To seek out out a place to pitch your tents...

Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

Deuteronomy 1:29-33

In spite of this great assurance, the Israelites were fearful to enter the Promised Land. Despite the ten plagues that had been wreaked on Egypt, the daily provision of manna, the fire and cloud that led them and many more miraculous signs, Israel turned back on the border of Canaan. They paid dearly for this lack of faith.

Do we recognize the glorious signs that God performs in our lives? Or are we blind to His almighty hand working wonders in our lives? Do we cling to Him in spite of what happens, or do the slightest anxieties and trials shake us to the core? 

I want to believe and know and trust that my God goes ahead of me, to seek me out a place to pitch my tents, blazing a trail in cloud and fire, and to show me the way by which I should go. I want to live like this everyday.

Cities and Sleep

Unless the LORD builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the LORD watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Psalm 127:1-2

This is one of my favourite Psalms and I think these two verses are among the most supremely comforting and assuring in the whole Bible.

I have a rather intense, perfectionistic personality. I want to do things right and well. It is easy for me to carry this too far into mindless, compulsive anxiety about work and life in general. I want to plan things so that they go just right. I want to make that my plans are carried out well. I feel the need to plot out the steps I take, in order to retain control over my future. This certainly does not honour God.

Our God is the one and only God, the Sovereign God. Everything in our lives is in His hands, and ultimately, it is His will that controls our destinies. And that is why these two verses are so comforting to me. They remind me that for all the time and energy I pour into planning and trying to keep a grip on my future, my effort is futile if I do not let God take control. So God is telling me: "Let me run your life: unless my will operates through your life, everything you do is in vain." I should surrender my life to Him and let Him "build my city" for me. If I think that I have absolute control over my life, and run it according to my finite wisdom and abilities, I'm headed for trouble.

What then is left for me to do? All that I have to do is sleep in peace. Sleep is beautiful, precious rest that God created for us weary, puny beings. This doesn't mean that I shouldn't work late if I have to. Rather it means that if I toil, thinking that late nights of work alone can give me security for the future, I toil in vain. What futility and silliness, when God means for me to be able to rest peacefully with the assurance that my future is safe in His sovereign, perfect will.

These two verses are such a sweet yet incisive indictment of anxiety and futile human efforts to run our own lives. Will we let God build the cities of our future and trust Him to watch over them? Will we accept His gift of dreamless, peaceful sleep? I pray that I will and that you will too.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away

There is so much to be thankful for, isn't there? It's easy to forget to be grateful for what we do have. Sometimes, we've enjoyed something for so long that we've ceased to be grateful for it. But if we'd just imagine what it would like if we didn't have that something, perhaps we wouldn't so easily take it for granted.

For me, I could imagine what it would be like if I didn't have such sensible, loving, caring parents. Or I could imagine what it would be like if I had been born with a severe learning or emotional disability. Or if a loved one were stricken with a severe terminal illness or injury. Or, simply regarding something we've been celebrating recently, what it would be like if Dave didn't get the good A-level results he did. God could have changed my life in any of these ways, and He would not be wronging me.

God has the sovereign right to do anything He wants. As Job said, "I know you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:2) God never told Job why he had to suffer the way he did. God may put us through all sorts of trials, and we may never know why.

I pray that I will always be thankful for what I do have. And when God in His sovereign will decides to take things away from me, may I do as Job did when all his earthly wealth and beloved children were destroyed: 

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job 1:20-22

What God says to he who trusts in Him

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

Psalm 91:14-16

... that you may tell the next generation

Walk about Zion, go around her,

number her towers,

consider well her ramparts,

go through her citadels,

that you may tell the next generation

that this is God,

our God forever and ever.

He will guide us forever.

Psalm 48:12-14

God reveals to us His glory. In this Psalm, the psalmist speaks of beholding the glory and splendor of the City of God, and the awe and terror this strikes in mankind. What is the end to which we, who are saved, witness this? To praise Him and proclaim His glory. We are saved that we may bear witness of Him to others. This is a challenge for all of us for us to "tell the next generation", both physically and spiritually, of the glory of God. That He is God forever, and will be with us forever.