The last thing that we can consider based upon this verse is slander. In this life, there will be pain. Some of it is physical, and some is emotional. People are far from perfect. They will hurt you, it is inevitable. Chances are, some time in your life, you will be spoken of unkindly. Someone will say something that is either not true, or some darker shade of the truth. It is in these times that we can rest in God, and let Him fight that battle for us. Will there be carnage that you might have to push through? Yep! As long as we keep our mouths shut, we will not add to that carnage.
In closing, I will just say this....I am still a work in progress. Sitting still is not one of my personality traits. I need to ask God to help me with this, and chances are you do too. I think God has a much better chance of winning the battles than I EVER will! How about you?
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