"He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand." -Psalm 121:3-5 (KJV)

 

In last week's blog, we discussed Isaiah 40:31 and how our ability to wait on God renews our strength. However, we struggle with the concept of waiting and part of the reason why we struggle in our ability to "wait" on God is because we don't trust Him in the way that we should. The reality of it is that many of us say that we trust God, but the truth is that we trust Him with what we want to trust Him with and for everything else we depend on our own strength to see us through.

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We cannot pick and choose if we will trust God depending on what it is we are facing or based on the height of our circumstances. We must trust God at all times. As we expounded on Isaiah 40:31 on last week, we highlighted a few other verses found within this same chapter and one of those verses was verse 28 which in part reads, "The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary" (NKJV). And the fact that God does not 'tire' is something that we must remember. No matter how weary we become or how much strength we may lose as we endure the trials of life, this is not the case for God. God has relentless strength. He is the only one capable of imparting His strength upon someone else without it draining strength from Him.

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If we know that God has infallible strength then why do we still have SO MUCH DOUBT that through Him, WE CAN CONQUER ALL THINGS? Many of us simply may not know and because we don't know, we struggle to fix our trust deficiency as it concerns our relationship with God.

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Isaiah 40 reminds us of how incomparable God is. It reminds us of how much power God has and how wondrous are the things that only He and He alone can do. Not only does God have infinite and relentless POWER, but God is able to maintain this power without slumbering. GOD DOES NOT SLEEP!

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If God does not sleep on us, then why do we constantly find ourselves sleeping on Him? There is a slang term that many of us may use to warn someone not to "underestimate", "downplay", or "disregard", the ability, power, strength, or whatever other attribute of an individual that one may be highlighting. We often use the term "don't sleep on…" as a way of telling someone not to have low expectations for or not to take their attention off of someone else. We might often tell people or maybe people may have told us not to "sleep on" a new music artist because they're really talented and one to watch out for. Or it may have been an athlete that maybe the sports commentator warned their other co-hosts or viewers not to "sleep on " because they were more skilled than people might give them credit for. Or it may have been someone that you didn't think had the ability to do what you were being told they could do and someone in their defense said, "don't sleep on them, they're more capable than you might think." We are all going to have people that we, "sleep on", but this should not be the case as it concerns our trust and belief in God and what He can do for us.

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We are constantly losing physical sleep trying to do for ourselves what only God can do instead of trusting in Him to do it for us. We have to remember that God does not physically sleep therefore, we can take our cares and concerns to Him and find physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional rest for ourselves. Because God does not SLEEP, He keeps constant watch over us while missing nothing. The problem is that far too many of us are "SLEEPING ON GOD" by not trusting Him and believing that He can do exactly what His Word says He can do. Let's Explore.

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God-Guardian Watchman

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No matter what we go through in life, what we face, or what might come against us, we must remember that WE HAVE A GUARDIAN and HIS NAME IS GOD! This week's scripture highlight Psalm 121, reminds us of this. God protects us in a way that no alarm system can. Whether another person, a product, or a service, all the things that we trust to protect us are subject to failure. They are subject to malfunctioning. They are subject to cancellation.

 

If you find yourself in what "you" consider an emergency, in order for a first responder to come to your rescue, in most cases, you must first call them. And even upon calling them, you don't speak directly to the first responder, but you must go through an operator, dispatcher, or some type of 'middle-man' that determines how big of an emergency if any, you are having and whether urgency is required. And based on the information that you give to them, you may get an immediate response, be told to wait, or in some cases may not receive any help at all, because what you deemed an emergency was not considered enough of an emergency for them to send someone to your rescue.

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This is not the case with Our God. While many of us might have those moments when we call on His name, while many of us might have moments when we have to invite Him back in because at some point we have shut Him out, while many of us might not know the exact words to say to get His attention and let Him know that we need rescuing, and while some of us might choose to 'wave Him down' and make it known to Him that we are in trouble, we can rest assured that whether we tell Him, seek Him, or refuse to take our burdens to Him, HE ALREADY KNOWS!

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Unlike the surveillance systems made by man, God's watch over us DOES NOT GO OFF! Unlike first responders, His watch over us does not end once the emergency is addressed and resolved. In case of an emergency, God does not have to press rewind for Him to figure out what happened although He most definitely can press "instant replay" to show us where we went wrong when we attempt to blame it 'all on Him'. God does not have to recharge. And most importantly, we don’t have to be placed on hold by an operator. We have instant access to Him through His Son who gave up his life so that we could gain this point of connection.

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Psalm 121 gives us assurance in God as our guardian. When we place our hope and trust in God as our guardian, He leads and guides us and directs our paths. When we trust in God as our guardian, the things that we face can't pull us down neither can they shift us from where God has placed us. When we trust in God as our guardian we won't succumb to defeat nor can anything or anyone remove us from His care. It is often our choosing not to trust God that takes us from under His covering because when we don't trust God, we quite often find ourselves doing things 'our way' and falling into calamities and nuisances that we could have avoided had we let Him work it out for us instead of trying to work it out for ourselves. And what shows the faithfulness of God toward us is that even in those very moments when we choose to go astray, He bestows grace and mercy upon us and will keep us even when we may not have deserved to be kept.

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We must not only trust God as our guardian, but we must trust God to guard those that we love as well. We can pray for those that we love as much as we want and still not have the ability to steer them from their bad decisions, troublesome circumstances, or from danger, because we are not all powerful or all knowing. However, God can see what we can't see and while we don't have the power to steer them, God sees us praying and He sees what they are doing, and He has the infinite power and wisdom to both steer and protect them.

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There may be people in our lives that we have prayed ourselves crazy about and it may seem that the more we have prayed, the more defiant and determined that individual has become in 'doing it their way'. And although it may be frustrating for us, we must trust God even when it seems that our efforts aren't working. We must trust God because quite often, what we don't see or have knowledge of is how God is blocking that individual's ability to do the things that they may want to do. What we are not able to see is how God is allowing that individual to keep 'at it' rebelling against both you and Him as a means of allowing them to completely exhaust themselves.

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Sometimes God knows that the only way to reach some of those "hard heads" that we hold dear to us is to allow them to lead themselves into a "NO WAY OUT" but God position. We see their "not listening" as rebellion but what we can't see is God placing them in a position of "HELP" that only He will be able to bring them out of. There are times that God may put them in such a rough place that they will know that not even you, as much as you love, care and pray for them will be able to get them out. God will allow them to escort themselves in a place in which they will realize that their rebellion was not really against you, but that it was against God. The same God who they will now have to depend on to help them escape their catastrophe which they created due to a result of their choices and disobedience.

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If you don't believe it's possible, consider Saul's plans. In Acts 9 (NIV), we see that Saul was a little more than determined to get to Damascus so that he could imprison anyone who spoke of Jesus as the Christ. The Lord had the power to stop Saul early on in his attacks against Christ and anyone who believed in and were followers of Christ. However, unlike us, the Father and the Son are patient. And the Lord patiently waited for Saul to carry out his plan and just as he was about to near the place that would set him on 'his path' to persecute and imprison even more saints, Jesus stopped him and Saul found himself in a "NO WAY OUT" type of situation and within this situation he was made to recognize that his rebellion was not just against the followers of Christ, but he was persecuting Christ himself. It is within Jesus saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me" (v. 4) and in Saul inquiring who it was that was speaking unto him and then Jesus replying, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (v. 5) that shows us just how much of a guardian God is unto us.

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In Acts 8, prior to Saul's conversion, we begin to see some of the aftermath of Jesus' crucifixion and how the church began to scatter. A persecution broke out against the church and Saul was one that took the lead in persecuting the saints. Now Jesus had already ascended and his days as an earthly being were no more. Therefore, when Saul was persecuting the saints, he was not 'physically' attacking Jesus. However, his attacks against the saints were an attack against Jesus himself not just because he was opposing the name of Christ but because he was persecuting the children of God as well.

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Jesus did not say, "Saul why are you persecuting the saints?" Jesus took it personal. Jesus wholly understood that Saul was going against both the name and idea of Christ in his attack against the saints. In John 15:18, Jesus said unto his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first" and then verse 20 in part reads, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also" (NIV). Jesus knew that anyone who followed him and became one of his disciples would be both hated and persecuted because of who he (Jesus) was. However, the fact that Saul was persecuting the followers of Christ, was personal to Jesus because when we receive salvation and accept him into our hearts and our lives and we live accordingly, our now belonging to him puts him in a 'protective mode' in which he becomes protective of us not just by shielding us but also by going against whatever and whoever comes against us.

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The Lord takes pride in his ownership over us and acts accordingly by keeping us safe and secure. If God watches over us, if God is our shield, if God protects us, would His Son not do the same? In John 10:11, Jesus declares, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (NIV). Would Jesus lay down his life for us and then ascend and turn his back on those who choose to believe in him, follow him, and live their lives accordingly? No, he wouldn't. He keeps watch just as his Father does, which is why Saul had reached his maximum quota of arrests as far as Jesus was concerned. Jesus let him carry his plan but thus far just to get him in the 'right place' as a result of his 'wrongdoing' so that he could straighten and redirect his path. The followers of Christ might have watched thinking, "Why is God allowing this?", but God had to allow Saul to follow his own path long enough to get Saul right where he needed Saul to be so that Saul's only way out was through Jesus. The same "WAY" that Saul persecuted became his "WAY out" (during this time Christianity and following Jesus as a way of life was known as the Way). Saul became an apostle who we know and refer to as, the Apostle Paul.

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I am quite sure that there were some who had chosen to follow Christ, whose hearts had become weary because they could not understand how was it that they were following God with their full faith, yet He was allowing them to be scattered, persecuted, and even allowing some to lose their lives because of their belief in His Son.

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Because we are human and trials have a way of stampeding on us, I am sure that there were some during this timeframe in which the saints were being persecuted and the church was being scattered that changed their minds about following Christ because it may have appeared that this Christ that they believed in simply was not coming to their rescue. It may have appeared that God was simply watching them be destroyed. However, not only did God have a plan but perhaps God also wanted to see just how strong their belief was. Would they still believe once this belief had a consequence attached to it called, "SUFFERING"?

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Another reason that God quite often, may not reveal to us what He is doing as it concerns the loved ones that we are praying for that appear hopeless is because He wants to know if we will still honor Him even when it seems like He is not honoring our prayers. Sometimes the reason that God may not show us how He is steering the individual that we are praying for is because He does not want it to be our worry or our concern. God simply wants us to release it to Him and take our hands off of it, knowing that HE SEES ALL AND KNOWS ALL and has His OWN TIMING concerning those loved ones that we may be losing sleep and stressing over. God wants us to simply trust. We must not only trust that God is our guardian, but we must trust that He has the power to watch over those that we love as well.

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God-No Caffeine Needed

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Psalm 121 also reminds us that God does not sleep nor slumber. And because God does not sleep, what is the point of us losing sleep, staying up, trying to fix things or change things that we don't have the power to change or the ability to truly know what the best remedy for these individuals or situations are. God does not need us to stay up all night with Him to keep Him company.

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Now there may indeed be times when God will keep you up in prayer, reflection, meditation, and worship. There are times that God will keep you up so that He can instill and impart revelation into you and upon you, but aside from this, God does not need you to pull an all-nighter with Him. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have energy that is more powerful than any shot of caffeine or coffee bean known to man. Your keeping them awake is not needed. We must learn to give it to God and GO TO BED!

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Why are we constantly losing sleep creating strategies that if we were to compare them with God's plan concerning the person or situation, our plan would look like a beginner's guide to decision making while God's plan would look like a series of codes, algorithms, and functions in which we would not have the knowledge or understanding of the sequences involved to even try to read, dissect, understand, or edit His plan nor would we have the power to do so?

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We are up brainstorming with our paper, highlighters, shapes, charts, and thoughts while God has already begun to position things for the next phase of where our initial issue is going to place us and we are still stuck 'RIGHT THERE,' in the initial phase. Why are we losing sleep over things that we proclaim with our mouths that we are trusting God to handle? Our mouths and our 'all over the sanctuary shouting' are saying, "Look at me, I have faith." while on the contrary our hearts are saying, "I wonder if…". Our hearts are saying, "If it doesn't work then maybe it wasn't meant to be."

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We are constantly pondering the 'how's' or already consoling ourselves for the disappointment of the very things that we say we believe God will do for us. Why is it that we say we trust God but amidst the 'wait' we are internally trying to prepare ourselves to cushion what we think will be our fall by preparing ourselves to accept the 'worst case scenario'? That is not trust! And some of us may try to argue that preparing for the 'worst case scenario' is our way of accepting that God has His own plan however, there is a fine line between contentment and doubt, and we must come to both know and understand the difference.

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God-Our Keeper

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Psalm 121 reminds us that God is our keeper. That is a truth about who God is. However, for many of us, our truth about ourselves is that we don't want to be kept. Being kept by God means following His path which means "Our Way" becomes "His Path" for us. And this becomes a struggle and a constant self-inflicted battle because when we are trying to get to where we want to go, God's way just doesn't seem the sensible option because God's way sometimes presents itself as a setback to what we are trying to 'STEP INTO'.

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God gave Joseph visions that equated to him ruling over his family and their bowing down to him. However, before he "STEPPED INTO IT", he first had to step into a pit. And as if the pit was not enough, he then had to step into a jail cell. Joseph's path appeared a setback instead of a step-up, but it was simply a "SET-UP" orchestrated by God to position him exactly where he needed to be. God was "readying" Joseph's path. And it was Joseph's reaction to this path that God put him on that allowed God to see just how much Joseph trusted Him and would continue to trust Him regardless of what he had to endure. Joseph did not depart from God and God did not depart from Joseph. God kept him. However, by looking at the circumstances that Joseph had to endure, it looks like Joseph simply got, "GOT".

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The only thing about Joseph's path that appears like a "STEP-UP" is the end result, which should cause us to realize that God's path for us in many cases is going to look like a road that should have a detour sign located at its entrance. The truth is that at times God's path for us looks like a danger zone which leads to us to asking that infamous question that all of us at some point will find ourselves asking God. And that question is, "Lord, are you sure?"

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If God showed us all that we would have to endure to obtain all of the things that we have asked Him for or to obtain all of the things that He has promised us, most of us would suddenly be okay living a mediocre life. Joseph's outcome looks promising, but his pit does not.

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God-Our Shield and Shade

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Verse 5 of our scripture highlight (Psalm 121) not only reminds us that God is our keeper, but it reminds us that God is the shade upon our right hand. We must both trust and believe that God does not only provide shade from the sun as he did for Jonah, but God also shields us. God not only provides shade from the sun so that the heat does not drain us, exhaust us, or cause us discomfort, but God protects us from all sources of heat whether fiery furnaces, hot breath lions, or hot-tempered enemies. And if you don't believe me, might I remind you of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (fiery furnaces),

Daniel (hot breath lions), and David (hot-tempered King Saul). No matter how unprotected and vulnerable we might feel as we face these things, we must have assurance that God shields and protects us from anything that seeks to come against and destroy us.

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Although it may not appear like it, God was shielding Job. Everything Job had was destroyed. His body was under attack. How is that a shield? Well, Job was still there! God's hands never left him although his circumstances seemed as though God knew him not. However, it was because God knew Him that caused his catastrophes.

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We sing "KUMBAYA", which is a powerful song, telling God to come to our rescue not realizing that it may have very well been God that allowed this crisis to be inflicted upon us for His own intent and purposes. And what we often fail to realize is that while we are screaming for God to come to where we are, He is already there, and He will answer in HIS OWN TIMING. God knows EXACTLY if and when to step in. God sometimes uses these 'danger zones' to draw us closer to Him.

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Now is this saying that everything bad is God's fault. NO! Not at all! We all have free will. This idea was expounded upon to make us realize that amidst some of the trials that bring complete distress and chaos in our lives and we find ourselves crying out to God for help, thinking that He is not there or does not see what we are going through, it is at many times during these particular trials that He was the one who allowed them to occur. God may have been the one to allow us to experience these events for a specific purpose whether it was to help us or someone else. Whether it was to bless us or someone else. Whether it was to develop us or someone else.

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God may sometimes allow our enemies to come against us for our own benefit which may not be apparent at the beginning of what we are facing. However, when we fully trust God, follow His path, and allow Him to fight for us, once the battle is won, and know that THE BATTLE WILL ALWAYS BE WON, there will always be a benefit attached to us having endured the battle whether it is revealed to us or not, whether it is tangible or not.

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However, what we must recognize about the harm that our enemies inflict upon us and what our enemies must also recognize is that just because God allows them to come against us, does not mean that He condones their behavior. God did not condone the behavior of Joseph's siblings or Potiphar's wife, but He used it for His glory. God did not condone the behavior of Nebuchadnezzar as it concerned the Hebrew Boys, but He used it for His Glory. God did not condone the behavior of the administrators and governors as it concerned Daniel, but He used it for His glory. God did not condone King Saul's behavior, but He used it for His glory. Just because God allows it does not mean He condones it.

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The Struggle is Real

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Now our reality is that it is easy to tell ourselves not to worry. It is easy to tell ourselves to trust God to protect us. It is easy to tell ourselves to let God fight our battles. It is easy to tell ourselves not to lose sleep over what we can't control because God is in control. However, it is difficult to let go and actually act these things out in a way that aligns with the level of trust and belief that we are 'supposed' to have in God and what He can do. Why is it that we are "SLEEPING ON GOD"? Many of us don't know how to answer that. Better yet, many of us simply don't know why.

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How do we stop worrying? How do we stop losing sleep? How do we simply trust God? Let no one convince you that you can do it out of your own strength. Let no one convince you that it's easy to do. Jesus was sent to us for a reason. God knew that we would struggle to trust Him and stay connected with Him as we faced the trials of life. He knew that we would go astray. He knew that we would at times succumb to the woes of the world. If trusting God was so easy for us to do, the Israelites' journey would not have been so prolonged. And before we start to point out the differences between us and them, "JUDGE NOT".  They had a whole lot of issues that they needed to address which is not a point to argue because if we open the Word of God, we can read that for ourselves. However, the one thing and the one flaw that we all find ourselves having in common with both the Israelites and with one another is that we all at times struggle to trust God. Can it be done? Absolutely! We have examples in the bible and through our life experiences whether ours or someone else's that both show and tell us that it is possible. However, we must realize that it still was not out of their own strength that the individuals that fully trusted God were able to do so. We must realize that it was not our own strength that helped us to let go and trust. Only through God can we develop the strength to fully trust Him. Only through God can we let go of our will and trust His path.

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We know that because God loved us, He gave us His ONLY Son. Maybe we need to start at the "heart of the matter" and ask ourselves, "How much do we really love God?". Do we love Him enough to give Him our complete selves? Do we love Him enough to simply trust Him? Is love enough to get us there? Love was enough for God to give us Jesus, so should love not be enough for us to do the same and just give Him the trust that He so seeks from us? Perhaps instead of New Year's Resolutions and gym memberships that we probably aren't going to act upon or use, the best workout we can give ourselves to prepare for the year ahead, is one of the heart. WILL YOU LET GOD IN? Only you have the answer!