It is very easy to open our bibles, to open the Word of God, and go to that verse that always soothes our soul. It is very easy to read that Facebook post, to share that Instagram story, or to post that inspirational verse of the day because that verse, "Oh, how inspirational it is and how uplifting it can be!" But once the day is done, the post is old, and our feelings of all the turmoil that we felt before we read that uplifting verse are back to greet us, what do we do? It is easy to be motivated by something but very hard to believe in the promise of it. Many of us love God, we really wholeheartedly do, but sometimes it's hard not to become fearful and discouraged when life bites and we don't have the strength or the grip to bite back.

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On last week, we focused on how we must "STOP SLEEPING ON GOD!" because He is an all-knowing God. He is an all-powerful God. He is a God that owns all things and is in control of all things. He is our guardian who does not slumber neither does He sleep. Therefore, we must have confidence in Him. And although we know these things to be "truths" about who God is, we still struggle to trust that "He's Got Us!" And the concern with us not believing that "He's Got Us" is that at many times we don't know why we don't trust Him. We suggested that perhaps we all need to take the time to search our hearts for an answer and this week, we'll begin to do just that.

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Many of us, even if we have never read the entire chapter, may be familiar with the first verse of Psalm 27, particularly the first part of it, "The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear?" This happens to be one of those verses of comfort. But do we truly believe in what it says? In last week's blog we reflected on God as our Guardian, Watchman, Keeper, Our Shield, and Our Shade and what that means for us. Now we turn to God as our light, our salvation, and our stronghold.

 

God-Our Light

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God acts as our light in many ways both figuratively and literally. We know that God was a light for the Israelites as they journeyed. We know that God is light because He guides us when we're lost. We know that God was light for David giving him instruction and guidance as he faced his enemies and went into battle. We know that God is our light because He makes clear those things that we may not have knowledge of or understand. We know that God was a light for Joseph because God made clear to him during his darkest hours why he had to endure the setbacks that he did and he trusted and had full faith that it was part of God's plan for him. God gave Joseph clarity. We know that God is our light because maybe there was a time in which we were about to make the worst decision of our lives and He stepped in and steered us in a different direction, saving us from our own mistake. God gives us direction that is assured. When we travel our own path, we don't know where it will lead us. However, when we travel the path that God has for us, we know that our path leads to the right place even when don't know anything about or understand the path that we're on.

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In Genesis 12:1, God instructs Abram saying, "Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you" (NIV). Abram had no idea where this land was, but he did as God instructed him. Abram arrives in Canaan, and in verse 7 we read, "The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land" (NIV). God showed Abram this land just as He had told him He would. Whenever God calls us to do something, He is our light. He supports, leads, guides, and backs us. He did not tell Abram to go off to this unfamiliar land and then leave him wandering around, not sure of where to go or where to turn. God did not allow Abram to get lost.

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However, how often do we feel like God does exactly that? Puts us on a path and then disappears, leaving us trying to figure things out on our own. In Genesis 12, we find that after God instructs Abram to go to this place, makes him a promise concerning this place, shows Abram this land and reaffirms this promise to him, shortly after that, Abram finds himself amid a famine. Abram, as a result, decides to go to Egypt to live there for a while. Here it is God sending Abram to a land, and then here goes a severe famine, and Abram picks up and uproots himself. What is interesting about this is that Abram trusted God enough to pick up and leave his country, his people, and his father's household in search of a land that he knew nothing about yet, did not exercise that same trust believing that God would keep him during the famine. He leaves the place that God sent him to go where he thought he could survive.

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If we continue to read Genesis 12, upon arriving in Egypt and out of fear for his life, Abram once again, takes matters into his own hands. He instructs his wife Sarai, to lie and say that she is his sister because he feared that because of Sarai's beauty, when the Egyptians saw her, knowing that she was his wife, they would kill him and keep her.

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Abram tells Sarai that if she said that she was his sister, the Egyptians would spare his life and treat him well because of her. And Sarai is indeed discovered by Pharoah's officials who tell Pharoah all about her and Pharoah automatically takes her in as his wife. Pharoah treats Abram well, giving him both livestock and servants. However, we see that this doesn't last long. God inflicts a serious disease on Pharoah's household because of Abram's wife Sarai. Pharoah is angered and confronts Abram telling Abram that because he had lied saying that Sarai was his sister when she was really his wife, this disease was brought upon his household. Pharoah immediately tells Abram to take Sarai and go. In doing this, God was conditioning Abram to trust Him.

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This is a great example of how our trust wavers. We trust God in some things but not all. We allow God to be our light and lead us where He wants us to go, but at some point, we allow circumstances and fear to cause us to try to light our own path because we don't want to have to confront the dark place that we might often find ourselves in. It is easy to allow God to be our light when there is the promise of something that we will gain but when faced with famine and things being taken away from us, it is difficult for some of us to trust Him just the same.

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God changed Abram's name to Abraham and his wife's name from Sarai to Sarah. God made a promise to Abram when He first called him, and God also made covenants with Abram which we all benefit from when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Most importantly, we see that Abraham's faith goes from wavering to becoming "shift proof". This shows that our faith is not always going to be where it should be or where it needs to be, but the more we allow God to lead us, and be our light, the more our trust in Him is strengthened and the more our faith in Him is increased.

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Although God is our light, we must choose to accept Him as such. You can turn on your GPS system to guide you. However, if you don't listen to where it tells you to go, then what purpose are you allowing it to serve? Most of us turn on our GPS system, type in the address, and allow it to begin routing us, but we "CHOOSE" to ignore the directions. It was never our intention to listen to the directions that it gave us. We weren't completely sure how to get to where we were going, but we had somewhat of an idea. We wanted to go our own way, but we turned the GPS on just in case we got lost. We at often times treat God the same way. We already know what we want to do, where we want to go, how we want to do it, and how we're going to get there, but we pray just so we can connect with God because we realize the importance of it. We talk to God about it but instead of listening to His instructions, we use Him as a back-up plan or an alternate route in case we get lost or stranded along the way. We don' allow God to be our "ROUTER" nor our "ROUTE", we simply keep Him close to heart as a safety measure but don't let Him into the "heart of 'our' matter".

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Part of the reason that we struggle to trust God and believe that He is our protecter, our shield, our guardian, our light, and all the other things that we know He can be to us and for us is because we quite often stop Him from being these things to us and instead take our own route and think that just because we prayed, we have fulfilled the minimum requirement therefore, God is now obligated to answer our prayers although we prayed and took it upon ourselves to carry out what we prayed for in a way that best appeased us. We hinder God from being God but then blame Him for our outcomes, not realizing that we are the ones who routed ourselves to where we currently are!

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Allowing God to be our light means we allow Him to do just that. How many times have you walked into a dark room and turned on the light switch just to see where that 'thing' was that you wanted and then turned the light back off because you now knew where it was and you knew the room well enough to walk toward that thing that you wanted? However, before you got there or even after you may have picked up what you went into the room for, at some point while walking in the dark, you stumped your toe on something, bumped into the table or couch, or nearly tripped over something that you didn't see in the middle of the floor because you were only focused on what you went into the room for. You turned off the light before it could serve its full purpose. We must learn to leave the light on and let it do what it was designed to do because when we turn it off too soon, there will often be a price to pay, and this price does not show up on our electricity bill but "Boy DOES IT COST US!". IT IS BETTER TO LEAVE THE LIGHT ON! We can't keep shutting God off and expect to find everything that we are searching for!

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God- Our Salvation

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Salvation is defined as:

• the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation

• the deliverance of the soul from sin and its consequences

• the state of complete belief in God that will save those who believe from the punishment of God for evil or immoral acts

• the act of saving one from an unpleasant situation

 

In Psalm 27, not only does David confess God to be his light but he confesses God to be his salvation. God not only guided David but God never failed to save David from harm neither did God ever fail to save David from his shortcomings when he went astray. Even when David sinned, God did not turn His love, compassion, or mercy from David, but He forgave and renewed him. David had a complete belief in who God was.

 

If God is to be our salvation, there must be a complete belief in who He is. If we believe that God forgives us, if we believe Him to be a God of grace, love, mercy, and compassion, then why do many of us still feel unforgiven?

 

If nothing else, David with his whole heart believed that God was a deliverer, a protector, and a God of mercy. David knew that no matter what situation he found himself in, who or what he had to stand against, or what he did, he could always call on and depend on God. If we read the Psalms that David wrote, there is not one in which David in some capacity does not acknowledge God as either a deliver, protector, or merciful God. David does not detach from these attributes of who He knows God to be EVEN WHEN IT SEEMED THAT GOD WAS NOT THERE! Even when he couldn't see his way out, he knew that it was GOD AND GOD ALONE who would make a way!

 

Part of the reason that we may struggle to believe in God as our salvation is because for many of us, we don't want God to save us by bringing us out of the situation, but we want God to save us by not allowing the situation to occur at all. For many of us, we don't want to have to be saved from the "fire", we want to be saved from having to be put into it. For many of us, we don't want to be saved from the "lions den", but we want to be saved by not being taken into it. For many of us, we don't want to be saved by God lifting us out of the pit, but we want to be saved by Him taking all the strength out of our siblings so that they don't have the power to throw us in it. For many of us, it is not really "SAVING" unless God "COMPLELTELY" keeps us from facing that thing that WE JUST DON'T WANT TO FACE!

 

If we reflect back on Abraham, the Abraham that we see in Genesis 22, is far different than the Abram, in Genesis 12. By this point in Abraham's life, he has a complete trust in God. In Genesis 12, God instructs Abram to go from his home, his familiar place, to the land, this unfamiliar place that He would show Him. In Genesis 22:2 God now instructs Abraham, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you" (NIV). And then we read that the very next morning, Abraham sets off on this journey to go to this mountain, this unfamiliar mountain, that God would show him. And now comes something that we might be aware of but don't truly realize the power of it.

 

As they arrive at the mountain that God told Abraham about and as Abraham along with Isaac, are gathering these things to prepare for this sacrifice, Isaac questions Abraham asking him, "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?". In Genesis 22:8-14, we read Abraham's response along with what follows:

 

           Abraham answered, 'God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.' And the two of them went on               together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the                    wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and            took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Here I              am,' he replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God,                because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.' Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a            ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So                Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, On the mountain of the Lord it will be                    provided.' (NIV).

 

It is hard to see God as our salvation when we are put in a position in which it appears that things are being taken away from us. It can be extremely difficult to see God as our salvation when it seems like we must choose between who we love and loving God. But let's home in on the fact that when it seems to us that God is taking things away from us, what He's really doing "IS PROVIDING!".

 

Did Abraham recognize the faith that lied in his response to Isaac? When Isaac inquired where the lamb for the sacrifice was, Abraham's response to Isaac was that the Lord would provide the lamb for the sacrifice. And GOD DID JUST THAT! Abraham did not have to provide his son as the lamb for the sacrifice; he only had to provide his sacrifice of obedience and GOD PROVIDED THE LAMB! God already had a RAM at the exact place that it needed to be at the appointed time that it needed to be there. All Abraham had to do was TRUST GOD, BE OBEDIENT, AND LOOK UP! It was in looking up, that Abraham saw the RAM that God had provided. Understand that the RAM is ALWAYS THERE but if we don't trust God, if we refuse to be obedient, WE WILL ALWAYS MISS THE RAM because we'll be too busy focusing on what we had to let go of instead of looking up toward God.

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God-Our Stronghold

 

A stronghold is defined as:

• a place that is well defended or is a center for particular beliefs or activities

• a place of security or survival

• an area where most people have the same beliefs, values, etc.

 

In our scripture highlight, Psalm 27:1-3, David also declares that God is the stronghold of his life.

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David not just through his thoughts and not just through confessing it with his mouth, but in his heart, David knew that whether facing his enemies, an army, or war, these things COULD NOT overtake, have victory, or triumph over him! David knew that regardless of who his enemies were, his confidence was in who GOD WAS and HAD ALWAYS BEEN to him! David knew that God would defend him.

 

Even when it hurt, even when it distressed him, even when his flesh may have become weary, even when fear tried to consume him, his heart would not accept the fear of his flesh because HE BELIEVED THAT GOD WAS HIS STRONGHOLD. He knew that God was his place of safety and security.

 

One of the definitions of a stronghold is, "an area where most people have the same beliefs and values". If God is to be our stronghold, then there must be a shared belief between us and God. We have to believe God to be who He knows that He is. God knows that He is our Guardian. Therefore, we MUST BELIEVE HIM AS SUCH! God knows that He is our refuge. Therefore, we MUST BELIEVE HIM AS SUCH! God knows that He is our light. Therefore, we MUST BELIEVE HIM AS SUCH! What we BELIEVE GOD TO BE MUST BE ALIGNED WITH WHO GOD KNOWS HE IS, SAYS HE IS, AND PROMISES US HE WILL BE TO US!

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Even when Abraham wavered in his 'waiting' and ability to fully trust God, God was patient with him. There were times in which Abraham struggled with trying to figure out 'how' these things that God promised him would come into existence. There were moments when Abraham tried to figure it out for himself. We find moments when his heart was heavy because he was trusting God to do as God had promised but he could not see or understand how what God promised him fit into his life because where he was did not look "promising" to the "promise" that God had promised him. But nonetheless, he believed God to do what God said He would do.

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There were moments that Abraham looked at what he didn't have trying to figure out how he could possibly receive what God promised him when he didn't have the minimum of what it took to receive what God promised to give him, BUT he still believed that God would do it. We even see moments when Abraham outright asked God, "BUT HOW?" and God simply assured him. God did not change his mind about what He promised Abraham, turn his back on Abraham, or burn with anger due to Abraham's questions of 'how'. And if we truly reflect on these particular moments that involved Abraham trying to figure out how God was going to give him what He promised him, what we find in these moments is that Abraham was placing the responsibility on himself to bring these things about. Abraham was looking at who he was, where he was, what he had, what he didn't have, and other factors that focused on his natural ability. But it was not through what Abraham could do that was going to fulfill these promises, but these things were going to be fulfilled due to and because of who God was and what God could do. At some point Abraham stopped questioning and started to COMPLTELY TRUST GOD. At some point he focused on the assurance of the 'what', instead of the who, when, where, or how's involved. And GOD CREDITED HIM FAITHFUL although he had moments of uncertainty because GOD KNEW HIS HEART! God had compassion and showed grace toward him.

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Exercise No Fear!

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Fear is defined as:

• agitation in the presence or anticipation of danger

• an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful, or bad that is happening or might happen

• a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined

• an unpleasant emotion caused by being aware of danger, a feeling of being afraid

 

When we allow God to be our light and when we trust Him to be our salvation, when we acknowledge Him as our stronghold, we DON'T HAVE TO FEAR ANYTHING! We don't have to be nervous of the danger that lurks around us. We don't have to worry about what 'might' happen to us. We don't have to take thought concerning the what ifs in our lives. We don't have to be threatened by our enemies and what they might be trying to do to us or inflict upon us. Even when we are aware of what we stand against, with God standing beside us, going before us, and having our backs, WE ARE COMPLETELY COVERED! WE DON'T HAVE TO FEAR NOR BE AFRAID!

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Psalm 91:14-16 reads:

            Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will                  call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will                    satisfy him and show him my salvation (NIV).

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When we love God, when we fully and wholeheartedly love God, we act in accordance with this love that we have for Him by walking according to His ways and His commands for us. When we truly love God, we are able to obey His commands. When we love God, we acknowledge Him as both the strength and the source of our lives. And because of our love for Him and our acknowledgement of Him, and our acting this out, He will rescue and protect us.

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When we walk according to the ways of God and follow His commands, we can call on Him and not only will He hear us, but HE WILL ANSWER!  He won't leave us. He will fight the battle for us. He will honor us because of our ability to GLORIFY HIM amidst whatever we endure.

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Verse 16 of Psalm 91 confirms what David says God is to him in times of trouble. God promises to be OUR SALVATION! When we place our trust in God, HE WILL SHOW US WHO HE IS! He will always protect and deliver us just as we expect Him to, although it may not be how we expect Him to do it.

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What Our Hearts Believe?!

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One of our biggest issues that we probably don't recognize is that the God that we know God is in our heads is not the same God that we allow to rest within our hearts. In our minds we know what God can do, but in our hearts, we struggle with believing that He is going to do it. Our minds say, "GOD CAN DO ALL THINGS", but our hearts are saying, "EVEN FOR ME?". Our thoughts reflect, "GOD NEVER FAILS", but our hearts are reflecting, "WILL HE DELIVER ON TIME?". We must learn to allow the truths about God that rests within our heads, to be the same truths about God that rests within our hearts.

We are going to experience trials. We are going to experience pain. We are going to experience setbacks. We are going to experience fear. However, in these moments we must allow ourselves to EXPERIENCE what it means to LET GOD BE GOD and SIMPLY TRUST HIM AT HIS WORD!

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If who Abraham believed God to be in his head was not the same God that he believed Him to be in his heart, he never would have been able to sacrifice Isaac. He never would have been able to trust God enough to fully carry it out. Abraham had no doubts about who God was.

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When David fell astray, he had no doubts in his heart that God was a God of mercy and compassion. He had no doubts that God was a just God. And it is for this reason that he was able to seek God for mercy and forgiveness with an assurance that God would both hear him and answer. In Psalm 51:12 David pleads to God saying, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me" (NIV). David realized that his sin separated him from receiving the salvation of God and he confessed his sins and repented to make himself once again pleasing and acceptable to God as God was displeased with what David had done concerning both Bathsheba and Uriah. Most importantly, David asked God to give him a willing spirit that would keep him from going astray. David knew that he needed God to sustain and steer him. And David "WANTED" to be steered by God. David wanted God's guidance and approval, even if it meant not being able to appease his fleshly desires. Many of us want to fully please God, but we also want to fully appease our flesh. We SIMPLY CANNOT HAVE BOTH!

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If we want God to be ALL THAT HE CAN BE TO US, then WE MUST BE COMPLETELY TRUE TO HIM! We must walk according to what God wants for us even if it means having to sacrifice what we want for ourselves. If not, we will continue to hinder ourselves from completely letting God into our hearts. If you ask God to take the lead and dance with you, but you keep trying to take the lead, stepping before He steps, you are going to interfere with the moves that He is trying to make. Is your being in control worth ruining a perfect choreography? What if this is your last chance to take center stage and deliver this performance? What’s your next move going to be? ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE!